Science Fiction: The Quantum Magician By Derek Künsgen

 (Drivebycuriosity) - The future will be full of surprises & wonders - a rich field for science fiction authors who want to riot their imagination. Derek Künsgen is one of them. His novel "The Quantum Magician" is full of bizarre ideas, which make the book a funny read (amazon). I didn`t find much sense in the plot but I was impressed by Künsgen`s post-baroque fabulation artistry. He weaved together tons of quantum physics, evolution, cosmology, psychology, genetics, biology, chemistry & other sciences with a lot of highly speculative fiction.

The book is hard science fiction but also a kind of futuristic poetry. One chapter begins with "Millions of magnetosomes fed the intellect billions of qubits and qutrits of magnetic and electric information. The intellect constructed a map of the signals, in all their mutual exclusive, superimposed richness. Quantum perceptions bloomed in an array of overlapping probabilities (SIC)."

Künsgen´s elaborated descriptions are fun to read even though they do not necessarily make sense. We follow the adventures of excessively bio-engineered humans & sophisticated artificial intelligences (AIs), including one who believes to be a medieval saint, who are dealing with powerful spaceships, absurd religions and elaborated wormholes in a cosmic conflict. Künsgen doesn`t belong to my favorite scifi authors - for instance Greg Benford, Ted Chiang, Nancy Kress & Liu Cixi - but he is better than the average of the genre and I might read more by him.

Contemporary Art: Do You Like Pink Polar Bears?

(Drivebycuriosity) - Do you like pink polar bears? You could spot some if you visit gallery Perrotin  on Manhattan`s Lower East Side. On their third floor you could find an exhibition with work by Paola Pipe (Born in 1971 in Milan, Italy, Lives and works in Anchorage, USA), called "We are the  Baby Gang" (through June 8, 2019 perrotin ).

The press release explains: "Seventy baby polar bears frolic, play, fight, nap, and explore the top floor of Perrotin New York. Instead of fur, the bears have sprouted florescent feathers. The polar ice caps are melting. In order to survive a changing climate, they have needed to adapt. They occupy a space between fantasy and reality—frozen in their stances, yet with the impression that they could spring to life at any moment".

The press release also says: "When laying out a tableau of Pivi’s bears for exhibition, placement is painstakingly considered. Social hierarchies and relationships are established in order to create a snapshot of authentic interaction. In putting together We are the baby gang, Pivi envisioned her baby bears as a landscape—a densely populated gallery where viewers could be enveloped by these creatures. They were conceived of as a pack. Each bear has an active name,"

                       

Are there males and females?

Maybe they are all non-binary.

And the gallery has more attractions. On the second floor I saw this wonderful blue room by Claude Rutault (claude). The first floor show abstracts by John Henderson. I blogged about this exhibition already (driveby).

To be continued

Economics: Weapons Of Economic Self-Destruction

(Drivebycuriosity) - Trump`s trade war against China shows the first casualties in the USA. In April US retail sales & industrial production fell and stocks dropped sharply. The imposed tariffs on Chinese goods are weapons of self-destruction. They are taxes on imported goods which are paid by the US consumers. President Trump boasted that the US government collected about $100 billion so far, so American consumers already lost $100 billion to their government (cnbc). They have to spend more money on computers, furniture, clothing, chemicals and plenty of other goods which is curtailing their budgets. As a result they have less money to spend less for American goods.

It seems that the trade war is also slowing China`s economy and hurting so the global economy. Sequentially the US looses not only exports to China, because of retaliations there, it exports also less to other countries. The Federal Reserve of Atlanta calculates that economic growth in the US already slowed down to 1.4% in the second quarter (frbatlanta).

If the trade war escalates it will endanger the global economic expansion - and might even cause a recession in the US. If the US slides into a trade war caused recession it is unlikely that Trump will get reelected next year. Even a sluggish economy could dampen his chances considerably. The trade war against China hurts everybody.

Economics: What We Could Learn From the Price Of Coffee

(Drivebycuriosity) - Happy times for coffee drinkers. The price of coffee is on a 13.5 years low. The chart below (cents per pound) shows the price history since 1990. Huge price rallies were followed by sharp drops. What caused these huge swings? Coffee is traded on financial markets. The commodity is represented by coffee futures (delivery contracts) which are financial assets like stocks. So they behave like stocks and other tradable assets which prices are influenced by investors & speculators.

(source  )



I remember a massive speculation wave in the first decade of this century, when I worked for a German online service.  In these years futures - and other financial instruments -  on soft commodities like coffee, cocoa, cotton and wheat became a fashionable investment idea. Hedge funds and other speculators followed the ideas of the English cleric Robert Malthus ( 1766-1834) who claimed that the world would soon run out of food because the harvests weren`t enough for the rising world population. Malthus`pessimism found many followers including the Club of Rome in the 1970s who claimed the same and the peak oil callers in 2007/08.

