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Art General

DRAWING ON GLASS

Technology and art have had a relationship since the former gave birth to digital art in the 1980s. The sophisticated technology and software available to artists today offers a myriad of ways to experiment and create. Guest writer and multimedia artist, Daniel Clarke describes the tactile, layered experience of making art on his iPad Pro.

Illustration
Bird of Paradise

Remember those magnetic toys like an etch-a-sketch but with a magnet for a pen? Or how about the early touchscreen stylus that was basically a frame holding a hotdog so it mimicked the electrostatic contact of a human finger? Digital drawing tools have come a long way since then.

The Wacom Cintiq and the Microsoft Surface Pro are top of the line computers specifically built around interfacing directly with the screen. I’ve recently invested in a 12” iPad Pro with the Apple Pencil 2. I’m pretty happy with the results.

I resisted digital drawing for a long time. I carried a sketchbook and a variety of pens, pencils, crayons and things. I didn’t want to get sucked into an all-screen, all-digital lifestyle. I believed that there would be no going back. That remains to be seen.

CONTROL VS CHAOS
For a long time digital art ‘suffered’ from a kind of bold-faced perfection of clean lines and very deliberate effects. That is no longer the case. If you hadn’t tried one of the more modern tools you might assume that a digital stylus on a perfectly flat screen would give you, by necessity, a crisp clean line exactly where you put it. Nothing could be further from the truth.

For a start my new Apple Pencil can detect pressure. That on its own is a game changer. But wait, there’s more! Between the stylus and the screen it can tell what angle you’re holding it at; so you can get that look and feel of rubbing the side of, say, a soft pencil.

iPad Pro and Apple Pencil 2 by Daniel Clarke

This is not just a matter of hardware either. I tend to use ProCreate which is an amazing drawing app for iOS, but there are lots of options. There are simulations of everything from an angled calligraphic pen that bleeds into the virtual paper to (my personal favourite) the splatter brush that sprays the canvas with blotches of varying sizes and slight variations in colour and transparency.

SENSE AND SENSUALITY
I mentioned look and feel above for a reason. One of the main objections to this kind of digital art that I’ve heard is that it’s like drawing on glass, that you don’t get the physicality and the feedback of organic materials. Now, I like getting elbow deep in paint as much as the next person on a Sunday afternoon but it’s not going to happen on the morning commute. Plus, I don’t think it’s as clear cut as that.

I believe that a big part of that feeling is a feedback loop. You make a mark and you see what happens. You put ink on top of ink and get a feel for how it moves. Every new medium takes some getting used to. Having played with digital brushes and their (programmed) eccentricities enough it seems to me that I can get a feel for them.

Maybe it’s an illusion, but how is that a problem when we’re talking about art?

Some of the latest simulations of watercolours and oil paints are simply amazing. Adobe Fresco is free and well worth your time just to see how they’ve made it tactile and a frankly, wet experience.

Palm Leaves

LAYERS UPON LAYERS
So that is how digital drawing can, for the convenience and portability, match to a pretty high degree a whole range of mediums and artistic tools. Then you have layers, which change the game all over again.

I like to sketch in (simulated) pencil. It’s easy to put that sketch onto a semi-transparent overlay while I do the colouring in. Then another layer for the proper outlines and I can turn off the sketch forever.

On top of all that I can add blended layers. We’re getting into technical weeds a bit here but it means I can paint in shadows and light, brightening or darkening the picture in a way that isn’t easy to do with oils and is all but impossible with watercolours.

Perhaps that seems like cheating to you. You might be right but in my opinion the masters of the renaissance were giant nerds who would use any technical innovation to their greatest advantage.

I still like to get elbow deep in paint but I also love my new iPad Pro.

Daniel will be exhibiting both physical works and digital prints at the Hong Kong Affordable Art Fair from 26 to 29 August.

Categories
Art General

17TH CENTURY ART RESTORED BY 21ST CENTURY TECH

Artificial intelligence has helped to recreate the lost pieces of Rembrandt’s famous painting, The Night Watch, and it can now be seen in its entirety for the first time in 300 years.

