Books: Machines Like Me By Ian McEwan

 

 (Drivebycuriosity) - Artificial Intelligence is the topic of the century.  Ian McEwan wrote a fascinating novel about this subject: "Machines like Me"   ( amazon ).  The novel is set in England in the 1980s but some things happened different than we remember - it`s an alternate history  (this is a spoiler free blog ).  The story is told in first person - by Charlie who lives mostly from the money he inherited from his mother and  spends his time mostly with day trading on his computer. Charlie also has an interest in the girl who lives in the flat above him. A company had brought 2 sets of highly intelligent androids on the market - males ore females called Adams & Eves. Both could easily be confused with humans  (Turing Test ). Charlie  spends a big part of his inheritance to buy one of the expensive Adams who then lives with him.

McEwan has many ideas about what an AI might do, how it would behave and might communicate with humans, spiced with a lot  philosophical musings. Can one really own another intelligent being? Do AIs have feelings? Do they enjoy sex? How does a purely logic & rational  individual deal with complex human relationships?

The basic plot  - well researched & spiced with science - is mingled with some parallel running plots - more human & psychological - which are equally important. The mix kept me on the edge and I cared about Charlie & Adam. "Machines like Me" is one of the best books I read in this decade and more interesting than McEwan`s famous novel " Atonement". Highly recommended!

Culture: A Walk Through British Art History - Masters Of The 20th Century @ Tate Britain London

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - My wife and I stayed in Vauxhall, the first part of our long London visit. The place is relatively close to the Tate Britain where admission is free. That inspired us to visit the museum more times. Besides their Van Gogh show we explored  their regular collection which is displayed in chronological order, each room contains a certain historical period, beginning in the mid-sixteens century. I blogged already about their collection through the end of the 19th century  (driveby  ). Here I present my favorites from the 20th century, a small and very subjective selection as usual.

 

Above you can see some paintings from the dawn of the 20th century:  John Singer Sargent`s "The Black Brook"  from c.1908, Walter Richard Sickert`s "Miss Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies as Isabella of France" from 1932,  Mark Gertler`s "Merry-Go-Round" from 1916 &  Duncan Grant`s "Bathing" from 1911.

 

Above Winifred Knights`s "The Deluge" from 1920.

 

Above William Roberts` "The Cinema" from 1920.

 

Above Gillian Ayres`s  " Distillation" from 1957 & Ralph Rumney`s "The Change" from 1957.

 

Above Sir Stanley Spencer`s "The Resurrection, Cookham" from 1924–7.

 

Above Derek Boshier`s "The Identi-Kit Man"from 1962, Monster Chetwynd`s "Crazy Bat Lady from 2018" & Dawn Mellor`s "Sergeant June Ackland (Trudie Goodwin), Police Constable Kate McFay (Maxine Peake), Police Constable Jamila Blake (Lolita Chakrabarti)" from 2016 .

 

Above Francis Upritchard`s "Land" from 2010.

 

Above David Hockney`s "Man in Shower in Beverly Hills" from 1964.

 

Stay tuned

Contemporary Art: A Visit @ Sotheby`s London

(Drivebycuriosity) - My wife and I are staying in  London and are visiting the fascinating museums and art galleries there. We went to Sotheby`s one of the global auction empires, where we saw the galleries for their auctions of Post War & Contemporary Art   ( ).

I got the impression that this place is more elegant and stylish than their Manhattan house where we usually go. The admission was free and taking photos permitted as in New York. I spotted there many of my favorites, but also discovered some new & fascinating artists. I display just some my favorites from the shows here, a small and very subjective selection as usual.

On top of this post you can see Jenny Saville`s "Shadow Head" .

 

London may be a better market for Chinese art than New York because US President Trump`s ridiculous tariffs and the xenophobia and China hate of the US administration. Above you can see 3 Chinese works including Zhang Xiogang`s "Big Family" and a painting by Zeng Fanzhi.

 

Above you can see Caroline Walker`s "Upstairs Downstairs".

 

Above Zsolt Bodoni`s "The Room". 

 

Above Gregory Crewdson`s "Untitled Bedroom Tree"

 

Above Alessandro Busci`s "Aero Blue Bianco". 

 

Above Jonas Burgert`s "Scheinstill" &  Glenn Brown`s "Declining  Nude"

 

Above Anselm  Kiefer`s "Des Herbstes Runen Gespenst"


Stay tuned

Contemporary Art: A Visit @ Christie`s London

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - My wife and I are staying in  London and are visiting the fascinating museums and art galleries there. We went to Christie`s, one of the global auction empires, where we saw the galleries for their auctions of Post War & Contemporary Art   (christies  )    .

 

 

I got the impression that this place is more elegant and stylish than their Manhattan house where we usually go. The admission was free and taking photos permitted as in New York. I spotted there many of my favorites, but also discovered some new & fascinating artists. I display just my favorites from the shows here, a very subjective selection as usual.

 

Above you can see a discovery and my favorite from the selection. The image, called "Suchtplus", by Jonas Burgert  displays a crowd of cacophonous figures swarm, pose and collapse - a visually complex and multi-layered piece. It sold for £419,250 and achieved a new World Auction Record for the artist.

 

Above  "Man Versus Look, Versus Life, Versus Time, Versus Man About" , an arresting early work by Derek Boshier. The painting set a new World Auction Record for the artist fetching £237,500

 

Above Gerald Laing`s  (1936-2011) "Skydiver III". 

 

Above Elizabeth Peyton`s (b. 1965) "Count von Fersen". Isn`t he funny?  

 

Above Cecily Brown`s  (b. 1969) "Blonde Eating Birds". 

 

Above Mark Tansey`s  (b. 1949) "Study for Forward Retreat". 

 

Above Banksy`s (b. 1974) "Mona Lisa". 

 

Above Julian Opie`s (b. 1958) "Paisley Dress and Red Gown"  & "Caterina Nude 1" 

 

Above Michaël Borremans` (b. 1963) "The Driver".    

 

Above George Condo`s (b. 1957) "Diagonal Portrait".  

 

Above Gerhard Richter`s  (b. 1932) fascinating tapestry "Musa".

 

Above more amazing abstracts: Sean Scully`s (b. 1945) " Landline Red Horizon" ,  Sam Gilliam` (b. 1933) "Petite" &  Tamuna Sirbiladze`s  (1971-2016) "Being Left There". 

 

To be continued