By Graham K. Rogers

As well as an interest in computers, I like music, literature and Art. With the ways that digital technology works these days, all are connected, particularly with the use of iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad.

A while back I joined Sedition (formerly [S]edition) which is a service that allows us to buy digital art at reasonably inexpensive prices. As well as owning a digital version of a work, using an iOS device or a computer as a display device, it is also possible to view via a larger medium such as a widescreen TV or on a screen using a projector.

Recently the Sedition app was updated to version 5 and there are significant changes in the way that a user's images are displayed. On the iPhone there is a vertical strip of the works owned, while the iPad has a panel on which several images may be displayed at the same time.

To save space on the device, the works are not installed on the device, but may be downloaded just by tapping on the image thumbnail. Many of the works are in video format so are not merely static images. They move and change over several minutes, with some changing the mood in a room.

This is an inexpensive way to collect Art, albeit in a digital format. One of the purposes was that, should the concept be successful, collectors would be able to sell their works later and perhaps make a profit. While this still has a long way to go, restricting the number of collectors for each work to hundreds rather than thousands of earlier items, has seen a slight rise in some prices and I was informed earlier in the week that one work in my collection has now increased its price, albeit modestly.

The app only displays the contents of a user's vault, although it is hoped that perhaps the ability to view other works and buy via the iOS devices may be an option later. For now, buying needs a visit to the Sedition site using a browser.

I am afraid that when I visited the Sedition site checking on information for this article, I saw the work of an artist who was unfamiliar to me - Lee Lee Nam - and was tempted enough to buy one of the works offered: his Dreamscape 2. This looks really good on the HDTV when I connect the iPad or iPhone and download the work (although the colors here look a little washed out after white balance was applied).

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand where he is also Assistant Dean. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.