The art of seeing

Benedict Brain on why Minutiae, his favourite app, shows that creativity isn't about waiting for inspiration but noticing what's already there

- By Benedict Brain

Once a day, my phone buzzes at an unexpected moment. It could be while I'm making coffee, walking to the shops or looking out of a cabin window in Togo. When the alarm sounds, I have 60 seconds to open the app and five seconds to take a photograph. Then the window closes. No filters, no retakes, no second chances and crucially, no front-facing camera.

The app that prompts this daily interruption is called Minutiae. It describes itself as “an anonymous antisocial media app that forces its users to document the in-between moments of life.”