Confessions of a researchaholic

2023-08-28

Sunset

Filed under: Imaginary,Real — liyiwei @ 9:10 pm
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I saw some beautiful sunsets recently but could not manage to paint them to my satisfaction so I took a photo instead and drew over it.
I enlarged the moon for emphasis, but had some difficulty drawing the craters and eventually I switched to an old face reflecting a second meaning of sunset.

2023-08-20

Ladybugs

Filed under: Imaginary,Real — liyiwei @ 3:33 pm
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Saw https://museum.stanford.edu/exhibitions/printing-protest and immediately visualized the ladybugs moving in my mind.
I extracted the foreground (ladies and bamboo sticks) and several individual ladybugs via https://segment-anything.com/ to, and animated them via Adobe Fresco Motion.

2023-08-12

Mapping a fly’s mind

Filed under: Imaginary,Real — liyiwei @ 9:26 pm

Swatting a fly can be a fun and vigorous exercise, but here is an alternative way that is more relaxing: wait until it is dark outside, turn off all the lights inside, and then turn on a single light source which the fly would tend to follow.
You can carry a single flashlight or turn on the room lights one by one towards the outside.

2023-08-02

Obituary for DLXXK17WK7M9

Filed under: Imaginary,Real — liyiwei @ 9:09 pm
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iPad Pro 12.9-in 64-GB
Enrolled 10/26/2021
Last seen 6/22/2023
Served in Fresco motion and live brushes

Succeeded by W99KG6V2KQ
iPad Pro 11-in 128-GB
Enrolled 7/27/2023

2023-07-29

Confidential shredding

Filed under: Imaginary,Real — liyiwei @ 9:50 am
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The other day while sliding a document into a confidential shredding slot in the office, a thought came to my mind that a shredding bin might be the most likely place that people want to peek into.

https://youtube.com/shorts/65BX9sfSfy

2023-06-21

Harmonious colors from 4 rubber bands

Filed under: Imaginary,Real — liyiwei @ 9:37 am
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I found these 4 rubber bands on the kitchen counter and was intrigued by their coincidental harmonious colors, which I experimented with in these drawings.

2023-06-16

Closed hookah lounge

Filed under: Imaginary,Real — liyiwei @ 10:20 pm
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Passing through this hookah lounge on a Thursday late afternoon and found it permanently closed, so I reanimated its prior activities via motion graphics over the doorframe paintings.

2023-06-10

Primitive emotion and advanced technology

Filed under: Imaginary,Real — liyiwei @ 3:14 pm
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“We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology.” – Edward O. Wilson

Natural human evolution might not be fast enough for our primitive emotions to catch up with our advanced technology, and I predict pretty soon we will use technology to accelerate our evolution, e.g., by using AI to augment our intelligence and CRISPR to edit our genes.

2023-05-04

Squid back brain

Filed under: Imaginary,Real — liyiwei @ 4:04 pm
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This is a story-let inspired by real-life events.

He likes to work out at the start of every day, without which he would could not ignite the engine of this body and mind and feels awful throughout the day.

Later last year, he started to notice some soreness at his lower back when he was dead-lifting.
He thought that was caused by misaligned posture, or maybe he is just getting old.

One night, while tossing and turning in bed, he accidentally felt a small lump at his lower back.
He went to see a doctor, who told him that it was a benign nerve tumor and he could either live with it or have it removed.

Later that night, he dreamed about the back lump trying to tell him that it was not an ordinary nerve tumor but an extension of his brain, which was formed after he ate some san-nakji (live octopus) during a recent trip to an Asian country known for that cuisine.
Specifically, since octopus was eaten a live, parts of the genes encoding distributed brains was spliced into his DNA along with his recent mRNA covid vaccination, which he injected per requirement just prior for the trip.

After some pondering, he opted to remove that lump, brain or not.
To the chagrin of the surgeon, he asked to take the lump home after the surgery, and ate for dinner, but cooked in a tako-yaki style, not raw like san-nakji.

As to whether the nerve tumor is really a brain, he does not know yet, but will see if he will become more or less creative and productive, especially for his lower body movement.
For now, at least he no longer feels the squeeze of the lump.

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