That Freaking Robots!

A video has emerged on Twitter showing a faceless yet worryingly realistic humanoid robot walking in what looks like a perfectly mundane courtyard. The trip down the uncanny valley caused some to proclaim an impending apocalypse.

The clip shows the stoop-backed robot making its way past the cameraman, with ominous music playing in the background. Its black and orange limbs, hi-tech-looking protrusions along its spine, and its hollowed out head all lend to the realism, bringing to mind Boston Dynamics’ latest scary creations. But then the camera zooms in on its face plate, and that’s where you might feel a slight urge to scream and run, because set in the near-featureless white mask are two moving, human-like eyes.

Naturally, some users’ reaction was “WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE.”

WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE. RT @GustavoVela71: Robot https://t.co/tfLYRUyA4k

— Derren Brown (@DerrenBrown) August 18, 2018

It all ultimately turned out to be a false alarm: the mechanical monstrosity is just masterfully-done embedded CGI, one of the robots digitally created for ADAM, a series of post-apocalyptic sci-fi short films by director Neill Blomkamp, whose more widely-known creations are Elysium, District 9and Chappie. ADAM was created with the Unity game engine and intended to showcase how to make high-quality image relatively on a budget. Blomkamp has already created a script for a longer ADAM movie, and was hoping the short films would help him secure funding.

Well, then. We aren’t ALL going to die, not immediately anyway… but eventually.

Source: Creepy realistic humanoid robot footage sends shivers through Twitter

Meet The Artist: Alex Kupalian

Alba. The escape

Silhouette of a woman in a lace mantilla, reclining on a patterned carpet, either asleep, or dead. As you know, the great Spaniard Francisco Goya painted the Duchess of Alba nude in anticipation of love. The young Russian artist Alexander Kupalyan depicts Alba on her deathbed with his face partially covered. Why?

Тhe artist, a young man in a white T-shirt smeared with paint, with a picture of Caravaggio on his chest:

 

Perhaps, it comes from childhood, which is remembered for an endless succession of funerals. Usually, the dead found their last shelter in our apartment, in the next room, literally behind the wall. At first I was terribly afraid of them, and then I got used to it. In the end, we all live in the presence of Love and Death. And it is still unknown who will knock on our door first. For me, Duchess Alba became the embodiment of Eros and Thanatos. And “Escape”… well, because the sunset was already burning down, the night was coming, and her soul would soon leave this earth, leaving only the perishable body on the carpet.

“Wave. Atlantis”, fragment. 2017

The entire wall is taken up by a huge canvas “Wave. Atlantis”. Some frantic boiling emerald color, echoing in its richness with the paintings of old masters. It turns out that Alexander passionately loves the sea. Ready to draw it endlessly. But he is not interested in just seascapes, he wants to penetrate into the very thickness of the water. He seemed to be looking into the abyss. It already remotely looks like a method. Kupalyan’s gaze is not directed towards heaven, not up, but precisely downward, into a black twilight, curling under his feet.

“Pompeii. Step into eternity ”, fragment. 2017

Gray ash, black scorched grass and coals crackling with the last, terrible sparkle. The killed land, killed nature, killed soul are constant motives, permanent images of Kupalyan’s works. And a dog covered with the ashes of Vesuvius and turned into a modest monument to human indifference and oblivion.

“When I wandered around the dead city, I was most struck by the fact that in Pompeii the dogs were kept on a very short leash, and when the eruption of Vesuvius began, the tied up animals could not escape from burning lava.”

“Black Christ”

Shape Of A New Life. Hiroshima. 2018

The series of works titles “The Death of Cities”, created especially for the exhibition at the VS Unio, presents the mystical world of dying civilizations through the language of painting, based on the artist’s impressions of traveling in Italy, the experience of training at the Academy of Fine Arts of Naples, encountering with the traces of cruel cataclysms and natural disasters.

“Shape Of A New Life. Hiroshima”. 2018

Thirst for serious meanings, an appeal to the eternal themes was relevant for thinking artists in different periods of the history of art. Serious easel painting requires solitude and silence. It always involves the voluntary rejection of many temptations and enticements. Few artists have such stamina these days. But Kupalyan’s art is encouraging evidence that masterpieces are still possible.

Lady Godiva’s Tax Cut

Lady Godiva is an 1897 painting by English artist John Collier

You might associate the name “Godiva” with a brand of Belgian chocolates, but it was first popularized as part of a 900-year-old English legend. The original Lady Godiva was an 11th century noblewoman married to Leofric, the powerful Earl of Mercia and Lord of Coventry.

As the story goes, Godiva was troubled by the crippling taxes Leofric had levied on the citizens of Coventry. After she repeatedly asked her husband to lessen the burden, Leofric quipped that he would lower taxes only if she rode naked on horseback through the center of town.

