Mixels go to Colorado (and everywhere)

via soulellis.com

Paul Soulellis writes:

I’m addicted to Khoi Vinh‘s new social collage-making app, Mixel. This is one of a small handful of apps that gives my iPad its reason for being — always on and I don’t even have to think about using it. Something that just lets me use my finger to cut up images and push pixels around feels so natural, but it’s also unlike any creative tool I’ve ever used. It’s intuitive and easy and dream-like; they’re ripe for interpretation.

via soulellis.com

Paul is going through the process of preparing a few of his mixels (he has many great ones - a self-curated set is available on flickr) for a photography exhibit in Colorado, focused on "digital works made with mobile devices."

One thing I love about Mixel is that the experience of sourcing pieces for and creating Mixels takes place entirely on the iPad. Other acclaimed "creator" apps, such as Apple's Garage Band or Autodesk's Sketchbook are also iPad native, but they approximate off-iPad experiences, such as the guitar or the watercolors. Mixel skips the pretensions of emulating the physical world and wholly embraces the iPad; you don't use fake scissors & a fake glue stick to assemble the collages, you use your finger and the standard metaphors of iPad interaction - swipe, touch and hold. When an app feels as natural as Mixel, it's easy to take for granted how much work went into paring away all of the metaphors and inclinations that would get in the way of the experience.

More mixels are available! Here's my favorite mixels (my tumblr is mostly mixels), Mixels curated by Ariel Aberg-Riger, Able Parris' blog, a Christmas Card, Kim Jong-Il, and my own Christopher Hitchens tribute. I love Mixel!

Comments

[Khoi]

Thanks for the awesome write-up David. That "natural" feeling is what we focused on while making Mixel. We really wanted to something that would only be possible on the iPad. It's gratifying to hear when people can sense that.

[Tafaling Lafalafi]

Mixel is really a great app. Using it is really fun. CO moving