Artificial Intelligence (Pencil Vs Camera)

Should we be careful with artificial intelligence? Here are 2 Pencil Vs Camera artworks by Ben Heine expressing that smartphones are a big part of the world's current artificial intelligence. Although they are amazingly useful in our lives, they should be kept under control... Note: The smartphone depicted is an old one (Blackberry), because Ben started the sketch years ago and completed it only recently.

Animation about Ben Heine by Sergi Sanchez

An animation about artist Ben Heine 

created by Sergi Sanchez Navarro
(music by Ben Heine)

Electronic Music Work in Progress

Interview for Cult of Mac

Pencil Vs Camera blurs line between reality and whimsy

Ben Heine is a magician. Like David Blaine and Criss Angel before him, he has a special talent for blurring the line between reality and fiction. But instead of utilizing sleight of hand or his indomitable will to delight his audience, Heine keeps it simple by using just a pencil and camera to create his illusions.

Heine’s incredible art series Pencil Vs Camera combines gorgeous landscapes and city scenes with hand-sketched drawings. The otherworldly images that result are both whimsical and intriguing, with a bit of mind-bending magic thrown in for perspective.

“I always try to express what I’m feeling,” Heine told Cult of Mac, noting that most of his inspiration for drawings come “mainly from people around me — friends, family, even strangers — and from every experience I live.”

The 30-year-old artist creates most of his works at his studio in Belgium, using charcoal sticks and graphite pencils to lay the foundational work before going out to snap a picture — though most of the time he has to do some edits to line up shots in post-production.

Burning koalas, horny bunny rabbits and even bland subway stations have fueled the imagination of this Ivory Coast-born artist.

“I’m always trying to find a nice location,” Heine said. “Then if there is a great subject — for instance a funny animal or human doing something unusual — this is nice, but it is not always needed because the drawing will bring a special, original and creative touch most of the time.”

Pencil Vs Camera isn’t Heine’s only popular series: His Digital Circlism project caught our eye two years ago, thanks to this creepy portrait of Steve Jobs. But Heine says the Pencil vs Camera series stretched him as an artist by getting him to learn new ways to enhance his art.

The 3-D drawings, in particular, weren’t the easiest to master. “I had to change the way I’m working,” Heine said. “I had to learn new tools to create the 3-D effects.”

He created more than 70 images during a three-year period for the series, with the final and most challenging pieces swapping photos for huge swaths of canvas drawings to create optical illusions that seem to place the artist inside his anamorphic drawings.

For now, Heine says he’s done with the pencil sketches, but he’s already hard at work on a new project that’s different from anything he’s done before — music. 

“I let my inspiration talk and I don’t ask myself too many questions,” Heine said. “Simple ideas and messages are always the best ones.”

Read more at http://www.cultofmac.com. The above article was written by Buster Hein for Cult of Mac.

Steve Jobs
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(See it on deviantART)

For a visionary man who changed the world. Read a complete obituary on The Guardian: "Computing entrepreneur and inventor, and the co-founder, chairman and recognisable face of Apple". This portrait is only made with "flat circles" on a black background. Every circle has a single color, a single tone and a single size. I placed each circle one by one. It's a time consuming method. See the entire Digital Circlism album.

Two details:
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Work in progress:

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© 2012 - Ben Heine

Oh Shit, Another Email/Spam!

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© 2009 - Ben Heine
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One of my illustrations on paper (ink and watercolor)

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Email Spam Harmful
to Environment

By lifewise.canoe.ca

Spam emails are a nuisance, clogging up inboxes and cluttering accounts, but a new report says the unwanted messages can also be damaging to the environment.

The report by security technology company McAfee Inc. says researchers found the amount of energy used to transmit, process and filter spam emails totals 22 billion kilowatt hours annually.

“We are raising environmental awareness in different ways,” said David Marcus, the security research and communication director for McAfee Avert Labs.

He said the report shows the yearly environmental impact from spam emails adds up to a person driving around the world 1.6 million times. The emission associated with a single spam message is only a meagre 0.3 grams of carbon dioxide, but multiplied, Marcus said the impact is severe.

>>> Read the full report

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Kiwi!

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Simply brilliant, a must see!
www.donysanimation.com
(Music by Tim Cassell)

ICT Overdose

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© 2008 - Ben Heine

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I'm a Martyr
of the Keyboard
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By Peter S Quinn (*)

I type all day long
Into the request deep
Sometimes it’ll ping-pong
Right into my sleep
I'm a martyr of the keyboard
Going down deep under
To the alphabet lord
God of the ticktick thunder!

I'll type for a request
Just to please and be ready
I'll try to do my best
If my fingers go on steady
This and that comes out
I have no complete control
Automation knows its ways about
Around the ‘key-mole’
And keyhole

I type all day to spark
And give it a steady beat
But sometimes it’ll all lack
Except its little tweet
This maybe a dark poetry read
With not much in deeper meaning
But to somewhere it will lead
In a steady and closer
Screening

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(*) Peter has been very prolific, - with more than 15 thousand music works /instrumental songs, and over 10 thousand poems and lyrics. You can find nearly 7 thousand music works and more than 5 thousand poems and lyrics by him on the internet. Don't miss his frequently updated blog

--> The poem was created by Peter S Quinn for this particular image. Thank you Peter.
--> ICT = Information and Communications Technologies
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Interview With Shahram Vahdany

(Ben Heine © Cartoons)

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“The Internet is a powerful tool, which unlike any previous form of media has the unique potential to reach a vast number of individuals simultaneously around the globe”

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Shahram Vahdany is an Iranian expatriate poet currently living in Canada. He is the founder of the alternative news site MWC News, Media With Conscience.