Many speculators set high bets on rising agriculture prices (long positions) because they expected that a climbing demand will meet a tight supply (super cycle). In the case of coffee the rising popularity of chains like Starbucks signaled a climbing demand for the delicious beans. Therefore financial investors & speculators like hedge funds, huge pension funds and ETF providers pumped billions of dollars into coffee futures and drove the price far north.

But then happened what usually happens when agriculture prices rise: Farmers worldwide responded by planting more coffee plants because they expected more profit. Soon came more coffee on the market as the speculators expected. Today seems to be a oversupply, more coffee available than consumed. 

The coffee prices tell us again that Malthus & Club of Rome - and their followers - are still wrong. We are not running out of things we need & love. If the demand for something rises producers will find ways to produce more. Markets, profit thinking and the price mechanics will ensure this.

Contemporary Art: John Henderson`s Abstracts @ Gallery Perrotin New York

(Drivebycuriosity) - Do you like abstracts? The ambitious gallery Perrotin on Manhattan´s Orchard Street presents an exhibition with work by John Henderson. The show is called "Model" (through June 8, 2019 perrotin ).

I like Henderson´s delicate structure and compositions of colors. But let the images speak for themselves.

To be continued

Art Market: Is Contemporary Art Only For The 1 Percent?

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - If we believe the media than contemporary art is elitist & hyper expensive. Allison Schrager claims in the New York Times  "that the world of contemporary art has become dominated in recent years not by the 1 percent - the millionaires  - but by the super-wealthy billionaires of the 0.01 percent"  (nytimes ). David Byrne, founding member of the band "Talking Heads", declared a while ago that "the art world caters to the 1 percent. It’s obvious that the outrageous prices for contemporary art mean that—although anyone can look—only the very wealthy can afford it" (driveby). Really?

Apparently Mrs. Schrager was inspired by the recent art auctions in New York where Jeff Koons`s "rabbit" was sold for $91 million (driveby) . But these auctions are just the peak of the iceberg and don`t represent the market for contemporary art, which is much larger than Mrs.Schrader can imagine. I frequently go to galleries, auctions, art schools and other art shows. Everyone who has the eyes open can see art work priced below $10,000 and many pieces of art don´t cost more than a MacBook.

 

More and more art is offered online. Christie`s has now an online auction "Contemporary Art Asia" (through May 28  christies ). Many lots are offered for below $10,000, the beautiful Japanese abstract (first image above this paragraph) by Kokuta Suda has an estimated price range of  $2,062 - $4,124.  kokuta). Many artists offer their work also online, for instance Tsiuri Chachua, whom I discovered @ Gallery Artifact on Manhattan`s Lower East Side, offers his painting for $1,500  (madatart) & David Mellen`s amazing Triptych Painting “Ostend” (2018) is available for $18,000 (artsy ). 

 

And  - contrary to Mrs. Schrager`s claims - there is a lot fresh supply for art lovers & collectors. Recently I visited 3 art schools in Manhattan, which all exhibit works by their students, and I spotted there amazing pieces of art - fresh on the market. Above you can see "House on Stilts" by Henry Gabriel Anker, which I spotted @ Columbia University School of the Arts (driveby). The next image - created by Charity Baker - I saw at the 2019 MFA Thesis exhibition @ New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting & Sculpture (driveby). I discovered the 3rd painting - by Juan Garcia Ortiz - at the student exhibition @ Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.

Stay tuned.


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Contemporary Art: What`s New @ New York Studio School

(Drivebycuriosity) - New York is famous for finance & business but the metropolis is also a center of science & art. There are a lot of prestigious universities & other schools. The New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting & Sculpture belongs to them (nyss). According to their website the school "is committed to giving a significant education to the aspiring artist that can last a lifetime".

My wife and I had the luck to see their 2019 MFA Thesis exhibition on 8 West 8th Street, New York. The show, which runs through May 29, 2019, is open for the public and highly recommended.   I got the impression that many of them were influenced by German expressionism (1920-30) and the Californian Expressionism, the "Bay Area Figurative Movement", and painters like Richard Diebenkorn & Elmer Bischoff  (wikipedia).

I display  my favorites of the exhibition here, a very subjective selection as usual - this blog reflects my taste of course - and I apologize to those who didn´t find a place in this post. 

Above you can see some images by Charity Baker (you can find more here charitybakerart).

Above this paragraph follow images by Yolande Heijnen (more here picbob ).

Laura Magbee created these flower images (here is her website lauramagbee ).

Above the work of Misato Pang (misatopangart).

Above Georgia McGovern`s work (more here georgiamcgovern )

Images by Brendan Luchik.

Above 2 collages by Binah Bindell.

A quartet by Jenny Drewitt (jennydrewitt ).

Above a glass painting plus a wall filling mural by Carlo Cittadini (carlocittadini).

 Above 2 images by Michael Polubiec.
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Stay tuned