AI recreated panels being displayed next to the original painting
Image: Rijksmuseum/Reiner Gerritsen

Painted in 1642, the Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq – better known as The Night Watch – is considered Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn’s most ambitious work.

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The painting depicts a group of Amsterdam’s civic guard and Captain Frans Banninck Cocq, who also commissioned the painting. But it was unlike the usual Baroque military portraits, which were static and featured glum looking fellas sitting at a banquet or lined up in neat rows staring out at the viewer.

Instead, it was lively, brimming with the energy and noise of militiamen readying to march into action. It told a story – the painter’s equivalent of a snapshot – and was, in fact, the first portrait to see figures in a group actually doing something. The piece was also impressive for its size – approximately 13 ft tall by 15 ft wide – and dramatic contrast of light and shade.

When the painting was moved to what was then Amsterdam’s City Hall in 1715, it was trimmed to fit between two doors. Strips were cut from all four sides, mostly from the left side which lost 60 cm (2 ft). Another 7 cm was snipped from the right, 22 cm from the top and 12 cm from the bottom. These pieces have never been found.

Thanks to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam – where the original painting is displayed – the lost parts of the painting have been recreated using artificial intelligence. This is part of a large-scale research project that the museum set up called Operation Night Watch, which began in 2019 and is dedicated to the long-term preservation of the artwork.

“The fate of the missing pieces of The Night Watch remains a great mystery,” says Pieter Roelofs, Head of Paintings and Sculptures, Rijksmuseum. “Each generation has used the tools available to it to attempt to reconstruct the painting. Now we are doing the same, using the most advanced techniques currently available.”

The trimmed Night Watch on display at the Rijksmuseum Image: Rijksmuseum

To do this, the Rijksmuseum used high-resolution photography, machine learning, and a copy of the painting by Gerrit Lundens. On loan from the National Gallery of London, Lundens’ replica was painted before Rembrandt’s original was cut and therefore shows the work in full.

However, Lundens’ copy is one-fifth of the size of the original. As well as painting in a different style to Rembrandt, he also used different paint mixes. There are also distortions in perspective likely caused by him sitting on the left of the painting as he worked, and his version has aged differently to the original.

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The Operation Night Watch team used an incredibly detailed, high-resolution image of the Rembrandt, and convolutional neural networks (CNN) – an AI algorithm that trains computers to recognise patterns and visual features in images using a multi-layer system.

“We made three types of algorithms,” says Taco Dibbits, Director of the Rijksmuseum. “One to identify perspective distortions and correct them; the second to recognise the colour scheme of the original and project it onto the missing pieces; and the third is the brushstrokes, the technique that Rembrandt used.” The result is a computer reproduction that looks as much like The Night Watch as possible.

The new panels, which are printed on canvas and now frame the original painting, reveal three additional figures on the left-hand side and a complete helmet (worn by the militiaman) on the far right. The composition has also shifted, so that the main figures are now more right of centre, rather than in the middle of the canvas.

The restoration revealed new characters and perspectives Image: Rijksmuseum

“This project testifies to the key importance of science and modern techniques in the research being conducted into The Night Watch. It is thanks to artificial intelligence that we can so closely simulate the original painting and the impression it would have made,” says Robert Erdmann, Senior Scientist at Rijksmuseum.

This isn’t the first time that CNN has been applied to Rembrandt’s work. Back in 2016 the Dutch bank, ING Group utilised it – along with Microsoft and a team of 20 data scientists, developers, AI and 3D printing experts – to create a 3D printed Rembrandt painting, a kind of new old master, in a project called The Next Rembrandt.

The Night Watch and its once missing pieces now recreated by AI are on show at the Rijksmuseum for three months. You can watch a short video of how it was reconstructed here.

Categories
General Innovation

UPWARDLY MOBILE

Advanced technologies and disruptors in aviation are reshaping the travel landscape. Here are a few of the flying taxis preparing to lift us into the future of urban air mobility.

The VoloCity air taxi flying over Marina Bay, Singapore Image © Volocopter

It’s been 24 years since the film The Fifth Element was released and yet its eye-popping scenery of flying taxis whizzing through skyways high above the city remain memorable. Who hasn’t fantasised about climbing into one of those cars?

