Newsletter No. 539

07 # 5 3 9 | 0 4 . 0 6 . 2 0 1 9 p Seal carving Ink Play ___________________ 「閑庭信步—李剛田書法篆刻作品展」於善衡書院陳震夏館地下展覽廊舉行，展期至10月11日，免費入場。 查詢 ：shho-college@cuhk.edu.hk。 The Chinese Calligraphy and Seal Carving Exhibition is held until 11 October at the gallery on the ground floor of Chan Chun Ha Hall, S.H. Ho College. Admission free. Enquiries: shho-college@cuhk.edu.hk. Source: S.H. Ho College 書法如品酒，年資愈久愈醇厚。善衡書院於2月起展出著名書法及篆刻家 李剛田 教授（左）的 三十幅直幅、橫幅、方幅、扇面和篆刻。李氏筆耕硯田近六十載，細看每幅作品，恍若隨他信 步遊走書法大觀園。 展覽涵蓋甲骨文、篆書、隸書、楷書及行書作品，篆刻有《墨戲》、《一片冰心在玉壺》等。篆 刻藝術既表現篆書的簡樸，又反映藝術家的刀工。端詳李氏修長、對稱又圓潤的小篆「墨」 字，流暢自然。是次展出的篆刻是他六十五歲時的作品，能雕琢力度均勻又清晰的線條，實在 難得。 由於父親從事文物工作，李氏自幼接觸秦磚漢瓦，對書法篆刻的興趣油然而生，十多歲便借 人家的字帖練習，也臨摹魏碑和清代篆書等，浸淫日久，各家字體和筆法深烙腦海。他說： 「寫書法不應求名利，而是從容、率性地寫，才能領悟中華文化的博大精深。」 我欣賞李氏書法雄渾古樸。他曾言，書法已由文以載道的「書齋時代」步向形式至上的「展廳 時代」，「有人表演舞蹈書法和音樂書法，不過當書法變成行為藝術，甚至形式大於內容，如 何助人修身養性？」 Calligraphy is akin to wine appreciation. Vintage means quality. S.H. Ho College has been showcasing 30 calligraphy works and seal carvings of the renowned Chinese calligrapher and seal engraver Prof. Li Gangtian (left) since February. Li has been in the ink world for almost six decades. Viewing his work was like taking a stroll in a garden of calligraphy. The exhibition showcases his calligraphy works in oracle bone, seal, clerical, regular and running scripts. His seal carvings include Ink Play and A Pure Heart in a Jade Vase . Seal engraving is an art that straddles the script’s simplicity and the artist’s engraving skills. The slender, balanced and round seal character ‘ink’ impressed me with its naturalness. The exhibition displays works he engraved at the age of 65. It’s no small achievement to engrave the seal characters in even thickness and clear lines. Due to his father’s work in cultural relics, Li had access to bricks and tiles from the Qin and Han dynasties during his childhood. His passion for calligraphy and seal engraving was ignited at an early age. Besides borrowing calligraphy samples for practice, he also exposed himself to diverse scripts like the stone inscriptions from the Northern Wei dynasty and the seal script in the Qing dynasty. As time passed, the scripts and strokes of various schools cemented in his mind. ‘Instead of pursuing fame, we should embrace calligraphy leisurely and wholeheartedly to appreciate the depth of Chinese culture,’ said Li. I admire the vigour and antiqueness of Li’s calligraphy. He mentioned that the spirit of Chinese calligraphy, however, had moved from the ‘Age of Study Room’ (for conveying virtuous values) to the ‘Age of Gallery’ (for the sake of experimenting with art forms). ‘Calligraphy is sometimes performed as dance or music. But when calligraphy becomes a behavioural art, when form takes precedence over meaning, how can it still cleanse the soul?’ J. Lau 硯田心跡 Soul of Scripts 有句老話：「蘿蔔白菜，各有所愛。」意指品味一事純屬主觀，個人好惡無法作出科學分析，更 難以量化或以算式推演。高科技、大數據或人工智能往往無用武之地。 但人性總愛評頭品足，而且在新經濟中人人都得扮演評判。當你召喚Uber車，司機資料必包 括乘客評分，到了下車後，程式也會自動邀請你為服務打分數。 Airbnb的業主與租客也互相品評一番。