Features

Arab Art Histories—The Khalid Shoman Collection

Edited by Sarah A. Rogers and Eline van der Vlist

Amman: The Khalid Shoman Foundation, 2013, 463 pp

Like both Darat Al Funun and the Khalid Shoman Collection which it covers, this book is firmly grounded in Amman, but at the same time indicative of a regional cultural network with international outreach. Comprising eight major essays, scores of personal reflections and hundreds of images, it tells the story of how the initial efforts of Suha and Khalid Shoman to support local artists, by buying their works, grew into a broadly based institution perched on the cutting edge of contemporary Arab art. In human terms, this story shows that individuals can make a difference if they join forces with others in the pursuit of beauty, excellence and enlightenment.

Editor Sarah Rodgers traces the history of Darat back to Suha Shoman's working relationship with Fahrelnissa, Shaker Hassan, Ali Jabri, Ammar Khammash and many others, and how she realised that what artists needed was not a gallery, "but a home that provided opportunities for research, creativity, and exchange". (p. 27) In Suha Shoman's words, "Arab artists assimilated tradition and modernity, experimented in all medias, and revisited their history." Eventually they created "an art that goes beyond labels or stereotyped definitions. An art that lives". (p. 61)

The most delightful reading in the book is the reflections of some of the many artists who have benefitted from and contributed to Darat and the collection. Each offers a unique definition of the institution, mirroring its openness, value and multiple functions. For Emily Jacir, Darat has been "a regular site of pilgrimage" as she transited between Palestine and elsewhere, offering "an education and exposure to works, writers, and ideas". (p. 63) Mohammad Al Asad posits Darat's creation as an "initial step towards rediscovering and re-establishing the importance of Amman's core". (p. 116) Nada Shabout calls it a "blissful oasis" which provided unparalleled research possibilities back in pre-Internet days when there were few resources on Arab art. Sheena Wagstaff tells how she and Suha Shoman "explored the dream of establishing a programme that would build mutual trust via an open negotiation of respective cultural histories, and most crucially, the identification of shared values", leading to a joint exhibition that travelled between London's Tate Gallery and Darat. (p. 172) 

Sama Alshaibi can't decide how to capture Darat's essence—"support network; forum; educational space; gallery; place to hang out; stage for performance; artist colony; publisher; art collection; production venue; and studio" — finally settling on "my second family". (p. 226) To Najwa Bint Ali, it was "a haven for Iraqi artists… a community of inspiring people". (p. 230) Samia Halabi praises Darat's "uncompromising insistence on quality". (p. 232) Wijdan F. Al Hashemi views Darat as complementary to the Jordan National Gallery, while Pierre Bikai recalls the excavation of the archaeological treasures found in its garden. Tania Tamari Nasir calls Darat an "exquisite venue for celebrating the arts". (p. 284) To Mamdouh Bisharat, it is "a jewel… a private institution with a public spirit". (p. 286) There are many other reflections in English and Arabic.

The essays are more challenging to read not so much because of their theoretical tone, as for the unconventional ideas they propose. In the open-ended spirit of Darat and the collection, the essayists eschew preconceived notions about art history to tell the stories of select artists and pieces in a sociopolitical context. Faisel Darraj focuses on why the "Arab modernity project was in crisis from the outset," while chronicling the role of Arab modernists in the arts. (p. 81) Anneka Lenssen discusses art in relation to its audience, as evidenced in the setting of the café. Kirsten Scheid writes about the Arab body in art — not nude paintings, but how "the vulnerability of the Arab body to international politics" is represented. (p. 252) Saleem Al-Bahloly addresses "how the handling of light, space and frame [in photographs] works to produce intelligible form for some of the problems that have characterised the twentieth century in the Middle East". (p. 255) Ulrich Loock discusses what it means that the "Shomans have built the collection up through their continuous involvement in and with the moments of a present that evinces constant change, rather than from a historical distance." (p. 305) Stephen Sheehi writes about Nicola Saig, "Jerusalem's First Painter", who transitioned from iconography to modern painting. Hassan Khan trains a critical eye on all modern Arab art. 

