The intrinsic perspective
The Intrinsic Perspective is a magazine hosted on substack.com by writer and neuroscientist Erik Hoel. I illustrate Erik’s wonderful essays every two weeks. Check out erikhoel.substack.com and subscribe for some brain juicing art and literature. Read on to know more about the illustrations.
why we stopped making Einsteins
First published 16/3/22
This was a last minute piece with a tight deadline. Erik wanted to get his essay out in time to align with a writing competition he was entering. Usually, I get a minimum of two weeks to deliver an illustration but I turned this one around in two days.
First were the initial sketch ideas. Erik liked the idea of the brain being molded so we went with that. Usually I like to come up with at least two ideas but to be honest, this seemed perfect for the essay.
Next I developed the idea by creating a digital collage of my hands massaging a brain. I then drew the collage by hand and scanned the drawing.
I knew I needed something else to give the image some reference to the essay. Then I remembered that famous picture of Einstein with his tongue out. I thought that would be the perfect reaction to a bunch of disembodied hands probing and molding his brain.
I added all the sketches together on photoshop and traced over it digitally. The final addition to the image was the curved and coloured lines inside Einsteins neck to reference curved spacetime, his genius contribution to physics. Erik loved the illustration and his essay went viral.
Ai makes animists of us all
Published on 16/2/22
As with most illustrations for The Intrinsic Perspective, I had a lot of creative freedom for this piece. The essay is about the inscrutable decision making processes of modern AI. Erik makes the analogy of Japanese kamis; a type of mischievous spirit which exists to frustrate the everyday life of anyone and everyone. There are shrines dotted around Japan where you can appeal to the Kami’s better nature by offering a small gift. How do we appeal to better nature of AI if we can’t understand it’s decision making process?
