Peer Review

The Life of Art App for iPad

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Reviewed:: Jan 2, 2014 by Teacher Education

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Ratings

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Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: The Getty Life of Art app is designed to inspire its visitors to stay longer examining and learning about artwork and objects and offer extended learning opportunities for those who have not yet visited the museum. How do objects end up in a museum? Discover the answer to that question from the artworks themselves. The Life of Art app enables users to retrace the lives of a lidded bowl, a silver fountain, a side chair, and a wall light in the Getty Museum's collection by examining physical clues. "The Life of Art" is available both as video for traditional computers and as an iPad app.
Type of Material:: App specifically for iPad, free
Recommended Uses:: Teaching humanities appreciation; teaching observation skills; developing art and museum education appreciation; establishing global contexts for visual and historical learning. Art history students will enjoy this site.
Technical Requirements:: Requires iOS 4.0 or later. Compatible with iPad.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: This app, designed to compliment the 2013 Getty exhibit, The Life of Art, focuses on the life of four objects in great detail. Users of the app explore a lidded bowl, a side chair, a wall light and a silver fountain in great detail, including how they came to be long before becoming part of the Getty Collection. The images can be rotated to view from all sides.
Target Student Population:: This site can be used by upper elementary school and high school students, but also by college students and interested adults who would like to know more about decorative objects. Teachers can build a lesson around all of the objects or one of them.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: iPad operating iOS 4.0 or higher for the App.

Content Quality

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Strengths:: Users get to interact directly with a 17th Century lidded bowl from either China or Japan, a 17th Century French silver fountain, an 18th Century French wall light, and an 18th Century French arm chair. The app allows user to examine each of these objects closely to see how they were made, consider why they became part of the collection, and think about how they may have been displayed. Historical notes are provided for all four objects and users can rotate each object on the iPad screen to view it from many different angles. If the user is actually at the Getty Museum, there is a special version that adds an augmented reality feature for viewing the actual items in person.
Concerns:: None.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

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Strengths:: The app is clearly designed for individual investigation and provides a rich context for learning--historical, functional, and artistic. Learners could read, research, extend, and do parallel investigations on their own. Each object exploration stands on its own so small group investigations and collaborations could be developed by the instructor. The historical cultural contexts are strong and align with grades 7-12 state and national standards. At the university level, this app directly aligns with introductory humanities and art appreciation courses. The focus of this app is rich and deep and, as such, may not have the breadth of appeal for educators at the K-12 level, as some other apps.
Concerns:: While the objects are beautiful, and the text is well written, it will be important for a teacher to plan a lesson to guide students in their exploration of the four objects.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

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Strengths:: The app is clear and systematically organized. It is easy to navigate. It supports both vertical and horizontal orientations on the iPad. The text is very readable and provides a solid foundation for exploring each of the objects. Visual cues guide and support the explorations of the objects without taking away from the visual design. The graphics are clear, crisp and easy to see and manipulate.
Concerns:: There are four objects. That number assures that the user is not overwhelmed with information, but, perhaps in the future, this could be the start of a larger site on decorative arts.

Other Issues and Comments:: This is a well-designed site with beautiful images that can be manipulated to learn about the history, uses and techniques of manufacturing of four decorative objects. The site is produced by the Getty Museum.
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