What remains unstated in this review is the pure pleasure of viewing the art works reproduced in the book. Due to obvious space limitations, some of the images are too small to fully appreciate, but this can be solved by visiting Darat Al Funun's 25th anniversary exhibition, which runs until April 30. "Arab Art Histories" is available at Darat Al Funun or can be ordered at www.ideabooks.nl

Sally Bland

WASHINGTON – Google said Thursday its popular Gmail service would use encryption to thwart snooping, in the latest move by the tech sector reassuring customers following revelations about US surveillance programmes.

“Your e-mail is important to you, and making sure it stays safe and always available is important to us,” Gmail engineering security chief Nicolas Lidzborski said in a blog post.

“Starting today, Gmail will always use an encrypted HTTPS connection when you check or send e-mail.

“Today’s change means that no one can listen in on your messages as they go back and forth between you and Gmail’s servers — no matter if you’re using public WiFi or logging in from your computer, phone or tablet.”

Google has already begun scrambling most of the traffic at its websites as technology firms grapple with moves by US intelligence agencies to spy on what people are doing and sharing online.

And similar moves have been announced by Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook to use encryption that limits the ability of a third party to read messages or e-mails.

US tech firms have been ramping up encryption since last year’s explosive revelations about the vast surveillance capabilities of the National Security Agency  (NSA) and other intelligence services, based on leaked documents.

Lidzborski said Google’s latest move “ensures that your messages are safe not only when they move between you and Gmail’s servers, but also as they move between Google’s data centres — something we made a top priority after last summer’s revelations”.

Some reports say the NSA had been able to access the data centres of Google and other Web firms.

Experts say encryption generally prevents outsiders from intercepting a person’s messages or documents, but that a persistent effort can gain access through malware or other methods that trick a person into revealing passwords.

Joseph Hall, chief technologist at the Centre for Democracy and Technology, said Google’s move is positive even if it does not protect against every potential threat.

“I’m reluctant to say anything is NSA-proof,” Hall told AFP.

“But I think what Google is trying to do is make sure they come through the front door and not the back door.”

Hall said that Google’s encryption “would make it very difficult” for the NSA or others to tap into e-mail traffic directly.

But he cautioned that the encryption would be only for “transport” and that data may still be unencrypted while sitting on a user’s browser or stored in certain data centres.

Still, he maintained that this encryption is positive because it is “part of a general trend of strengthening the core Internet structure”.

“Unfortunately, this is a case of an American Internet company having to beef up security because of attacks by its own government,” Hall said, while adding that it could be positive for people living in authoritarian regimes.

“If you’re an activist in Syria or and Iranian democracy activist, it will go a long way to making you secure.”

Google’s announcement came a day after co-founder Larry Page condemned US government snooping on the Internet as a threat to democracy.

Page, speaking at the Technology Entertainment Design (TED) gathering in Canada, was sharply critical of the NSA.

“It is tremendously disappointing that the government sort of secretly did all this stuff and didn’t tell us,” Page said.

AMMAN — In his photography exhibition “Orientalism” at Jacaranda Images, prolific Egyptian artist Mohamed Abouelnaga does not attempt to give a clear-cut answer to what the Orient is; instead, he chooses to play on its elusive and enigmatic nature.

Distorted by the subjective image drawn by European orientalists to depict it, the Orient — and Arabs in extension — is now at a struggle to come to terms with what it really is.

“The romanticised Orientalist vision of the East has affected how we view ourselves, to the extent that we have come to believe that depiction and use it to refer to ourselves,” the artist told The Jordan Times.

Abouelnaga’s art emphasises the foggy situation of Arab identity at the moment, stitching layer over layer of cloth over photographs of Arab women on backgrounds inspired by Arabic heritage, such as calligraphy, arabesque patterns and depictions of holy Muslim sites.

