Newsletter No. 547/548

藝 士 匹 靈 / ARTS pirin 自拍?自毀? The Self-defacing Self-effacing Selfie 字 裏 科 技 / T ech T alks 無垠之境 Beyond Infinity 飛翔象徵人類對自由的嚮往。和聲書院以「飛」為主題,為 陳鏗 和 陳可菲 舉辦聯合畫展,這 也是陳氏父女首次聯展。 陳鏗是當代油畫大師,涉足畫壇三十多年,畫作精細入微,意趣橫溢;女兒是畫壇新銳,剛 於倫敦藝術大學畢業,擅長以抽象的筆觸呈現內心世界。他們各自展出二十幅油畫,二人風 格迥異,卻彼此呼應,流露出追求夢想與自由的熱忱。 通往夢想之路並非坦途,陳鏗的畫作有折翼天使、隨風飄落的羽毛,教我印象深刻的是 《嚮往》,男孩拿着荊棘在黃沙上赤足奔向遨遊天際的海鷗,步姿輕盈,手握荊棘的刺痛好 像毫不影響他追海鷗的興致。陳可菲的《望無極》呼應父親的畫作,描繪奔跑者朝着嫣紅 的邊際線跑去,畫面充斥着色彩絢麗的圓點,看似繁星閃爍,生氣盎然。 「菲」是「飛」的諧音,相信名字承載着父親寄寓女兒自由高飛的願望。陳可菲坦言父親給 予她很大的自由度,塑造了她樂觀的性格,其畫作的色彩與動感亦透露愛與希望。她筆下 一位飛行員因飛行失事撞向雪山,卻奮力拖曳降落傘要重新起飛。她說:「我們帶着夢想跨 越人生重重險阻之時,總會發現希望處處,我亦以象徵希望的黃色填滿雪山周邊。」 自從萊特兄弟發明了飛機,人類終於可以御風而行,但擺脫了地心吸力和地域的束縛,人是 否真正無拘無束?和聲書院 劉允怡 院長說:「我們也許受囿於外在因素,未能完全自由,但 內心仍可無拘無束地尋求真善美,享受心靈自由。」 Flying symbolizes humans’ yearning for freedom. Lee Woo Sing College has held a joint exhibition for Chen Keng and Faye Chan under the theme of ‘flying’, which is the first joint exhibition of the father and daughter. Chen Keng is an acclaimed contemporary oil painter who has been in the painting scene for more than three decades. He is famous for his delicate brushstrokes and unbound inspiration. His daughter Faye, a fresh graduate from the University of the Arts London, is a burgeoning painter. She excels in representing her inner world with abstract strokes. Twenty paintings by each are exhibited. Their styles differ a lot, but their works echo one another in their zealous pursuits of dream and freedom. The path to dream is rugged. Chen Keng’s works include one that depicts an angel with broken wings and one that depicts a fluttering feather. His Yearning impressed me. A boy is briskly running after a soaring seagull with his crown of thorns. It seems the pricking pain caused by the thorns doesn’t affect his interest of chasing the seagull. Faye’s Infinity echoes her father’s work. She depicted a runner heading towards the red skyline. She further spiced up her work by splattering specks on its surface with the effect of glittering stars. ‘Faye’ and fei (flying) are homonymic in Chinese. I trust that the name itself carries the father’s wish for his daughter to fly high. Faye revealed that her father had given much freedom and cultivated optimism in her life. These result in love and hope as reflected in her colour choice and vibrant tone. She illustrated a pilot dragging through the snow with his parachute in the hope to take off again, despite his previous flight accident. She said, ‘As we drag through the rough terrain of our everyday lives, we may discover hope from near and far. That’s why I surrounded the snow hill with yellow which symbolizes hope.’ Ever since the Wright brothers invented the first airplane, humans have been able to soar high unrestrained by gravity and borderline. However, can humans attain infinite freedom? ‘We may be confined by external factors and lack complete freedom. But our hearts can enjoy spiritual freedom by seeking truth, virtue and beauty,’ said Prof. Joseph Wan-yee Lau , Master of Lee Woo Sing College. J. Lau 陳鏗的《嚮往》(左)及陳可菲的《望無極》(上) Chen Keng’s Yearning (left) and Faye Chan’s Infinity (above) 09 # 5 4 7 / 5 4 8 | 1 1 . 