BH: How was MWC News founded? How did the first members of the network meet? Which role did you play in its creation?

SV: The seed for MWC News was planted in a ModernWriters.org literary website, which I co-founded for creative writers. During a discussion there, we decided to have a news site which would reflect current events and political opinions that were missing in ModernWriters. The very first members of MWC came from that website. My role was to coordinate the efforts of the new website which later on was registered as. Which is what I'm still doing.

BH: How and why did you choose this very inspiring title: MWC News?

SV: We already had a slogan for ModernWriters which was Creative Consciousness at it's best. We changed the acronym -mwc- to meaning Media with Conscience. Needless to say, news media with conscience is almost non-existent, but our goal was to strive for impossibility and we continue to do so in every aspect of our site.

BH: Which audience does MWC News target?

SV: Our primary target is mostly intellectuals. We believe that if there is a hope for a revival of progressive society, by and large it will rely largely on the ability of it's intellectuals to establish a democratic forum. The Internet currently is a powerful tool, which unlike any previous form of media has the unique potential to reach a vast number of individuals simultaneously around the globe.

BH: MWC News is growing everyday and gathers many well known editors and authors ("Post-Post-Modern Writers", as you call them). How do you recruit them?

SV: We are constantly searching for new voices. Most of our current writers and editors joined MWC either by referral from other writers or by invitation from us. Some we begged to join.

BH: Is MWC News totally independent?

SV: Yes, in the sense that it is not influenced or directed by any political group or organization, governmental or private. However, MWC is not neutral. We see our mandate as encouraging and promoting humanitarian efforts and campaigns against oppression and the abuse of human rights. This puts us at odds with the powers that be. That is the reason we have selected the group of writers and editors most of which are not necessarily career journalists, as many of these have become co-opted by the corporate interests of the mainstream media.

BH: There is a section where readers can create their own Blog on MWC News. Blogging about international politics is a good way of taking part in world affairs. What other advantages do you find in running a Blog?

SV: A blog is a venue for an individual to express their views freely, without concern for external pressures and boundaries. We created blogs on MWC to give members an opportunity to write without the formalities of editorial restraints.

BH: Now a few questions on the digital divide: Although some analysts say they are mainly places for entertainment, do you think that the cybercafés (and the other public centres where a low cost Internet connection is available) are a good weapon against the digital divide in poorer countries?

SV: Yes it is, although there should be far more access, and inevitably there will be. I don't believe that entertainment is the primary purpose or use of the cybercafes.

BH: Don't you think that the Western political rhetoric about the digital divide is a kind of political slogan whose purpose is to force the countries of the Global South to conform their economic system to the Western one, for example, by inciting them to buy the same Western software and hardware?

SV: Not necessarily. With open source share-ware and software, people could easily access most of the Internet programs without the need to purchase these. However, computer technology, like any other medium is subject to the pressure of corporate profit. For example, Microsoft's,Yahoo's, and Google's relationships with China include censorship provisions built into their search engines.

BH: We have recently heard about very cheap « generic » laptops being sold in Africa and in India. Do you think that the individual access to these computers and their potential Internet connection might be better to bridge the gap than collective access in public centres? Wouldn't it be easier for peace activists in poorer countries to work individually with these cheap laptops rather than in public centres where they often sit next to people who have 'no specific militant mood?'

SV: Let's focus on the potential of this medium. The Internet gave birth to alternative media which has been unprecedented in the history of humankind. It is equivalent of the creation of the printing press with much broader and more complex reach. If ever there was a level playing field it is now. Furthermore, readers/audience are no longer passive players but now are enfranchised as equal contributors if they wish to be and can participate interactively. Hence, any form of access allows for full participation.

BH: My last question: How would you define the ideal digital society in a few words?

SV: Ultimately it would ideal if everyone had equal access; this has to be humankind's goal.

(Ben Heine © Cartoons)

--> Interview and portrait by Ben Heine (July 2007)
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Hoverstop
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(Ben Heine © Cartoons)
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This company (Hoverstop) has created an ergonomic mouse that helps to avoid RSI (Repetitive Stress Injuries) when working with a computer. If you are not using the Hoverstop mouse for more than 10 seconds, it will vibrate softly to remind you to take your hand away and relax! We intend to create a Website and a game to show to children the importance of this specific ergonomic mouse...

--> See a previous post about Hoverstop
--> Visit Hoverstop's Website
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New ideas for Hoverstop.(Ben Heine © Cartoons)

A project made in the frame of my studies in Journalism (technology and information specialization during my Erasmus in Utrecht, Holland...)

This company (Hoverstop) has created an ergonomic mouse that helps to avoid RSI (Repetitive Stress Injuries) when working with a computer. If you are not using the Hoverstop mouse for more than 10 seconds, it will vibrate softly to remind you to take your hand away and relax! We intend to create a Website and a game to show to children the importance of this specific ergonomic mouse...

(Ben Heine © Cartoons)

--> See a previous post about Hoverstop--> Visit Hoverstop's Website