“I used many layers that imply a case of constant change and movement. Everything is out of focus,” he explained. “With these Arab revolutions, we find ourselves once again discussing the concept of identity.”

As Arabs delve deeper into this introspective review of culture and being, clarity continues to elude them.

Layers of tulle, silk and paper, and blotches of ink and colour obscure the images in Abouelnaga’s works of mixed media, inviting a meticulous examination of each individual piece that never reaches a satisfying conclusion.

The viewer is left to wonder and debate what the multiple veils hide.

“This Orientalist view has rendered us unable to see the other or ourselves clearly,” said the multidisciplinary artist, who has held exhibitions in the US, Mexico, and several European countries.

Heavily influenced by Edward Said’s writings on Orientalism, Abouelnaga goes on to show that while Western scholars may have created an Orient that has little to do with the peoples living in the East, Arabs themselves are still struggling with their identity and how to define themselves.

“Is there an actual clear idea of what an Islamic or Arab identity is as a whole?” he asked.

In his book on “Orientalism”, Said describes it as “a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient”. 

He argues that the West has depicted the Orient as strange, odd, bizarre, exotic and weirdly irrational in contrast with the “rational normality” of Western culture.

The Orient is also feminine, passive and submissive, in opposition to the West’s “masculine” features of activity and domination. 

Out of that conceptualisation, the images of females and nude women persisted in European Orientalist art.

Similarly, the Egyptian artist’s work abounds with depictions of women, but most of them are dressed in more traditional attire.

Abouelnaga’s idiosyncratic style and his depiction of what he perceives as the “New Orientalism” leaves viewers with more questions than answers, out of his belief that Arabs are still trying to come to terms with the aftermath of the latest revolutions.

His work brilliantly depicts “a moment of confrontation” that the Orient is going through to find itself.

But Abouelnaga is optimistic about the future.

“Just like Europe couldn’t easily recover from two world wars to rebuild itself… it will take us time to find answers to questions of identity,” he said.

The exhibition, which is held within the Institut Français’ and Darat Al Tasweer’s jointly organised fourth Image Festival, continues through March 31.

NEW YORK  — In the largest cities in the US, death rates from breast cancer have dropped across the board over 20 years, but far less so for Black women than Whites, according to a new analysis. 

The widening survival gap is likely due to differences in the quality of healthcare and access to it, researchers contend, because health factors alone cannot explain the changes over two decades.

"The advancements in screening tools and treatment which occurred in the 1990's were largely available to White women, while Black women, who were more likely to be uninsured, did not gain equal access to these life-saving technologies," lead author Bijou Hunt, an epidemiologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago, told Reuters Health in an e-mail.

Past research has examined racial differences in survival for specific cancers and for cancer in general and found at least some could be explained by biology. High blood pressure, diabetes and other health problems that both worsen cancer outcomes and are more common among Blacks have received some of the blame.

Black women are also more likely than Whites to have aggressive breast tumours that don't respond to the most effective treatments. This basic difference in cancer genetics is another reason given for differing survival when it comes to breast cancer.

To assess changes in survival trends on a national level, Hunt and her colleagues looked at mortality rates in the largest US cities at four different time points: 1990-1994, 1995-1999, 2000-2004 and 2005-2009.

They found that during the 20-year span, deaths from breast cancer fell overall — by 13 per cent for Black women and by 27 per cent for White women. While a gap was already present in the early 1990s, it widened considerably with time.

The team's analysis, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, found that during 1990-1994, the rate of breast cancer deaths was 17 per cent greater among Blacks than among Whites. This steadily increased to 30 per cent, then to 35 per cent and finally to 40 per cent in the last time period they looked at.

The disparity was particularly striking in Memphis, Tennessee, where the rate of breast cancer deaths among Blacks was 27 per cent higher than among Whites in 1990-1994 and ballooned to more than two-fold higher by 2005-2009.