Lady Godiva is a painting by Edward Henry Corbould

Determined to help the people, Godiva stripped off her clothes, climbed on her horse and galloped through the market square with only her long flowing hair to cover herself.  Before leaving, she ordered the people of Coventry to remain inside their homes and not peek.

From then till noon no foot should pace the street, 
No eye look down, she passing; but that all 
Should keep within, door shut, and window barr’d.

Lady Godiva, by Marshall Claxton (1850)

However, one lad, named Tom, couldn’t resist opening his window to get an eyeful. Upon doing so, “Peeping Tom”, hapless fellow overcome by curiosity, was struck blind. After finishing her naked ride, Godiva confronted her husband and demanded that he hold up his end of the bargain. True to his word, Leofric reduced the people’s debts.

Lady Godiva’s Prayer Painting by Edwin Landseer

While most historians consider her nude horseback ride a myth, Lady Godiva—or “Godgifu” as some sources call her—was indeed a real person from the 11th century.  Contemporary accounts of her life note that “Godgifu” was one of only a few female landowners in England in the 1000s, although they make no mention of a nude horseback ride.

Lady Godiva by Ethel Mortlock (c.1865–1928)

The story as we know it have first cropped up some 100 years after Lady Godiva’s death in a book by the English monk Roger of Wendover, who was known for stretching the truth in his writings now and again. The legend of  Peeping Tom became a part of the tale much later, in 16th century.

The Godiva myth was later popularized in paintings, songs and in verse by the likes of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who wrote a famous poem (quoted above) called “Godiva” in 1840.

Macaroni Art — Pastasutra

 Kama Sutra poses “Chopped Bamboo”,   “Magic Mountain”,   “Lying Lotus”,   “Sleeping Angel” and others recreated entirely from macaroni by  Sergey Pakhomov.

Pasta-artist (yes, he calls himself that way) Sergey Pakhomov from Perm, Russia) in protest against Facebook, censoring even the classic art masterpieces featuring nudity, created his own version of the Kama Sutra, using quite unusual media — macaroni. Boiled macaroni, I assume, since dry pasta isn’t pliable enough, although I haven’t found any references to the actual recipe.

The pasta-artist admits that he wasn’t all that much into the canonical Kama Sutra when he worked on the collection, but was guided primarily by his own experience and imagination. Just as any true artist should, I’m sure.

“Dolphin”

“Hidden Dragon”

“At some point, my friends began to complain that their posts, even with masterpieces of art, such as Rubens and Michelangelo, were removed, any hint of a naked body deem to hint on porn,” said Sergey. “Well, since I was already widely known in narrow circles (here Sergey uses mock expression widely used by Russians) as a pasta sculptor, I wanted to pillage these modern followers of the holy inquisition. Initially, it was not even a project, the name including. Just a couple of pasta figurines making love. I was sure that my posting of them would be removed and, possibly, I’ll be banned for a month or so. But half an hour passed, an hour, people seem to have understood and supported my venture. And then I crated some more pasta-sculptures. Later, the Erotic Museum of Yekaterinburg expressed interest and organized an exhibition of caricatures, featuring my Pastasutra among other works.” (my own rough translation from Russian here.)

Venus de Milo made of macaroni. This figurine is outside the Pastasutra project.

The past-Venus above is a standalone “sculpture”, just as this one, a macaroni caricature of a military guy.

Edible general

Currently, pasta-sculptor is working on a collection of macaroni-made retro vehicles.

Sergei considers October 25, the World Pasta Day, initiated by the World Pasta Congress of 40 pasta producers in 1995, as his professional holiday.

Should the pasta-sculptor consider switching to spaghetti, perhaps he might take up Pastafarianism as a religion. Just saying…

 

From Russia With Cyberpunk

Cyberpunk, by Wiki definition, is a sub-genre of science fiction in a futuristic setting that tends to focus on a “combination of lowlife and high tech” featuring advanced technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cybernetics, juxtaposed with a degree of breakdown or radical change in the social order.

The artist from Rostov-on-Don, Evgeny Zubkov, published series of cyberpunk works titled Russia 2077, where he showed what Russia would become in 60 years. In this reality, automation reaches the Russian province, but this does not save it from doom and hopelessness.

The holographic plaque reads “Dear tenants! On October 15, 2077 water supply will be disconnected.”  

Lettering on the container: Robot Recycling

Russia 2077 is a project that represents a parallel reality, where the hypertrophied images of modern technologies contrast with ordinary landscapes and everyday reality of provincial Russia, the decorations of which seem to be stuck outside of time. There is a social context [in my work]. In provincial cities, life seems to be frozen. Cars and gadgets are changing, but the environment remains the same for decades. I wanted to elevate this idea to the level of absolute, to the point of absurdity.  — E. Zubkov.

