A newly launched social network came to my attention today. The service, Pixophone, allows people to share the photos they took with their mobile phone camera. This isn’t a new idea, but Pixophone is trying to differentiate itself by claiming a more artistic content. Pixophone promises that in the near future it will provide prizes for the best photos it posts. This started me thinking about art and whether mobile phone pictures can be art or not.
Defining art may be a fool’s errand, but I need some kind of starting point. Art can’t be for a purely commercial purpose. Soup can labels aren’t art but a painting of a soup can label may be. An art piece requires some sort of craft. A random pile of beer cans isn’t art, although an artist who intentionally piles the same cans with intent can be art. And finally, art should evoke some sort of insight or emotion. It needs to tell a story. Sometimes the story stimulates the intellect and sometimes it touches the emotions. A piece of art that can juggle all these things well is good art.
Pictures taken with a mobile phone camera can be art, given the parameters I set above. But can a Site like Pixophone gather enough artistic photos for a gallery? None of the pictures I saw posted showed much craft or stimulated me in anyway. To be fair, it just launched, so in the future some great photos may be posted. But I’m not convinced the general public has enough artistic education to create pictures worthy of being called art. I may sound snobbish and so be it. That’s what I think. There are some online galleries that require the artists to pay a fee to post their work. Pixophone is going in the opposite direction and I predict that almost all of photos sent to them will only be interesting to the people who took them.
If you think you are an artist with a mobile phone camera, post some stuff on Pixophone. Prove me wrong. You may win a prize, get discovered, and end up in a New York or Paris museum of art. Remember, as technology marches along, it pushes the edges of artistic expression into unforeseen territory.
Yes, mobile phone pictures can be considered art. The influx of advancements in technology defines the way we technically and conceptually create. This is evident in the way we work, live, and play. Yes, there are people who upload picture as an album to share with friends, but there are serious artist who are taking these advancements and making them there own. Craft can be defined as skill in doing or making something, as in the arts. Art can be defined as human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of nature. This is the requirement of art. So taking a picture on a mobile device is art, if that is the users intention. I don’t create my art for commercial purpose and there are many artists just the same. I’m taking a mobile lab class at UT Dallas and there is much that is being done with mobile devices in a more creative way.
Comment by Elizabeth — September 26, 2007 @ 3:52 pm
Dear John, Thank you so much for your review and your honest opinion. I have a great feeling about this network as I think it will grow as our other sites such as http://www.mojizu.com and http://www.sabet.tv. We love art and we love to nurture artists.
I will give you a heads up when our first pixophone challenge is up and maybe you’ll take it upon yourself to show us a thing or two with your cameraphone or iphone!!!
You have made our day!
Talk to you soon,
Ali Sabet
Pixophone.com Founder
http://www.sabetbrands.com
Comment by Ali Sabet — September 26, 2007 @ 8:46 pm
i say give it some time. yes, there will be a lot of trash uploaded, but there will also be some stunning images put up.
the real trick will be wading through all of the garbage and finding the real images. will this be peer-mediated or pixo-mediated?
the advantage that mobile phones have is they are everywhere. everyone has a camera now. no more of those moments where the artists wishes, “if only i had my clunker camera on me….”
-john keese
ut.dallas mobilelab; emac.utdallas.edu
Comment by john keese — September 27, 2007 @ 6:25 am
Photos on mobile phones are getting better and better, which will drive more users to this type of device for all their photo needs. pxSpot offers this ability in a very easy to use fashion. Here are some of the things you can do with it:
-Send mobile video/photos directly to your pxSpot address (username@pxspot.com)
-Have a public address for your non-private albums (http://www.pxspot.com/username)
-Create slideshows from your albums to share on myspace, ebay, blogger, etc.
-Create and join groups with people who share your interests
-Send photos/videos to a specific album in your account by using username.beach@pxspot.com, where username is your username and beach is the name of the album
Comment by Mark Becker — September 27, 2007 @ 7:26 am
John,
Looks like you’ve sparked quite a discussion here about the definition of art? If Hugh Hefner can call Play Boy art, then I guess taking photos is considered art, espically if it’s naked women! Beats looking at pictures of soup can labels right?
NED
Comment by Nathan Nasty — September 27, 2007 @ 3:14 pm
SF photography magazine Hamburger Eyes has a specific section of their site dedicated to uploaded cell images: http://www.burgerworldchronicles.com/celly
It’s art submitted by artists/photographers/friends who have been featured in the magazine. Hamburger eyes also runs a community photo lab with real darkrooms and classes in digital and old-style photography. Social networking with human beings. Pretty cool.
Comment by Shay — September 27, 2007 @ 5:13 pm
hi there, the-phone-book Limited have been putting art on mobile phones for seven years now, and teaching other people how to use their mobile creatively too. anything that encourages creativity over consumerism has got to be a good thing, surely.
Comment by fee plumley — October 5, 2007 @ 2:49 am