In Los Angeles, the mortality rate among Blacks was 24 per cent higher than among Whites in 1990-1994 and 71 per cent higher in 2005-2009.

Wichita, Kansas, which had no significant differences in mortality rates among Blacks and Whites at the first time point studied, had a two-fold increased rate of deaths among Blacks in 1995-1999, which fell to a 57 per cent greater mortality rate among Blacks by the most recent time point.

Most, but not all, of the 41 cities included in the final analysis saw an increase in racial disparities during the study period. This was not true of New York, however, the largest city included. The disparity in New York was about the same at the first and last time points examined, with an 18 to 19 per cent greater mortality rate among Blacks than Whites, the researchers note.

Several other large cities, including Minneapolis, Miami, Portland and Las Vegas, did not have any significant differences at all in mortality rates between Blacks and Whites at any of the four time periods examined.

The growing gap in breast cancer deaths among Blacks versus Whites was largely caused by a steeper drop in breast cancer deaths among Whites than among their Black counterparts, Hunt and her colleagues point out.

Sixteen states experienced a greater than 20 per cent decrease in the White mortality rate, but a less than 10 per cent decrease in mortality among Blacks, the researchers report.

WASHINGTON – The human nose can distinguish at least one trillion different odours, millions more than previously estimated, US researchers said Thursday.

For decades, scientists accepted that humans could detect only 10,000 scents, putting the sense of smell well below the capabilities of sight and hearing.

"Our analysis shows that the human capacity for discriminating smells is much larger than anyone anticipated, said study co-author Leslie Vosshall, head of Rockefeller University's Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behaviour.

The previous estimate for the nose's capabilities — which are carried out with the help of 400 olfactory receptors — dated to the 1920s and was not backed by data.

Researchers have estimated that the human eye and its mere three receptors can distinguish several million colours and that the ear can discriminate 340,000 sounds.

"For smell, nobody ever took the time to test," Vosshall said.

To conduct their research, scientists subjected 26 participants to mixtures made with 128 different odourant molecules that individually might evoke grass, citrus or various chemicals, but were combined in groupings of up to 30.

"We didn't want them to be explicitly recognisable, so most of our mixtures were pretty nasty and weird," Vosshall said.

"We wanted people to pay attention to 'here's this really complex thing — can I pick another complex thing as being different’?"

Volunteers would sample three vials of scents at a time — two that were the same and one that was different — to see if they could detect which was the outlier, completing 264 such comparisons.

Although volunteers' abilities varied greatly, they could on average discern the difference between vials with up to 51 per cent of the same components, with fewer volunteers detecting a difference once the mixtures shared more components.

Researchers then extrapolated how many odours the average person could detect if all possible combinations of the 128 odourants were sampled, coming to their estimate of at least one trillion.

Lead researcher Andreas Keller, also of Rockefeller University, said the number is almost certainly too low given that there are numerous other odourants that can mix in countless ways in the real world.

He said our ancestors relied more on the sense of smell, but that refrigeration and the development of personal hygiene have limited odours in the modern world.

"This could explain our attitude that smell is unimportant, compared to hearing and vision," Keller said.

He added that upright posture, which raised humans' noses far from the ground where odours often emanate, may also have contributed.

The sense of smell is closely linked to human behaviour and the researchers stressed that studying it could shed light on how the human brain processes complex information.

The study was published in the journal Science.

NEW YORK — Samsung’s new Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 tablet blurs the distinction between a laptop and a tablet computer.

Its on-screen keyboard has capabilities that are more common with laptops, and its screen is larger than what many laptops have. People can run several apps side by side, and multiple users can share the device with separate profiles.

Samsung also tries to make the Note Pro something professionals can use on the road, while leaving the laptop behind. It’s packed with business tools such as a WebEx virtual conferencing app, a one-year subscription to Bloomberg Businessweek’s digital magazine and one year of WiFi access on airplanes through Gogo.

It’s an impressive lineup of features. Unfortunately, it also has a price tag that exceeds that of many laptops — $750 for the base model with 32 gigabytes of storage, and $850 for 64 gigabytes.

