App of the Week – Melodala

Price: £1.19

Platform: Apple iPhone, Apple iPad (Melodala HD)

Ah, hippies. If you'd ever wondered where they went after the Grateful Dead stopped touring, apparently it was to software school. There are more trippy chill-out apps available for the iPad than there are games (note: this is possibly only true in Berkeley, Wales and some parts of North London).

Anyway, welcome one of the most charming of the bunch, a combination drawing program / ambient music / spiritual enlightenment app from a small group of British artists and developers.

Melodala is simplicity itself to use. Simply select a background tune to inspire you (Arctic Stopover is very Sigur Ros-y), pick a brush, a colour and get gliding. Each dab of your finger creates a blob or trail, but in a pleasingly symmetrical pattern that means even the most cack-handed dauber (ie. me) can create some vaguely Celtic, vaguely Tibetan designs that would look, like, totally awesome on a tie-dyed T-shirt, man.

Really, it's not half as annoying as it sounds - and apparently it might even be genuine art. The Tate Modern is showcasing Melodala at a special event this Saturday (August 21), where the app will be projected onto giant screens and used to create a tiled mosaic over the course of the day. So pack your patchouli, make yourself a nice mung bean salad and take part in the iPad's very first art 'happening'. Peace.