Dubble pairs you up with random internet people to create strange, mixed-up photos. But is it art?
Lots of people bang on and on about how amazing it is to get a bit of creative collaboration going, but what if you don’t know anyone? Or worse, what if everyone you know is a creatively bankrupt idiot? How do you find anyone worth collaborating with, then? It's a nightmare.
Here's one solution, though! Dubble takes a random approach to collaboration, pairs you up with complete strangers in seconds and can quickly sort you out with your own collaborative portfolio, of sorts. You simply take a photo (or choose one from your iPhone's photostream) and submit it to Dubble, then it'll combine it with another photo taken by a random user and send the double-exposed results straight back to you.
Naturally, said results can be of variable quality. You can spend ages framing the perfect shot, then find that Dubble's combined it with someone's awful selfie. However if you submit enough shots then the law of averages says that you're bound to get a few really good ones back, and you can always rescue a bad one by submitting it again. You could even keep resubmitting the results to create some brilliantly messed-up images out of loads of iterations.
The problem is, though, that Dubble's just a little too random for its own good. It's interesting to flick through other users' images, but we've yet to see any truly impressive results; perhaps if Dubble mixed things up with a range of random blend modes it could generate more exciting images. Even then, we reckon Dubble's a fun little app that you'll play around with for a bit, but we’re not sure about its long-term appeal. Give it a try, though – it's free!