If your primary reason for owning a tablet is to consume content, such as video, music, books and magazines, the Note Pro isn’t for you. There are plenty of cheaper options out there.

The Note Pro is for those who want to mimic a laptop experience, yet don’t want to purchase — or carry — a laptop.

Its screen measures 12.2 inches (32cm) diagonally, giving it about 50 per cent more surface area than Apple’s 9.7-inch (25cm) iPad Air. The Note Pro is also larger than another tablet billed as a laptop replacement, Microsoft’s 10.6-inch (27cm) Surface Pro 2. It’s also cheaper; the Surface Pro 2 costs $899.

With the Note Pro’s larger screen, television shows and other content come to life. Digital magazines are closer in size to printed editions — though one drawback is that some magazines haven’t been designed to be that large, so text looks fuzzy blown up.

The larger screen also means having an on-screen keyboard that comes closer to replicating a physical keyboard. Keys are spaced in a way that I can type with all 10 fingers, the way I learned in high school eons ago. On smaller tablets, I have to inefficiently peck with two fingers.

The Note Pro’s on-screen keyboard also has functions that aren’t typically found on tablets. For instance, you can use the control key the way you can on laptops, such as CTRL-C to copy text and CTRL-V to paste. And instead of having to toggle between keyboards for letters and symbols, you can access commonly used symbols such as the dollar sign and the asterisk by pressing the corresponding letter key for about one second. Arrows on the lower right side of the keyboard let you move the cursor with more precision than tapping on the touch screen.

That said, it’s not the same as a physical keyboard. I still have to look at the keys when I type with 10 fingers, whereas with a regular keyboard, I can navigate by feel while keeping my eyes on the monitor. Samsung does sell a wireless keyboard for $60 and a mouse for $40.

While I’m on prices, I’ll add that Verizon has a cellular version of the 32-gigabyte Note Pro for $100 more, or $850. It’s $750 with a two-year service contract. Samsung Electronics Co. also sells a variety of cheaper, WiFi-only versions. Unlike the Note Pro, these Tab Pro models don’t come with a stylus for writing on the screen. A 12.2-inch (32cm) version goes for $650, while $500 gets you 10.1 inches (26cm) and $400 gets you 8.4 inches (21.3cm). The 8.4-inch (26cm) model doesn’t have the laptop-like keyboard I just described.

To further confuse matters, Samsung also has the Galaxy Note 10.1 — 2014 Edition tablet, though it came out in 2013. The $550 tablet does have the stylus, but lacks the new keyboard.

PARIS – Gone are the days of squinting at your smartphone as you try to make out what is happening in your favourite film.

On Wednesday, eight months after the American release, Google launched its latest innovation –– Chromecast –– in Europe and Canada, a small device the size of a finger which allows you to transfer online video content from a mobile device onto an HD television.

According to the Internet giant, the device has done well in the US, with “millions” sold to date, although it has not revealed a precise figure.

Wednesday saw the device released in ten European countries –– Germany, Denmark, France, Spain, Finland, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden and Britain –– as well as in Canada. Google is also now opening up the platform to developers, with 3,000 already signed up to create content.

The Chromecast device plugs into a television through an HDMI port, then communicates with a smartphone, tablet, or laptop over the WiFi network.

Click the small icon, and you can send videos from your mobile device to your television, or use your smartphone as a remote control.

The device means consumers will be able to watch everything from cat videos on YouTube to feature films on Netflix. Content will also vary by country. In the UK, viewers can use the device to watch programmes from the BBC, in France, they can use it for FranceTV Pluzz and SFR TV.

While there have been other devices to connect televisions to mobile devices before, such as Apple’s Air Play, Google is betting that the simplicity of its device, its size, and price –– it sells for 35 euros ($49) will win over the market.

It is also proud of the way Chromecast allows users to “multitask” –– it is possible to send mails and use other applications while watching television.

