It was only a matter of time before a major artist revealed new work created on Apple's iPad, a gadget beloved of the creative cognoscenti. And it was no surprise when that man was the Pop Art hero David Hockney. After all, he was experimenting with the intersection between technology and art before most people had home computers, concocting cultural statements with nascent photocopiers and fax machines.
But Hockney has gone a step beyond posting a few bored iPad doodles on his website. Last week, a whole exhibition of work made on his iPad (and iPhone) opened in Paris. Entitled Fleurs Fraîches (Fresh Flowers), it's a collection of still lives and landscapes born of a really rather sweet endeavour. Every morning, he would get up while it was still dark, and load his favoured Brushes app.
Using his fingers and thumbs to choose colours and move the virtual brushes around the screen, Hockney created bunches of flowers to send to his friends to enjoy when they opened their e-mails over breakfast.
The images we've seen are luminous, gaudy and, if truth be told, not on the same level as Hockney's famous collages or perhaps his best-known work, A Bigger Splash. And although they do suggest Hockney is very good at drawing with his 73-year-old fingers on an iPad, a full exhibition of this work smacks somewhat of a gallery indulging a hobby; iArt, as I won't be calling it, has a way to go yet before the Grand Masters are troubled.
Canvas manufacturers, then, are still likely to be in a job for a while, even though Fleurs Fraîches is displayed via the Apple products with which it was created, bolted to the gallery's walls. This may be a clever idea, but it masks the real problem with so much computer-generated or stored art: specific iPad-inspired exhibitions aside, it doesn't exist when the power is off.
Hockney apparently loves the immediacy of sending his work to his friends on a daily basis. Admittedly, it must be liberating. But any art disseminated (or created) in this way is only of any use if its owner makes a specific decision to find it on a hard drive and look at it. Otherwise it's not art at all. It's just a file.
Admittedly, this is how we view our own photographs these days (photography being, perhaps, the only artistic activity we all indulge in). Recently, Martin Parr ran a class with The Guardian newspaper in London, focusing on how to take better holiday photographs.
Unsurprisingly for a man whose photography is brilliantly satirical and blackly comic, he spent most of his time encouraging people to look for the quirky, the surprising, the offbeat. But it was telling that he ended by saying: "The other thing you must do is print them. We are in danger of having a whole generation - and this will continue into the future - that has no family albums, because people just leave them on their computer, and then suddenly they will be deleted."
Therein lie the perils of living our lives via hard drives. Music is consumed via mp3 players and literature is increasingly read through ebooks. But art is different, if you believe that every piece of work by an artist is a statement to be looked at, enjoyed and discussed rather than hidden away in binary code in some corner of an iPad - even if that is what it was created on in the first place. Digital art also runs the risk of living only in the present. What happens when formats change, or when the iPad irretrievably breaks? The work is lost.
Still, it's somewhat ironic that as Hockney's technology-focused exhibition opens in Paris, Canaletto and His Rivals opens in London at the National Gallery. Views of 18th-century Venice might not, at first glance, have much in common with Hockney's work on an iPad. But many were created with the aid of technology. Using the filmless predecessor of the modern camera - the camera obscura. Canaletto would trace over an image of, say, the Grand Canal, projected by the device and then paint it - usually to sell to rich foreigners who wanted a souvenir of their grand tour.
Essentially, he employed a gadget to create his work - and his picture-postcard views of Venice have sometimes been criticised for being more like historical documents than great art. The difference between Canaletto and, one suspects, the reputation of iPad art in the future, is that Canaletto's work became widely loved because people were able to see it using nothing more than a pair of fully functioning eyes.
Perhaps, though, it's best not to take Hockney's exhibition too seriously. After all, when the iPad came out, Hockney disclosed that the one thing he missed about Brushes on the iPhone was that with one hand you could hold it and draw, and smoke a cigarette with the other.
* Ben East
Ÿ David Hockney: Fleurs Fraîches is at the Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent, Paris, until January 30. www.hockneypictures.com.
Company%20Profile
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Why it pays to compare
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
UAE SQUAD
Omar Abdulrahman (Al Hilal), Ali Khaseif, Ali Mabkhout, Salem Rashed, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Khalfan Mubarak, Zayed Al Ameri, Mohammed Al Attas (Al Jazira), Khalid Essa, Ahmed Barman, Ryan Yaslam, Bandar Al Ahbabi (Al Ain), Habib Fardan, Tariq Ahmed, Mohammed Al Akbari (Al Nasr), Ali Saleh, Ali Salmin (Al Wasl), Adel Al Hosani, Ali Hassan Saleh, Majed Suroor (Sharjah), Ahmed Khalil, Walid Abbas, Majed Hassan, Ismail Al Hammadi (Shabab Al Ahli), Hassan Al Muharrami, Fahad Al Dhahani (Bani Yas), Mohammed Al Shaker (Ajman)
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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AIR
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Find the right policy for you
Don’t wait until the week you fly to sign up for insurance – get it when you book your trip. Insurance covers you for cancellation and anything else that can go wrong before you leave.
