Response: An App as Art

I view the Burtynsky: Oil app is a vehicle Burtynsky uses to present his work. Like his award winning book or gallery show exhibitions, the app provides its own unique way to experience Burtynsky’s photographs and thoughts on his work. Through the interactive capabilities of the app users can experience Burtynsky’s images in a way they couldn’t in his book or by attending an exhibition. While I would classify the app – as well as the book and show – as attaining some level of art, I would not put the medium Burtynsky uses to display his images on the same level as the actual art it exhibits. When Burtynsky was creating his art did he do it with the intention of displaying his images on an iPad app? No, he was shooting with the purpose of presenting his images as photographs printed on paper. To reproduce his images in an app (and book) Burtynsky sacrificed elements like color, scale, resolution, and texture. In return his work gets access to a larger, and possibly younger audience. A fair trade if the message behind the art is more important than the art itself.