“Chromecast is the easiest way to bring your favorite online movies, shows, music and more to the TV screen,” said Mario Queiroz, director of product management at Google. “It should be easy for people to watch the content they want wherever they are.”

According to rumours, online shopping giant Amazon will also release its own television-smartphone interface next month.

Pascal Lechevallier, the founder of What’s Hot, a consultancy which specialises in new media, said the device was a great way for multi-channel networks on YouTube to be watched on the home’s main television.

“History is changing, and the video offering online is going to become even larger,” he predicted, stressing the importance, in time, for Google to capitalise on video ads as they are screened on television.

There was an announcement on Google, just a few days ago, reminding us we that are celebrating this year the 25th anniversary of the Internet. My first reaction was “No way, it’s been only 25 years! It seems like it has been here forever. How were we living without it before?” In fact its exact “birth” date is a debatable subject. Some would like to go back to the Arpanet, the Internet’s ancestor that was introduced circa 1969, whereas a more realistic estimate would set the date around 1990 when the web as we know it became a well-established network, widely available and adopted.

For those who were there before 1990, can they really imagine how much this has changed our life, what is the actual impact of the revolution?

The impact of Information Technology (IT) is unlike that of any other technical field. It is massive and it’s all happening at lightning speed; it’s virtually immediate. It is also so strong, so powerful and so radical that it just cannot be ignored, postponed and studied or discussed “later”.

While most of the articles published in this column are about computers, the Internet, and high-tech in general, I allow myself now and then, and with the above in mind, to use this space to tackle matters pertaining to living with the technology, to the impact it has on us all. In a way it is still about technology but in an indirect manner.

This has prompted some readers to ask me to stay the course, to avoid talks of “the social philosophy of digital” (to quote one of these readers) and instead to keep bringing them clear, sound news about hardware, software, up-to-date high-tech gear, networks, new ways to work, and so forth. In parallel many also are those who seem happy to be entertained and at the same time informed about the various aspects of living in the high-tech digital world, how it affects us socially, mentally and psychologically.

Granted, in most technical fields there would be a separation between the description of the technology, its tools and its physical devices on one hand, and the human impact it may have, on the other. Whereas the first part would be the specialty of the field’s professionals, those who work in it, the second would be the prerogative of philosophers, physicians, psychologists, scholars and researchers who are able to take a wider, unbiased look from outside the industry.

Again, IT is a case that is unheard of in modern history. The shock is strong and is immediately felt. Therefore talking about the impact goes hand in hand with any talk about the machines, the networks, the apps, etc.

For a minute forget about the 25-year-old Internet and think of smartphones and the free-to-use communication messenger channels like Skype, Viber, WhatsApp or Tango. Think also of the number of tasks we now do online, exclusively. Online shopping, ticketing and e-banking, these three “apps” alone, have radically changed our life, not forgetting the cloud and social networking of course; and it’s been six to seven years only, not 25!

So how can we brush aside the social impact and separate it from more tangible matters like megapixels, gigabytes, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G, 4G, USB3.0, hybrid hard disks and the like? Remember for instance that in the expression “social networking” there’s “social”; that says it all.

Whereas the input of independent researchers and scholars is necessary and is welcome, it is perhaps up to each one of us, users, parents, educators, young, old, at work or at home, to do our own analysis, to realise what this is all doing to us, for better and for worse.

And if this article was too “social or intellectual” to some readers’ taste, I promise to get back to technical specs and news of high-tech innovations next week.

SAN FRANCISCO  — Sony is getting into the virtual reality business.

The Japanese electronics and gaming giant unveiled a prototype virtual reality headset to be used in conjunction with its PlayStation 4 video game console during a Tuesday talk at the Game Developers Conference.

Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, showed off the slick black-and-white headset at the annual gathering of game designers. He said Sony has been working on the technology for more than three years.

The adjustable device is codenamed Project Morpheus and features a head-mounted display with 1080p resolution and a 90-degree field of view. Sensors built into the headset can track a wearer’s head movement in concert with a PS4 camera.