That fantasy is close to becoming reality thanks to the established and emerging companies leading the way in urban air mobility (UAM) with electrical vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOLs).

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UAM is a new air transport system for passengers and cargo in and around densely populated environments. It is made possible by eVTOLs, which use electric power to hover, take off and land vertically – much like the Spinner cars in the Blade Runner movies.

The rapid ascension of eVTOLs has been fuelled by major advances in electric propulsion and the quest to alleviate road congestion, the strain on existing, gas-guzzling, ground transport systems as urban populations continue to rise, and reduce carbon emissions and noise.

Volocopter was one of the first companies to complete a manned eVTOL in 2011. Today, its portfolio comprises the fourth-generation urban air taxi, VoloCity; the VoloDrone for delivering cargo, and the four-seater VoloConnect which was unveiled in May this year.

The small VoloCity is designed to carry two people including the pilot plus hand luggage on short, point-to-point hops. Longer term, the aim is for the craft to operate autonomously without a pilot.

VoloCity can travel 35 km (around 22 miles), has an airspeed of 110 km/h (roughly 68 mph) and is equipped with multiple backup systems for safety, 18 motors powered by nine rechargeable batteries, and a new rear stabiliser to increase stability and lift. It’s also said to be quiet.

With Volocopter’s software system, VoloIQ, passengers will be able to book flights via an app and track weather conditions and more in real time.

The inner-city air taxi has already undergone flight tests in Germany, Dubai and Helsinki. As part of test flights in Singapore in October 2019, the company flew a manned 2X – a prototype precursor to VoloCity – over Marina Bay.

The 2X at the Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition Image © Volocopter

One aspect of the UAM system is vertiports – the infrastructures where eVTOLs land, takeoff, swap and recharge batteries, and where passengers board and disembark. At Marina Bay, Volocopter simultaneously showcased its own vertiport, VoloPort, complete with passenger lounge.

The company has been working with authorities in Singapore to get its air taxi services off the ground within the next three years. It is also aiming to bring VoloCity to Paris and the USA. It presented the 2X at the Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition in April this year.

Lilium is another company vying for airspace – this time flying passengers regionally, as opposed to points within a city. And it’s upping the ante with its seven-seat Lilium Jet.

Image © Lilium Jet

This sleek, streamlined, futuristic-looking aircraft boasts a spacious cabin with window seats, a central aisle to stretch your legs, and a hold for luggage. The pilot sits in a cockpit. Lilium also has an app for booking seats on flights.

The jet has a cruise speed of 175 mph at 10,000 ft with a range of 155 miles, and is powered by Lilium’s proprietary Ducted Electric Vectored Thrust technology, comprised of 36 electric ducted turbofan engines that are integrated into the wing flaps, which increases aerodynamic efficiency while lowering noise emissions and ground footprint.

Image © Lilium Jet

Lilium has partnered with Lufthansa Aviation Training to select and train pilots. Plans for regional air mobility networks and vertiport locations are already under way in Germany and across central and south Florida in the US. The company aims to launch commercial services by 2025.

Before air taxis take to the skies, safety standards set by the likes of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency and the Federal Aviation Administration will need to be met in order to acquire relevant certifications.

In addition, infrastructure – networks with flight corridors and vertiport hubs – needs to be established, flight permits obtained, pilots trained, eVTOL air traffic management integrated with other systems, and guidelines agreed.

The Japanese government is looking to put flying cars in the air by 2023. Last year the transport minister, Kazuyoshi Akaba announced a set of guidelines for testing flying cars as early as March 2022.

This is good news for SkyDrive Inc., the Japanese startup founded in 2018 by automotive engineer Fukuzawa Tomohiro, who previously worked at the Toyota Motor Corporation. Last summer the company debuted the compact SkyDrive SD-03 – which looks like it’s flown straight out of Star Wars. According to the company, it is designed to be the world’s smallest eVTOL, requiring only as much space as two parked cars on the ground.