租客如果持續得到負面評價，有機會影響以後獲得提 供居所的機會。 品味研究員兼eBay首席科學家 Hugo Liu ，以人工智能方法找出人們選擇食物、音樂、服飾、 配偶以至嬰孩名字的潛在法則。他創立的ArtAdvisor平台，結合機器學習與剖析品味的人工 智能，以求得出藝術家精確的造像以及市場價值。 就連一向由鑑賞專家主導、交易動輒千萬的藝術品市場，也開始對高科技注意起來。有人倡 議成立中央藝術品登記冊，以區塊鏈技術保存及傳遞有關藝術品出處、收藏、狀況及買賣等 資料，以便對市場上各方人士做到透明公正。 今年1月，蘇富比收購了Thread Genius，只因其圖案識別算式可以找出與數碼圖像相近的 圖像，加上之前收購的Mei Moses index（一個載有超過五萬個在拍賣會轉手的藝術品圖像 的數據庫），目的是研發以人工智能技術向客戶提出關於藝術品的快速及客觀推薦。 另一個藝術評鑑網站mearto.com，利用拍賣會收集來的龐大數據庫及高解析度影像，為客 戶提供網上藝術品評鑑。它的網站有一句話：「今時今日，一件藝術品值多少，多是由人與機 器合作來評定的。」 中大藝術專修與館藏一向為人稱道，機器學習更是近年重點研究領域之一。以科學的標尺捕 捉變幻莫測的美感經驗，應是理所當然 ，也是莫大挑戰。 Oneman’s meat is another man’s poison. As the Latinmaxim de gustibus non est disputandum goes, there is no right or wrong in the matter of taste, and no one’s preference is better than another’s. Human taste is often considered too intractable to be subject to quantification or algorithm, hence off-limits to Technology, Big Data or AI. But evaluation is also at the heart of the new economy. When you look for an Uber, you are given the recommended driver and his rating. After you complete the journey, you will in turn be invited to rate his service. Airbnb hosts and guests evaluate each other, too. A guest who has received consistently bad ratings from landlords may have difficulty finding future accommodations. Hugo Liu , a taste researcher and principal scientist of eBay, has employed AI methods to discover hidden patterns in people’s choice of food, music, fashion, spouses and even baby names. His startup platform ArtAdvisor combines machine learning and taste-based AI to arrive at concise and actionable profilings of artists. Even the multibillion-dollar art market, which used to be under the sway of cognoscenti, is tiptoeing around the door of Big Tech. Some advocate for the establishment of a central registry of art objects enabled by blockchain technology so that provenance, ownership, condition and transaction history can be rendered accurate and transparent for all players on the market. In January, Sotheby’s bought Thread Genius, a pattern recognition startup whose algorithm can identify similar objects based on digital images. Sotheby’s will develop it in conjunction with another acquisition, the Mei Moses index, a database of over 50,000 images of works previously sold at auctions, for making AI-based recommendations on art to its clients. The Denmark-based mearto.com is another art evaluation website that uses extensive databases on auctions and high resolution imagery to provide online appraisal. A statement on its website speaks of the art world entering the age of artificial intelligence: ‘Nowadays, appraisals are nearly always the result of a partnership between man and machine.’ CUHK has a reputable fine art discipline and museum facilities and machine learning is one of its strategic strengths. It is not inconceivable that it will in time become a centre for the arbitration of taste. T.C . 電腦鑑賞與人工品味 When AI Becomes AT (Arbiter of Taste) 字 裏 科 技 / T ech T alks 藝 士 匹 靈 / ARTS pirin