1 2 . 2 0 1 9 《牛津大字典》選selfie一字為2013年度風雲字眼。風氣所及,現在很少人不曾翻掌舉機替 自己造像。公眾人物、凡夫俗子無一例外。 自拍可能源於日本。上世紀九十年代中日本女學生燃起擁到即時照相攤檔拍照的熱潮,相信 種下了今天全球自拍風靡的種子。 手機最先前置鏡頭的,是一款型號Kyosera Visual Phone VP-210的手機,在1999年推出 日本市場。用家只需望向手機,側頭露齒,按掣便可留下倩影。 美圖應用程式也應運而生。今日任何一款Facetune、Visage或YouCam Perfect程式,都有 化腐朽為神奇的妙效,不用賣帳給毛延壽。不過愈是人工雕琢,便離廬山真貌愈遠。再可任 意加上眼淚、兔耳、貓鬚之類,不是自毀寶相是甚麼? 自拍也可能給人盜去身分。《南華早報》有篇文章,提醒愛作出勝利或V手勢自拍,然後放 上社交媒體的人,可能會被不法分子利用先進掃描技術,盜取指模作非法用途。文章引述業 內人士說,只要相片在1.5米(5呎)內拍攝,其清晰度足以百分百還原一個人的指摸。 另一個常用的生物辨識特徵是虹膜,因為每個人的虹膜肌理都很複雜,幾至獨一無二,而且 易於掃描鑑定。但如果自拍照中人的虹膜可以放大還原,那麼面對的網絡保安問題也與指 模一樣。 其實自拍也危害健康,甚至造成自毀。我們不時看報見有人攀高犯險,冒粉身碎骨之險,只 為求一幀懾人自拍照。不少城市包括曼徹斯特、米蘭及莫斯科,已經為市民及遊客安全,頒 布了自拍安全守則,避免樂極生悲,甚至留下令人不安的畫面或視頻。 The word selfie was named by Oxford Dictionaries the word of 2013. Today, only the pathologically hermetic and antisocial do not do selfies. The celebrities do them; the politicians do them; mere mortals like you and me do them. Selfies might have been invented by the Japanese. Their origin can be traced to the mushrooming in the mid-1990s in Japan of instant photo booths where giggling schoolgirls posed for their own pictures. The Japanese first put a lens in the front of a cell phone (Kyosera Visual Phone VP-210) in 1999 to enable the user to look into her phone, adjust her pose or smile, and snap. Facial beautification apps flourish in tandem with selfie technology. Apps such as Facetune, Visage and YouCam Perfect can enlarge eyes, chisel chins and whitewash wrinkles. Faces are modified or remade according to some externally benchmarked ideals of beauty. But such embellishment is a form of defacement, not to mention deception, particularly when teardrops, bunny ears and cat whiskers can be arbitrarily added. Selfies may be hazardous to your identity. A recent SCMP article alerts readers who like to post on social media their selfies with the ‘scissor hand’ or the ‘V’ sign that they are at risk of having their fingerprints scanned and stolen with the aid of some AI systems. The article quotes Zhang Wei , vice-director of the Shanghai Information Security Trade Association saying: ‘A scissor-hand picture taken within 1.5 metres (four feet 11 inches) can be used to restore 100 per cent of people’s fingerprints.’ The iris, the other biometric identifier commonly used in many security systems, is equally vulnerable. The iris texture of each individual is unique and conveniently and reliably scannable. But like fingerprints, if the iris is captured and reproduced in sufficient detail and resolution, we would be faced with the same cybersecurity challenges. And selfies are hazardous to your health, too. It is literal self-effacement—the injuries or even deaths sometimes reported in the news of people scaling heights and braving precipices in quest of a wowing selfie. It comes as no surprise that many cities— Manchester, Milan and Moscow, among others—have issued safety guidelines for the taking of selfies by their citizens and tourists. TC

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