Digital Art Exploration

Creations

• Bounce - an interactive piece that reacts to observed movement

• Abstract clock (unfinished) - an exploration of meaningful (slow) movement

Description

My thesis was that high quality displays are getting cheaper and cheaper, and when people upgrade you get a free one, and TV platforms that run apps are becoming prevalent and powerful (Apple TV adding GPU, etc.).

Displaying art in a digital fashion allows testing, changing pictures for mood / company, and best of all opens up dynamic art which is not possible with prints or canvas. The product would need to display different pieces for long periods of time (days or weeks).

What did I know that was different:

It’s about content, and the trick is not to make the frame*. Making the hardware is difficult and Kindle Fire will be cheaper and Samsung TVs better (especially the Frame). If you have content now, later you can add platforms.

How I tested:

I took an “old” TV and mounted it on the wall (a 1080p, I had just upgraded to 4K HDR) and hooked up an Apple TV. I tried various apps, nothing did what I wanted: they were trying to recreate going to a museum at home (always a bad idea, try early news or books that stuck pdfs of printed pages as is onto digital screens). Then I loaded some photos into the photo album, and let that run - I learned it kicks you out after a few days. I found a local artist and he modified a gif for me

mockup on living room TV, this was then moved to the wall (artist: Elis Minborg)

What I learned:

• Needs a way to adjust to ambient light (it’s annoying in the evenings or a middle of the night bathroom run)
• Consumers may care about electricity usage (it’s not that I don’t care, but I expect constant usage can be addressed at a central location efficiently over time)
• People think digital art means a screen saver
• I needed to improve my dev skills to build an iOS app
• Apple gets it, see Dynamic Desktop: (Settings > Desktop > Apple Desktop Pictures > Dynamic Desktop > Catalina, Mojave, Solar Gradients) **

I think this remains an opportunity for someone: passionate about art, can write TV apps (Apple, Roku, Samsung, etc.).

* Meural was making a frame and was purchased by Netgear, perhaps it can function as a router.

** OS 10.15.1