Changes have been taking place in Philadelphia since 1984. One by one, graffiti-covered walls have been changed into outdoor art. So far, more than 1,800 murals (壁画) have been painted. Philadelphia now has more murals than any other American city.

The walls that were once ugly with graffiti are now covered with beautiful pictures of historical heroes and modern art, thanks to the Mural Arts Programme (MAP). Its work makes schools and public places attractive. The programme began as part of Philadelphia’s Anti-Graffiti Network. Jane Golden is the MAP’s artistic director. “When people ask me what our programme is about,” she says, “I answer them with one word: hope.” Each year, the MAP offers the youth art programmes and workshops. Some one-time graffiti writers even help paint MAP murals.

Golden says that the MAP’s work is all about developing a sense of community. When a neighbourhood requests a mural, the MAP works with the people there to develop a message. Some messages have been “Safe Streets”, “Love And Care”, and “Peace Walk”.

The MAP receives up to 50 requests for murals each week. Last year, the workers painted 140 murals.

“The making of a mural enters people’s collective memory as an extraordinary, pleasant moment in neighbourhood history,” says Golden, who began as a muralist in Los Angeles.

Jason M. Allen was almost too nervous to enter his first art competition. Now, his award-winning image is stirring debates about whether art can be generated by a computer, and what, exactly, it means to be an artist.

In August 2022, Allen, a 39-year-old game designer who lives in Pueblo West, Colorado, won first place in the “digital arts/digitally-operated photography” category at the Colorado State Fair Fine Arts Competition. His winning image, titled Théatre D’opéra Spatial, was made with Midjourney—an artificial intelligence system that can produce detailed images when fed written prompts (提示).

Allen’s winning image looks like a bright cross between a classic and modern painting. It’s one of three such images he entered in the competition. Allen posted excitedly about his win on Midjourney’s Discord server on August 25, along with pictures of his three entries; it spread quickly on Twitter days later, with many artists feeling angry about Allen’s win because of his use of AI to create the image. “He just ‘pressed a few buttons to make a digital art piece’,” one Twitter user wrote. “We’re watching the death of art unfold before our eyes.”

However, to get the final three images he entered in the competition, Allen said, he took over 80 hours. First, he played around with phrasing that led Midjourney to generate images of women in nice dresses and space helmets. Over time, with slight adjustments to his written prompts, he created 900 repeating processes of what led to his final three images. He gave the final touch to those three images in Photoshop. Then he ran the images through another software program called Gigapixel AI that can improve resolution (分辨率) and had the images printed at a local print shop.

Allen is glad that the debate over whether AI can be used to make art is getting so much attention. “Rather than hating the technology or the people behind it, we need to recognize it’s a powerful tool and use it for good so we can all move forward,” Allen said.

Leonardo da Vinci's mother may have been a Chinese slave according to a new research by an Italian historian and novelist—Angelo Paratico，who has spent the last 20 years living and working in Hong Kong，researching the links between his homeland and China over the past half century.

Mr.Paratico said the documents he has uncovered during two years of research form the basis of his latest book Leonardo Da Vinci，a Chinese scholar lost in Renaissance(文艺复兴) Italy.The book，which is due to be published next year，uncovers evidence that there's a link between Da Vinci and the far East.

Speaking to the South China Morning Post，Mr.Paratico said，“I am sure that Leonardo's mother was from the East，but to make her a Chinese，we need to use a deductive method(演绎法)．

One wealthy client of Leonardo's father had a slave called Caterina.After Leonardo's date of birth，she disappeared from the documents.She was no longer working there.”

It is believed that his mother was called Caterina，who，according to some reports，was a local peasant.But Mr.Paratico's new work claims it is most likely that Da Vinci's mother was a slave.

Supporting his theory，he said，“During the Renaissance，countries like Italy and Spain were full of slaves from the East.”

He claimed that there were certain aspects of Da Vinci's life and works which suggest a Chinese link.For instance，he was writing with his left hand from left to right and he was also a vegetarian，which was not common.Mona Lisa is probably a portrait of his mother，as Sigmund Freud said in 1910.On the back of Mona Lisa，there is a Chinese landscape and even her face looks like Chinese.

Mr.Paratico said he believes the only way to solve the mystery is to dig out some of Da Vinci's relations in Florence and extract some DNA.