201

f2.8 | 1/160 | ISO800

Landscape by Stebbi Mot Tan

This is the greatest landscape painting I have ever seen with my own eyes. Not only is the color absolutely perfect, the brush work is as perfect as it gets, and the chosen location is a mix of reality and what the painter was seeing in his mind. The depth it is able to convey is astounding. You can walk into this painting. It is close to 3 meters long by 1.5 meters tall making it cinematic and it rivals any landscape I have seen on film. Truly blessed to have been able to stand in front of this for a few hours one night at a party last spring.

200

f2.8 | 1/60 | ISO1600

Walking home from a party a few Friday’s back and this garden caught my eye. Now, I walk this path often and the garden is a community art gallery, programmed by a local collective of sculpture artists and rotating through various shows throughout the year. That in itself makes me feel all warm inside, but the fact that the art makes me stop and document it more often than not is truly special. This is what the world needs: people contributing their art to a space that allows for everyone to enjoy it. This is what makes the world go round.

199

f2.8 | 1/1009 | ISO50

Sculpture by Edda Karólína

A friend of mine made this sculpture for a show and I missed it, so I asked her if I could take photographs of it because I loved it so much. We did some typical documentation of it and the. Left the space and found a spot that fit its vibe. The sculpture is by Edda Karólína who I have the pleasure of working with frequently. Her art is absolutely brilliant.

198

f2.8 | 1/60 | ISO100

Spaceship Earth

Review of Neuromancer by William Gibson

I finished the book in 4 days, reading it page by page, glued to it when I wasn’t taking care of the rest of my life. I did something that I have done a few times prior, which entailed listening to the audiobook when not reading the book after getting about 100 pages in. So, I was reading ahead while listening to the same pages I had just read in the time when I was unable to have the book in hand. Essentially, the effect of hearing it from a narrator’s perspective allows for more intake of the concepts as well as a nice backtracking on the plot and pick up of the details that were missed while was absorbed in reading.

This book’s major accomplishment is its understanding of a future that felt prescient in a way I haven’t experienced. I still can’t comprehend how Gibson was able to imagine what AI’s impact would become while at the same time create a world in which nothing felt out of the realm of possible. Truly a work of a mind that can postulate on ideas that had not yet been poured over so much in the 40 years between my reading and its creation. AI is not a new concept, but in 1983 during the book’s creation, AI was essentially philosophical in a way that required filling in the blanks around its implications that are more fleshed out today.

The duelling concept of two types of AI and what AI could come to represent will frame my understanding further as we enter the AI-age. I need to dig more into it, but so many things Gibson proposes are totally inspiring.

The plot itself pulls you along with it at a great speed that many novels fail to achieve. There’s never a point where you feel you’ve skipped details that are necessary to understand where you are. I loved this aspect of it. I could see the scenes without much effort and his ability to jump into cyberspace and out without giving the reader a hint of where you are before the scene begins felt fresh and special as I was reading it.

Highly recommend everyone to read it. And read it again if you already have, it resonates today as if he were predicting the future instead of entertaining with a a story. 

197

f2.8 | 1/60 | ISO100

Empathy is the solution. Full stop. The way forward is to show care and understanding of our neighbours that make up this society that we occupy together. Success is not a zero-sum game. There is a way for you to achieve what you are hoping to achieve where I am also able to achieve what I have set out to achieve. Stop acting like your failure is the result of other’s success and stop building societal systems on such concepts. We do not have to live as adversaries.