The source of this post is an article in medialeaks.ru, titled, roughly translated from Russian,  The cyberpunk we deserve. Russian artist depicts Russia in 2077, but the future did not become any brighter.

And then they danced, and danced, and danced…

In the Year of Our Lord 1374, a deadly disease swept dozens of villages along the Rhine River — a dance plague. Hundreds of people on the streets jumped and curled their knees with no beat or music, except, probably, that in the dancers’ head. They danced, sometimes for many days in a row, until their broken feet refused to hold them. Many died of exhaustion, stroke or heart attack.

Another instance of the dancing plague (or dance epidemic or dancing mania) occurred in Strasbourg, Alsace, in the Holy Roman Empire in July 1518. Around 400 people took to dancing for days without rest and, over the period of about one month, some of those affected collapsed or died.Interestingly, the Strasbourg authorities first decided to let folks dance all they want, hoping for a spontaneous cure.  Two dance halls were opened in the city and a wooden stage was erected. Musicians were also invited to liven up the strange event.

Very soon it became clear that the measures undertaken did not lead to an improvement in the situation. In response, the authorities banned any and all entertainment in the city, save none, including gambling and prostitution.

Many theories were presented over time to explain the cause of the dancing plaque, most prevalent of which was severe food poisoning. The article in Wikipedia gives scientific names to every suspect poison.

John Waller, professor of the history of medicine at Michigan State University,  does not agree with the poison version, however, since in both cases the symptom of the ailment was dancing rather than convulsions. In his book A Time to Dance, a Time to Die: The Extraordinary Story of the Dancing Plague of 1518 Waller proposes his own theory: the dancing plague were of psychogenic (due to mental trauma) nature, and the main cause of this mass mental trauma were fear and depression.

The two outbreaks were preceded by famine, floods, loss of crop. The horror of the supernatural drew people into a state of trance. In such an atmosphere, it was enough for one madman of woman to start, and immediately infect hundreds of people around.

Drawing on fresh evidence, John Waller’s account of the bizarre events of 1518 explains why Strasbourg’s dancing plague took place. In doing so it leads us into a largely vanished world, evoking the sights, sounds, aromas, diseases and hardships, the fervent supernaturalism, and the desperate hedonism of the late medieval world.

At the same time, the extraordinary story this book tells offers rich insights into how people behave when driven beyond the limits of endurance. Above all, this is an exploration into the strangest capabilities of the human mind and the extremes to which fear and irrationality can lead us.

Filing stressed much? Fearful of floods, tsunami, hurricane, atomic war? Shall we dance?

Beautiful. Spooky.

Artist: Peter Schipperheyn, born Melbourne Australia 1955-  Title:  “Asleep”  carved 1987  Dimensions: 460 mm in height by 2020 mm in length by 800 mm in depth [life-size figure].  Medium: Carrara Statuario Marble.  Present location: Mt Macedon Cemetery, Mt Macedon, Victoria, Australia.

This beautiful sculpture is called “Asleep” and was created by Australian sculptor Peter Shipperheyn. The marble female figure is a life-size image of the artist’s wife. It was never intended as a graveyard monument, though.Laurence Matheson, Shipperheyn’s sponsor and patron, became so enthralled with the statue of Shipperheyn’s wife that he immediately purchased and brought it home.  Matheson died in 1987, aged 56. His widow turned her husband’s favorite sculpture into his gravestone, however unusual.

Sistine Chapel Recreated

Miguel Francisco Macias gazes up at his replica Sistine Chapel frescoes in Mexico City

• Miguel Francisco Macias self-funded the project and worked with two volunteers at Perpetuo Socorro Church
• He wanted to recreate the art after seeing it on a visit to the Vatican City and being blown away
• Mr Macias painted 14 large canvases with the artwork before hanging them from the roof of a Mexican church 

Mr Macias visited the Vatican City in 1999 and was blown away by the art on show in the Sistine Chapel and was dismayed at the thought that those back home may not ever get the chance to see it

It took him and his assistants 18 years to complete the project, 14 years longer than it took Michelangelo to create the original.

The actual Sistine Chapel in the Vatican City. It was painted by artist Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512

Mr Macias and his assistants work from posters and books to recreate Michelangelo’s masterpieces 

Rather than paint the murals upside down like Michelangelo, Mr Macias painted them on canvas first before fixing them to the roof of the church.

Assistant Elizabeth Ramirez works hard sketching out one of the Michelangelo murals on to a 45-foot wide canvas

Assistant Gustavo Moreno uses a magnifying glass to ensure that the detail is recreated on the large canvas

Retired designer spends 18 YEARS recreating Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel frescoes – and says his look BETTER