FEATURES

THE ART OF EDGARDO GASTINI
Edgardo Gastini, who lives in Turin in Italy, started painting at the age of 21. He had his first solo exhibition in Stockholm in 1967 and since then he has had many exhibitions in Italy and abroad. In this first feature, BULB MAGAZINE would like to introduce Edgardo's artwork. He has kindly written a poetic and unique description of the deep exploration he has made into his personal creativity over several decades. Here is Edgardo's account of the processes involved in creating the artwork written in the artist's own words.
“There is not much time on search for another evolutive experiment like the one which has got spoilt owing to the ecologic catastrophe” ...

SWEDISH CINEMA
- INGEBORG HOLM
My name is Paloma Nicol, and I am currently in my first year of the BA English and Film course at Edinburgh Napier University. This essay was written for my Film history module and focuses on a Swedish silent film called Ingeborg Holm. As someone who is half Swedish, the history of Swedish Cinema is an interest of mine as it allows me to explore elements of my own heritage. In addition to this cultural interest, learning about social issues is something which I am passionate about. I feel it is essential to ask questions about the world around us and give voices to marginalised people who have remained silent throughout history. This is why I decided to focus on the question of nationalism in Sweden and the implications this image held for women like the protagonist of Ingeborg Holm.

A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE – AI, QUANTUM COMPUTING AND NEW DISCOVERIES.
I first studied Artificial Intelligence (AI) around 25 years ago. My AI project, at the time, was detecting defects in die cast components using some of the main AI tools available at the time. These included: rule-based systems which used ‘if-then’ constructs to make decisions, i.e., if this is true then take this course of action, e.g., if the door is open then keep walking; neural networks (computer algorithms) which were used for pattern recognition, e.g., if you look around your room you can probably identify most, if not all, objects in the room. This may be despite only seeing parts of some of the objects. The reason you know that a partly hidden table is in fact a table is because you have seen many tables in your life and you have stored these images in your memory......

E. O. HOPPE AND THE MACKINTOSHES
Portrait photographs taken by an expert and talented photographer can speak to the viewer in much the same way as a painted likeness by a master can. Emile Otto Hoppe (1878-1972) was such a master of the camera, at one time he was the most famous living photographer in the world. Many of his sitters were famous too, these included politicians, artists, writers, scientists, dancers and royalty. His camera captured in black and white such figures as Rudyard Kipling, Albert Einstein , Benito Mussolini, Aldous Huxley, Anna Pavlova and Jacob Epstein to name but a few. In a book written by Hoppe himself (first published in 1945) he explains his attitude to business. As the son of a wealthy German banker he knew the world of finance well, even working as a banker himself before entering into the occupation of professional photographer. In the book Hoppe explains “I feel grateful to my parents for giving me a sound business training”. He goes on to recall a young man asking his advice on becoming a photographer and holding forth at great length about art and technique. Hoppe listened and then replied “but do you know anything about book-keeping”?.......


ROBERT MCCUBBIN - SCULPTURES
Robert McCubbin is a Scottish artist/sculptor who makes mixed media sculptures from packaging and mostly throw-away materials. I first met him about seventeen years ago, I found his work interesting and different. Since then Robert has exhibited in several exhibitions I have organised.
Shown above is a collage entitled MAP which is being shown at The Millipiani Gallery in Rome in May (digital exhibition)
Below, is the short piece I wrote about his art back in 2004 when we first met. Robert kindly agreed to answer some questions I put to him about his work today and other subjects of interest.
A selection of sculptures by the Stranraer based artist Robert McCubbin are currently on show in Livingston. McCubbin studied sculpture as a mature student at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen. The inspiration behind his work arises partly from an interest in art history, especially Modernism, he combines this interest with aspects of contemporary culture and technology ........