“This prototype is by no means final,” said Yoshida. “We will continue to work on this to improve it, but we believe it’s a good representation of how PlayStation will deliver VR.”

Anton Mikhailov, a senior software engineer working on Project Morpheus, said the current version of the technology must be attached to a PS4 console with a cord that’s about 15 feet (4.5 meters) long, and users’ virtual perspectives can be simultaneously broadcast on a television screen.

“The experience can be shared, and that’s only going to allow it to spread,” said Mikhailov. “I think that’s going to be the key. Once people see someone else interacting in VR, they’re going to want to put it on and try it next.”

Mikhailov said users will be able to interact with the virtual world displayed on the headset with the gesture-detecting PlayStation Move controller, as well as the standard DualShock 4. He declined to specify when the headset would be released or how much it would cost.

Project Morpheus will be available for demonstration beginning Wednesday for conference attendees on the conference’s expo floor with four games: diving cage simulator “The Deep”, medieval combat game “The Castle”, sci-fi dogfighter “EVE: Valkyrie” and a VR rendition of the stealthy action-adventure title “Thief”.

While Sony Corp. has released other head-mounted display units, Project Morpheus marks the company’s first foray into VR with PlayStation. Sony’s headset is similar to the Oculus Rift, a VR device currently in development by the Irvine, California-based start-up Oculus VR.

Both devices use head tracking to reduce queasiness when users peek around a virtual landscape, and they look more like ski googles than the bulky gaming helmets of the 1990s that usually left users with headaches.

SAN FRANCISCO – Google said Tuesday it was bringing Android to wearable devices, as LG and Motorola started the countdown to Internet-enabled watches based on the dominant platform for smartphones. 

The move allows developers to create apps for smartwatches, the first phase of the Android Wear platform.

Two manufacturers — LG Electronics and Motorola — quickly jumped on the bandwagon.

“We’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s possible with mobile technology,” Google Android chief Sundar Pichai said in a blog post.

“That’s why we’re so excited about wearables — they understand the context of the world around you, and you can interact with them simply and efficiently, with just a glance or a spoken word.”

The news comes amid a surge of interest in wearable electronics which can connect with smartphones, and after the launch of several smart watches by large and small manufacturers.

In Seoul, LG Electronics said Tuesday it would launch by the end of June its first Internet-enabled smartwatch powered by Google’s new operating system, tapping into the nascent but growing market for wearable devices. Its engineers worked closely with Google, LG said.

A rough image of the watch unveiled by the firm showed a black screen displaying time and what looks like an upcoming flight schedule.

Motorola also said Tuesday on its blog site it would make a similar watch available this summer, starting in the United States.

A typical smartwatch allows users to make calls, receive texts and e-mails, take photos and access apps.

The new Android Wear system will make it easier to develop apps specifically for a watch or other wearable device.

“Today we’re announcing Android Wear, a project that extends Android to wearables,” Pichai said.

“And we’re starting with the most familiar wearable — watches.”

He said the platform would help facilitate apps that provide news and information, allow chats, monitor health and fitness or help in shopping. The system will enable voice-controlled apps and connect to a smartphone or other device.

“Because Android for wearables works with Android’s rich notification system, many apps will already work well,” Pichai said.

“We’re also already working with several consumer electronics manufacturers, including Asus, HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung; chip makers Broadcom, Imagination, Intel, Mediatek and Qualcomm; and fashion brands like the Fossil Group to bring you watches powered by Android Wear later this year.”

Samsung’s new smartwatch, the Gear 2, which was launched in February is powered by the Tizen operating system developed by the South Korean giant along with other partners.

Global smartwatch sales are expected to grow this year by more than 500 per cent from 1.9 million units in 2013, and to expand further in coming years, according to the market researcher Strategic Analytics.

Google said separately it was expanding its Google Play catalog of films and other content for purchase or rental to 39 new countries in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia.