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David Byrne creates fake iPhone apps

by Mike Schramm Aug 17th 2011 at 9:00AM

Musician and artist David Byrne has contributed a few pieces to a social media-related art exhibit at the Pace Gallery in New York, and his entries all consist of authentic-looking App Store listings .. for fake iPhone apps. Childster, for example, will run you $1.99, and "turns your phone into a babysitter," so you don't have to worry about the kids yourself. Invisible Me, on the other hand, will send automatic replies to any communication, leaving you free to be by yourself all the time.

Interesting. The gallery is opening up next month, and will feature other works taking a look at social media (and apparently other Internet periphery) through "an aesthetic and conceptual lens." If you're in New York, the gallery will be open until sometime in October.



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Musician and artist David Byrne has contributed a few pieces to a social media-related art exhibit at the Pace Gallery in New York,...
 

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8 Comments

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Vladislav Rakov

really cool stuff. i made useful business apps using Snappii web service

August 23 2011 at 5:28 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
DWinAtl

This is only for my own selfish reasons, but I sure wish he'd stop goofing around and go back to the studio to make another breathtakingly good album. Loved that one with Brian Eno a few years back.

August 17 2011 at 1:09 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jimothy

Does Childster let him Stay Up Late?

August 17 2011 at 10:12 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
City 17

Could have tried harder to get the buttons and text to look like the actual app store, does't take that much effort. The price button and the text is particularly bad.

August 17 2011 at 10:05 AM Report abuse +2 rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to City 17's comment
maowai

My thoughts exactly.

August 17 2011 at 10:28 AM Report abuse -1 rate up rate down Reply
Joe Stoner

Maybe it doesn't look perfect compared to the actual iOS screens, but this isn't about pixel perfect accuracy. This is art first and foremost, not UI design. The focus is on the concept of these apps rather than gradients and fonts. (also, if you follow the source link, the higher resolution images look much better)

August 17 2011 at 10:33 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Joe Stoner's comment
City 17

They obviously tried their best to copy how it looks, it wouldn't have taken that much effort to get it spot on. If it's for art I don't see the reason why it should look so tacky still. And also the content isn't interesting either, thought it was trying to be funny at first but maybe its just me but I don't get this at all. There are funnier descriptions in actual apps and if it's not trying to be funny I don't get what message it's trying to get across.

August 17 2011 at 12:34 PM Report abuse rate up rate down
Joe Stoner

New in version 1.1: Same as it ever was, same as it ever was.

August 17 2011 at 9:12 AM Report abuse +3 rate up rate down Reply
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