HTSI editor’s letter: AI birdwatching, racing old bangers, and artists in love

How would you hope your partner might talk about you? It was the first thing that struck me when reading the artist known as Rotraut describing her feelings for Yves Klein. “For me he was on the top of the mountain,” she says of her late husband, who is currently the focus of a retrospective in New York. “I thought he was just divine; the best, the highest… Between us there was a kind of oneness: we could not speak but we’d understand things at the same time or think the same thing.”

Not bad, eh? Especially, considering the artist died, aged only 34, in 1962. Rotraut was not the only one captivated by the artist’s presence. And the new show at Lévy Gorvy Dayan gallery is a timely reminder of the febrile energy abundant in his work. 

At a time of such free-flowing scrutiny and retrospection, it’s cheering to read something in which someone is fangirling so hard. The same theme echoes in this week’s Double Act with Mafalda von Hessen and Rolf Sachs, two artists who, for the past 10 years, have also been a couple. Here again, they are spurred on by one another, although their shared appreciation is decidedly more low-key: “In the evening I always show Rolf my work,” says von Hessen, “and he laughs because I always say the same thing: ‘It’s getting there.’”

Have you heard of 24 Hours of Lemons? The rally (inspired by Le Mans) was founded nearly 20 years ago, takes place on various tracks and courses across the US and is raced in cars that can cost no more than $500. Part car-nerd convention, part Wacky Races, the rallies have united a community dedicated to championing the underdog and unearthing vehicles destined for the knacker’s yard. Earlier this year, Adam Lashinsky headed to Jank of the West to meet some of the key players. As observed by Ewan Benefield, a Lemons regular: “It’s the cheapest way of getting the most time on a real racetrack.” Even more fun when there are absolutely zero stakes at play. 

There is a tendency to think that technological advances that render human skills redundant are a bad thing. But, as Fergus Scholes discovered on a safari at Phinda Mountain Lodge, South Africa, sometimes a bit of AI can still make even the most analogue adventures sing. On his trip, he got to trial the Swarovski Optik AX Visio, the world’s first AI-supported binoculars, programmed to cross-check and help identify a database of more than 8,000 birds. Over three days, Fergus was able to identify more than 60 species (plus some zebras) simply by looking in the right direction and pressing a button in which the potential match would appear on a heads-up display. Is it cheating, you ask, not to have to do the paperwork that comes with old-school ornithology? Don’t worry: there were still plenty of others that needed further study – as yet, Fergus has no plans to pack his bird compendiums away. 

@jellison22

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