Vanitas is out!

You can get Vanitas from the App Store now!

Vanitas is a memento mori in your iPhone. A meditative app without rules or rewards with Zoë Keating on solo cello.

“Despite using contemporary technology, we are artistically inspired mostly by pre-modern art,” admit creators Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn. “In the 16th and 17th centuries, many Dutch and Flemish painters created still lives with symbols that referred to man’s mortality. They were named after a famous quotation from the Bible by Ecclesiastes: “Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas”. Or “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity”, implying that everything we do in life is without meaning. Creating a “Vanitas” painting for the iPhone felt like the appropriate response to the commission by Ian Bogost and John Sharp.”

Vanitas was commissioned for the Art History of Games symposium and exhibition by the Savannah College of Art and Design and the Georgia Institute of Technology Program in Digital Media. The symposium opens tonight.

7 thoughts on “Vanitas is out!”

  1. I still dont get it, it looks like you just move stuff around in the little box, I dont see any sequence of events here….does how you move the objects affect what objects will come up next? I really think you should be clearer for something like Appstore!

  2. Michaël and Auriea, congratulations to you both! I can’t wait until I have the opportunity to play this. I personally don’t have an iPhone, but I’m going to borrow a friend’s ipod touch just to try this.

    And be sure to enjoy SCAD and the entire historic district of Atlanta while you’re there. It’s a hauntingly beautiful city that’s unlike anywhere else. And of course, the food is excellent! (I whoteheartedly recommend the Olde Pink House for your dining pleasure!)

  3. Thank you, Randy!

    Constantine, when you close the box and open it again, you’ll get a new random combination of objects. Observe them and let your mind wander. Then close the box again and see a new set of objects. Some juxtapositions might be more meaningful then others to you. There is no game logic in Vanitas. ( So use your own. 😉 )
    It couldn’t be clearer. It’s just very simple.

  6. I just downloaded and installed it, and I love it! Thank you for bringing us another wonderful piece for us to enjoy and ponder. :)

  7. I’m writing vía iPhone in the underground. I have downloaded this afternoon, and i played it like an hour ago

    i reach to 70th box change, and of course, it’s not a matter of gameplay. Here is no combos, no life meter ( well, ourselves life meter ) but i’m keep thimking about it.

    I got the path a week ago, and i’m waiting perfect moment to start with it. As happem here, i think it’s not a game, is just a door to reach another part of arts or ourselves.

    Like a tale is a portion of text wich arrives us to real life, i think VAnitas works same way.

    This is how I arrive this page, because now Im searchin about the game nature, components and refereneces

    A perfect music after gameplay is the soundtrack of The Road, try it!!

    Thanks for the game!!

    Greetings froms spain /)

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