Some insurers, such as World Nomads, allow you to book once you are travelling – but, as Mr Mohammed found out, pre-existing medical conditions are not covered.
Check your credit card before booking insurance to see if you have any travel insurance as a benefit – most UAE banks, such as Emirates NBD, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, have cards that throw in insurance as part of their package. But read the fine print – they may only cover emergencies while you’re travelling, not cancellation before a trip.
Pre-existing medical conditions such as a heart condition, diabetes, epilepsy and even asthma may not be included as standard. Again, check the terms, exclusions and limitations of any insurance carefully.
If you want trip cancellation or curtailment, baggage loss or delay covered, you may need a higher-grade plan, says Ambareen Musa of Souqalmal.com. Decide how much coverage you need for emergency medical expenses or personal liability. Premium insurance packages give up to $1 million (Dh3.7m) in each category, Ms Musa adds.
Don’t wait for days to call your insurer if you need to make a claim. You may be required to notify them within 72 hours. Gather together all receipts, emails and reports to prove that you paid for something, that you didn’t use it and that you did not get reimbursed.
Finally, consider optional extras you may need, says Sarah Pickford of Travel Counsellors, such as a winter sports holiday. Also ensure all individuals can travel independently on that cover, she adds. And remember: “Cheap isn’t necessarily best.”
What is graphene?
Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.
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COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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Sanju
Produced: Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani
Director: Rajkumar Hirani
Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Vicky Kaushal, Paresh Rawal, Anushka Sharma, Manish’s Koirala, Dia Mirza, Sonam Kapoor, Jim Sarbh, Boman Irani
Rating: 3.5 stars
Seemar’s top six for the Dubai World Cup Carnival:
1. Reynaldothewizard
2. North America
3. Raven’s Corner
4. Hawkesbury
5. New Maharajah
6. Secret Ambition
LOVE%20AGAIN
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The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre supercharged V8
Power: 712hp at 6,100rpm
Torque: 881Nm at 4,800rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 19.6 l/100km
Price: Dh380,000
On sale: now
Company%20Profile
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ALRAWABI%20SCHOOL%20FOR%20GIRLS
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Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
Jawan
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAtlee%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Shah%20Rukh%20Khan%2C%20Nayanthara%2C%20Vijay%20Sethupathi%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E4%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol
Power: 154bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Transmission: 7-speed automatic with 8-speed sports option
Price: From Dh79,600
On sale: Now
The%C2%A0specs%20
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BORDERLANDS
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis
Director: Eli Roth
Rating: 0/5
Signs%20of%20%20%20%20%20%20%20heat%20stroke
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Eco%20Way%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20December%202023%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Ivan%20Kroshnyi%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Electric%20vehicles%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Bootstrapped%20with%20undisclosed%20funding.%20Looking%20to%20raise%20funds%20from%20outside%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The%20specs
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Dates for the diary
To mark Bodytree’s 10th anniversary, the coming season will be filled with celebratory activities:
- September 21 Anyone interested in becoming a certified yoga instructor can sign up for a 250-hour course in Yoga Teacher Training with Jacquelene Sadek. It begins on September 21 and will take place over the course of six weekends.
- October 18 to 21 International yoga instructor, Yogi Nora, will be visiting Bodytree and offering classes.
- October 26 to November 4 International pilates instructor Courtney Miller will be on hand at the studio, offering classes.
- November 9 Bodytree is hosting a party to celebrate turning 10, and everyone is invited. Expect a day full of free classes on the grounds of the studio.
- December 11 Yogeswari, an advanced certified Jivamukti teacher, will be visiting the studio.
- February 2, 2018 Bodytree will host its 4th annual yoga market.
Confirmed%20bouts%20(more%20to%20be%20added)
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SERIE A FIXTURES
Saturday Spezia v Lazio (6pm), Juventus v Torino (9pm), Inter Milan v Bologna (7.45pm)
Sunday Verona v Cagliari (3.30pm), Parma v Benevento, AS Roma v Sassuolo, Udinese v Atalanta (all 6pm), Crotone v Napoli (9pm), Sampdoria v AC Milan (11.45pm)
Monday Fiorentina v Genoa (11.45pm)
MEDIEVIL%20(1998)
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The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now