SkyDrive Inc. is already working on a new concept, the two-seater SD-XX, which will be able to fly 5-10 km at 50-60 km/h with a pilot and a passenger on board. The company aims to start mass production as early as 2026 and selling them by 2028.

By then, when airspace is buzzing with fully booked flying taxis, we could likely hop into our own cars and, like Luke Skywalker or Princess Leia, fly to destinations near and far. The skies really will be the only limit.

SkyDrive Project SD-03 world debut
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General Technology

THE GLOBAL COST OF E-WASTE

Our ever-increasing demand for new electronics and lack of organised recycling is producing unsustainable amounts of earth-polluting junk. Read some eye-opening statistics and see where you can recycle old devices in Hong Kong.

E-Waste Image: WOT

Mobile phones and computers dominate our everyday lives. We rely on them to communicate with others, watch and listen to what’s going on in the world, and capture and document practically every waking moment. When we’re not glued to these, we’re tracking our health and fitness on wearables or watching content on huge Ultra HD TVs. But this instant convenience carries a price and one that we’re all paying.

The lifespans of these devices are limited – either by action or design – and they either stop working and we need to buy new ones or a better version comes along that upgrade junkies just have to have. So the old ones are likely relegated to drawers and cupboards, where they’ll be forgotten until we need to free up space. At that point, we want to get rid of them – but how do we do that?

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Dumping electronics, or e-waste, – discarded products with a battery or plug – in regular rubbish bins headed to landfills is lethal because they leach toxic substances such as mercury, cadmium and lead. These, in turn, pollute our air, water and the environment.

But that doesn’t stop the dumping. Last year, a United Nations-led Global E-Waste Monitor 2020 report revealed that the world’s population discarded a staggering 53.6 million tonnes of e-waste in 2019, up 21% in just five years. Only 17.4% was recycled.

“Even countries with a formal e-waste management system in place are confronted with relatively low collection and recycling rates,” the report said. Infrastructure to manage e-waste in middle and low-income countries was “not yet fully developed, or, in some cases, entirely absent”.

E-Waste in 2019 Image: WOT

The biggest contributor of e-waste was China with 10.1 million tonnes, followed by the United States with 6.9 million tonnes and India with 3.2 million tonnes. These three countries alone accounted for almost 38% of global e-waste. 

E-waste or WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) has grown by 9.2 million tonnes since 2014 and is projected to grow to 74.7 million tonnes by 2030 – almost doubling in just 16 years. This is mainly fuelled by higher consumption rates of electronic and electrical equipment, short life cycles and few repair options.

Global warming is another issue cited in the report, as it noted that inadequate recycling of undocumented refrigerators and air conditioners release 98 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents into the atmosphere.

E-Waste image Image: WOT

While the damage to the environment from un-recycled waste may be immeasurable, what is clear from the Global E-Waste report is that the way we produce, consume, and dispose of e-waste is unsustainable.

What could greatly help are more defined regulations, such as those announced in the European Commission’s Circular Economy Action Plan published in March 2020, which includes initiatives that would require manufacturers to produce products that are made to last longer and are easier to repair and reuse instead of just being thrown away.

So, what about that drawer full of old mobile phones? Or the defunct computer screens sitting in your office? The best way to get rid of these is to hand them over to recyclers who can disassemble and sort them into component parts.

In Hong Kong – which generates about 70,000 tonnes of e-waste annually – there is WEEE Park, a treatment and recycling facility in EcoPark, Tuen Mun that opened in 2018. It uses state-of-the-art technologies provided by German recycling specialists, ALBA Group to turn regulated WEEE into valuable secondary raw materials through a series of detoxification, dismantling and recycling processes. It does collections and is looking to expand its five collection centres across the territory.

Other recyclers in Hong Kong include the Computer and Communication Products Recycling Programme and Caritas Computer Workshop. Telecommunications and internet provider 3 Hong Kong has a recycling programme that lets you drop off unwanted mobiles and accessories at specific shops.

You can also upcycle old electronics to NGOs such as Crossroads Foundation using their GoodCity.HK app, Hong Kong Salvation Army and Vision First. Friends of the Earth collects empty toner and ink cartridges. Head here to learn more.

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