Shakespeare’s Sonnets vs Daniel Leighton Art + AR

A masterly app...As accessible as it is scholarly, it’s an extraordinary achievement, that brings the sonnets bracingly to life and definitively sets the bar for the future of digital reading.' – Robert Collins, London Sunday Times The Sonnets presents William Shakespeare’s immortal collection of love poems in an interactive digital edition that allows you to explore, appreciate and understand this great work of literature as never before. All 154 sonnets are performed to camera by a star-studded cast including Sir Patrick Stewart (Star Trek, X-Men, Royal Shakespeare Company), David Tennant (Dr Who, Hamlet), Kim Cattrall (Sex and the City), Fiona Shaw (The Waste Land, Harry Potter), Stephen Fry (The Hobbit) and Dominic West (The Wire). These performances – all specially filmed for the app – are synchronised to the text, which highlights line by line as each sonnet is spoken. The performance videos, running over two and a half hours, are just the beginning. Also included are the complete Notes and Introduction from the Arden Shakespeare, offering unsurpassed scholarly commentary and insight. Touch a mysterious line or difficult word in any of the poems and the corresponding Arden Note highlights to provide comprehensive explanation. An alternative commentary on every sonnet comes from poet and musician Don Paterson, whose humorous and accessible style complements the academic rigour of the Arden Notes. Features include: • Beautiful filmed performances of all 154 sonnets by an incredible cast of Shakespearian actors and experts • The complete Arden edition text of The Sonnets plus A Lover’s Complaint • The complete Arden Shakespeare notes and introduction fully integrated • New commentary on The Sonnets by Don Paterson • Facility to add your own notes on any sonnet • High resolution facsimile of the original 1609 Quarto showing Shakespeare’s Sonnets as originally published • Forty interviews with scholars and experts discussing the meaning of The Sonnets and their author • Share-a-Sonnet allows you to send a sonnet to friends by email, Twitter or Facebook • Second generation interface based on the acclaimed Faber / Touch Press literary app The Waste Land • AirPlay enabled allowing the performances to be streamed full screen to AppleTV The Sonnets are published by RGB, the people behind the best-selling iPad titles The Elements and The Waste Land. The Sonnets was produced and published in partnership with Faber and Faber, Illuminations and the Arden Shakespeare.

Daniel Leighton is a contemporary fine artist who merged his painting, filmmaking, storytelling and technology backgrounds by incorporating augmented reality into his iPad paintings.  Daniel’s work has been featured by Timothy Potts, Director of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, Bryan Barcena Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), Nicholas Barlow, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Victoria and Albert Museum in London, where he recently spoke, the LA Center for Digital Art (LACDA), Technarte, the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art (SLOMA) and more. Having Crohn’s Disease since birth, Leighton faced his mortality from a very young age. Countless invasive procedures, hospitalizations and surgeries helped drive him to dive deep into a lifelong quest to understand the workings of his body and his emotions. He creates emotional portraits with simple lines and brilliant colors to capture complex states of the human psyche, while exploring the possibilities of technology and human emotion being harnessed for the greater good. When viewed through this app, Daniel Leighton Art+AR, his paintings come to life as a narrative accompanying the painting; using animation, film and particle systems to further capture a feeling and story. One example is the painting "On Trial" where anger is evident in the faces and pointing fingers of the characters and the moon looking down at the scene has a single tear. When viewed through Leighton's augmented reality app, the painting catches fire and the only way to put out the fire is to tap on the moon which begins to cry therefore putting out the flames with the tears. This piece is about anger in the form of blame and judgment, and shows how when feelings are expressed, anger subsides. Another example is a painting called "A Substance Called Understanding." Through the augmented reality and interactivity (tapping) the room fills up with hearts and the sound of many, layered voices saying "I love you". Leighton has a total of 11 paintings which incorporate augmented reality. If you like this app, please leave us a review or rating as it will help us get more people to see it. Also, please share it with your friends. Thank you!