The arts can enrich the soul, but you don’t have to physically visit a museum to appreciate the work of masters
Now, I know Google Art and Culture app was released almost a year ago. However, I did not notice it back then. A few weeks ago, I was scrolling through Play Store, trying to find some fresh blogging ideas when I came across this app. I downloaded it immediately in the false perception it has been launched recently. I loved it, and I decided to find more such apps in the app stores and if I could find some worthy competitors, do a blog.
Today, I realised how wrong and detached I was from the tech world when I came across this blog dated July 20, 2016. In the process of redeeming myself, I decided to do a blog on best Android apps, which revolve around art and culture. I love iOS too but I use a Moto device so …
I immediately Googled “art and culture apps”. The search page had innumerable references to the app by Google. Culture Trip had a list of top Apps for Art Lovers.
NY Times had an entire blog on Art.com’s artCircles — an app the NY Times’ blogger believed belongs to every art lover’s device. Although the app is available on both the mobile platforms, the blogger centred the entire review on iOS. Then I realised NY Times’ elite readers won’t ever relate to a blog centered on Android app development?
Also read: ARTO app makes finding the perfect piece of art as easy as swiping right
Here are some of the highlights from the excerpt here. I particularly liked artCircles’ innovative concept revolving around rotating a big Dial to choose an image to insert in your artwork.
The app features 1,500 works from roughly 1,000 artists … 17th-century painters among many others.
The app … lets you dial up a particular work or artist by spinning a circle that’s made up of thumbnail images.
… dial through 20 masterpieces, like the Mona Lisa or da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man …
Nevertheless, that’s enough of art; where is the culture? I like the way Airbnb promotes local cultures to boost their business prospects. Their campaigns #WeAccept, #HostWithPride, and #BreakingDownWalls were inspirational. However, it was their Welcome to Cuba campaign, kick-started soon after the USA lifted traveling ban to the country, that made me think. Does an app make really make a difference? If one app can, imagine what many could. This will be the source of inspiration behind my writing today.
The problem is Airbnb is not even close to the types of apps I am looking for to put in my blog.
Unsurprisingly, I still lack quality apps that I can list on my blog without reservations. I went through many … Mashable, Techcrunch, Android Authority, and what not — but out of luck.
Huffington Post has a nice article on 18 Apps Every Creative And Artist Type Should Download Right Now and if I scroll through the Culture Trip article again, I might have enough apps to put in my list. In addition, I can always search for a relevant keyword on Play Store for any app that I might have missed.
WikiArt sounds like a Wikipedia of art and a great app to start my blog with. I’ll insist on apps that are available worldwide or at least in the key markets. I hate people who pretend every app user lives in the US or Canada. I am also thinking of adding a few graffiti apps.
WikiArt
The Wikipedia of Fine Art (or Encyclopedia of Fine Art) lives upto its name instant at least in the context of fine art. After all, the app gives you access to one of the largest online repositories of fine art, making WikiArt app an absolute must for art lovers. More than 110,000 artworks of 2,000 artists from 73 countries are listed on the app. WikiArt is the ultimate reference database for anybody remotely associated with fine arts. It has everything from Michelangelo to Lady Justice.
The search box returns results authentic results even when you are broad with your keywords. For casual users there is Fearless Girl, as well as the Charging Bull.
BTW, no, I am not a fan of Arturo Di Modica.
If you’re interested in a particular artist, you can search for his/her name or choose it from a list and check his artworks.
The only problem — I know you are gone hit me for that — is it’s not available on Play Store. The app is iOS exclusive. You put the blame on those NY Times elitists. The good news is you can download Art-droid, which is the same thing, even better sometimes.
Also read: Can Southeast Asian museums pull off a games exhibition?
This one might have taken you by surprise. You might be thinking that way every social media app out there is a culture app in one way or the other. But consider my choice from the audience point of view. People who use Pinterest are typically artists, who are afraid of posting their pieces of art on Facebook and Twitter owing to online trolling.
Pinterest boards are all about discovering languages and cultures of the world, perhaps in their peculiarities. The pinboard type setting, pinning what you like on the internet and creation of boards is what artist love about Pinterest.
Another thing artist love about Pinterest is it allows uploading images as tall as 2,400px. They can upload their work without cropping, unlike Facebook where images bigger than 1,200 x 630 pixels are considered luxury. Pinterest is available on Android.
My Visit to the Louvre
If you think Louvre is filled with a bunch of painting like the Mona Lisa, Nymp and Satire, Bathsheba at her bath, Venus the Milo, then you must download My Visit to the Louvre by Musée du Louvre. You can browse over 38,000 masterpieces at a high from prehistory to the 21st century. Contrary to popular belief, Louvre’s collection is not all European. There are many pieces. Some are from as far as Egypt.
Louvre is home to Egyptian and Near Eastern Antiquities, Greek, Etruscan, Roman, and Islamic art pieces, Sculptures, Decorative Arts, Painting, Prints and Drawings from most of Europe, The Middle East and Northern Africa.
Geo Street Art: A Map App for Street Art Enthusiasts
For Street art tourists, this app is soon gonna be on your recent apps list. The app is sorted according to cities. Clicking on any city takes you to the Street Art culture there and a maps points to popular street art destination in the city. There is also a featured section, displaying best street designs from various city in the same place.
Maps of London and New York were part of the app at the time of the launch. Since then, many maps are added to the app. The maps are curated by a “global network of experts” and are updated from time to time.
You receive notification as soon as a new street art destination is added to your favorite cities. If you have been to one of those cities and missed those artworks, this app is gonna turn you into a nostalgic mode.
Field
If you thought that images don’t speak. You were living in a false perception. Images can speak at least with Field. The app responds to light and colors in the environment turning images into tones, sounds, and geometrical patterns. If you travel a lot around the world in search for concrete art, op art, or kinetic art, this is a mobile application for you.
Just imagine if you could convert every image you ever made with Field, you will have with so many sounds and shapes to listen to and watch.
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