Apps: The Human Story – I’m part of a kickstarter project, as a backer for the project, called App: The Human Story and it is about people making apps and technology over the years. They have asked us to write our story about how apps have made a difference in our lives small or big. My story is as below.
I’m Chelle and from Australia, and I have not made any apps such as but over the years I have supported many and when computers became widely used by the community from the 1980s, my father bought a couple of computers for us. When I was 7 and half, I stumbled upon Police Quest 1 and Space Quest 1, two amazing looking adventure games with great graphics for their time. This got me very excited and I started to collect these type of games, made by Sierra. These games would become my outlet for many years, growing up and would also lead me into the direction of art. It would be the start of the road to my becoming an artist. I would write stories and draw images about these games which were based on the characters and what I would do in the games, and I started to become good at illustrations and painting.
When I finished high school and went to uni, a science diploma in food, I had to put aside art for 2 years which I hated to do but I was told “you won’t make much money from art!” and boy, they were wrong! Two years after my science course, I left home and moved interstate to Adelaide, and enrolled in my dream course, a visual arts degree. I finished it 5 years later and have become successful! The people who said I wouldn’t make much money in art took back those words and have been very supportive.
Now I am able to create not only traditional art but digital art as well using my beloved photoshop program, and have created short animation films and now art books. My favourite medium to work with is watercolour traditional as well as acrylic and mixed mediums. One of the best things about technology advancing is it has enabled me to take my art a lot further than just traditional means and being able to network via Facebook, Twitter, forums, blogs and Kickstarter.
Now lately I seem to be getting a lot of good exposure for my art and becoming well known! I was recently a part of a worldwide artist collaboration project called the 78 tarot project and we all created a card each for the tarot card deck and it is now on kickstarter, and nearly finished but looks like we will make the funding! Amazing thing is, how I got involved was when I restarted my twitter account at the near end of last year and started to add artists from all over the world through the search tool on Twitter, and one of them found me at the very start of this year and soon after she organised the 78 tarot project and asked me to be part of it. I was honoured as she is a good artist and quite well known especially for her loud personality! The card I created was the Five of Cups. Yes you can see our project on kickstarter at 78 Tarot Kickstarter and my card at this page – Five of Cups by Chelle.
I’m also currently planning an art walk in a local area of Adelaide, in Semaphore and quite a few cafes and shops have said yes to this project so it will become a reality in September. People will be able to do a pub-crawl style of art viewing, as in they will have the chance to view my art at different cafes and shops along the main street of Semaphore and enjoy a cuppa or meal along the way when they follow the route on the flyer I’m creating at this very moment.
What I love about the internet is these days, websites like mine which are set up on a computer are automatically able to be viewed on mobile phones easily and people are able to see artworks on my website which is www.chelledestefano.com and I have had the convience of being able to use my ipad to edit my website if I’m away from the computer, maybe on the train or in the shops! Also I must mention, my favourite old classic games and the newer indie games I enjoy are now made into apps to be able to play on the ipad and mobile phones. I have to date, been enjoying a bit of Gemini Rue on my ipad and I think I’m around 60% through the game. I love that I’m now able to take these type of games anywhere with me as portable as possible.
To end on a note about apps, I have found many to be very useful. One recently app I added to my phone to aid me as a deaf person, is an alert that pops up on my phone if I’m in an area that is in danger, such as a fire, earthquake, or any other danger maybe a train crash and it has proven to be a help as I have been able to take a safer route. When most people can hear the radio to be warned of dangers and the like, I miss out so that app has been helpful. A recent surprise I discovered that was already built into my phone was an app called Assistive Light, which meant the flash on my phone’s camera would be turned into a torch! That made me very happy as often I have to walk through the dark to get to bed when my partner is already in bed! Another favourite app of mine is Photo Transfer which means I don’t have to bother with a cable to connect phone to computer to transfer photos! I can do it straight on the computer when the app is connected by wifi to the phone and even from my Samsung Galaxy phone to my ipad and vice versa. Another app that is dear to my heart, called Very Android which allows me to save all my SMS’s to a txt file so then I have my messages transferred to storage on computer or wherever I want and free up space in my phone if I ever get too many messages that slow down the phone. Has not happened yet with this one like it did with my last Samsung Galaxy. Last but not least, the amazing Kickstarter app that lets me track my favourite projects that I have backed, on my phone without needing to go to the website on my phone or anywhere else so I can keep check if one of my favourite projects is getting close to achieving their funding goal.
Thank you for asking me to be part of this amazing project App: The Human Story. I hope many will enjoy my story 🙂
Chelle Destefano - Projects and What's Happening Buzz Feed 