This episode focuses on the shift from traditional craftsmanship towards a focus on meaning and strategy in design, prompting critical questions about creativity and education. We also examine various topics, including the impact of AI on artistic expression, architectural challenges in the face of climate change, and innovative installations showcased at Milan Design Week. Throughout our conversation, we aim to illuminate the intricate connections between innovation and creativity, reflecting how they shape our understanding of both art and technology.

Find the latest episode at https://theintersect.art/issues/51 , and sign up for the newsletter at The Intersect of Tech and Art website

Takeaways:

• AI's role in design is shifting from execution to meaning, emphasizing the importance of critical thinking and empathy in education.
• The relationship between artists and AI can evolve creatively, allowing artists to rediscover their unique voices through machine collaboration.
• Climate change discussions in architecture must shift from mere mitigation to adaptation, challenging traditional building practices.
• The role of designers in tech firms is evolving towards curation and strategic direction rather than pure technical execution.
• Art installations at events like Milan Design Week raise questions about the boundaries between art and commercial advertising, reflecting on artist compensation.

Welcome.

If you're familiar with Jurgen Berkessel's the Intersect newsletter, you know, this is where we explore the ideas he curates.

And if you're new, well, welcome aboard.

That's right.

We take Jurgen's curation of art and technology intersections and talk through his commentary.

Jurgen dives into how tech shapes art and how art pushes tech forward.

We'll be focusing pretty closely on his specific thoughts from the newsletter.

Yeah, his perspective is really the core of our convers.

Today we'll touch on AI and design artists using AI, architecture and climate, even technology that evokes nature.

Okay, let's jump in.

First up, Jurgen reacted to an Elliot Vredenberg piece in Fast Company.

It's about taste mattering more now with AI.

Right.

The idea is AI handles the making, so designers focus more on meaning.

Jurgen highlighted the quote.

When production is automated, the designer's role becomes less about making and more about meaning.

And Jurgen's take was interesting.

He felt this shift.

Well, maybe it was overdue.

He mentioned spending so much time on tiny details that maybe weren't always noticed.

Yeah.

So focusing on the why of design, the impact that resonated with him.

But it does raise a big question, he pointed out, which is?

Well, if you're just prompting an AI, how do you actually teach vision?

How do you cultivate that deeper creativity?

It's less about software skills than perhaps.

Hmm, good point.

It shifts the focus in education, Maybe more critical thinking, empathy, less, you know, just pushing pixels.

Exactly.

Your value might become more about strategy, the concept, the feeling you create.

Less about the pure technical execution itself.

Okay, next, Jurgen looked at an artist, David Sal, using AI.

This was in the art newspaper.

Yeah, this was quite specific.

Sal trained an AI model on his own paintings to generate backgrounds in his style.

Then he actually paints over them.

So it's not just automation for him.

Jurgen saw it as Sal using AI to, like, reflect on his own style, to evolve it precisely.

Like a conversation with the machine about his own work.

Jurgen pulled a quote from Sal.

You have to imagine this is something that doesn't actually know anything.

Why even bother to teach us something?

It's a machine.

However, once trained, it's useful.

Useful.

But Yurga added a layer to that, didn't he?

He did.

He posed this.

What happens when a machine helps an artist sort of rediscover their own hands, their own voice?

It's not just a tool, then.

It's a catalyst.

Interesting.

Okay.

Moving from a single artist to a huge tech company.

Microsoft's chief designer, John Friedman was interviewed in the Verge.

Right.

Talk about AI's impact there.

Friedman's view is that it's really changing the designer's job towards curation, towards direction.

Jurgen had a bit of a chuckle, reacting as a longtime Mac user initially.

Ah, yes.

But then he acknowledged Friedman's point, especially seeing Microcoft use generative AI in like a Surface ad.

And Friedman himself said something quite telling.

He did.

He said, suddenly the design job is how do you edit?

Even my job over the past six, eight months has become an editor in chief job of the product, not just the design leader.

So Jurgen picked up on that editor in chief idea.

Yeah.

His takeaway was about design leadership, maybe becoming less about craft mastery and more about, well, taste.

About that curatorial judgment.

He wondered how the design community feels about that shift.

It really puts the emphasis on guiding the AI effectively, doesn't it?

It seems so.

Okay, let's shift to architecture.

Jurgen looked at an interview with Carlo Ratti, the Venice Architecture Biennale curator in the Financial Times.

And this was about climate change, but with a specific, maybe stark, perspective.

Very much so.

Reddy's argument is basically that it's too late to just focus on mitigation, reducing harm.

He says we need to focus on adaptation.

Jurgen quoted him saying, usually when people talk about climate change, they talk about mitigating harm in travel industry construction.

But now it's too late for that.

As things become more extreme.

We need a new approach, a new level of thinking.

Jurgen agreed with the urgency, definitely.

But he also raised a pretty significant.

Point of tension, which was about construction itself.

Exactly.

He recalled data showing the construction industry is a huge source of carbon emissions.

So he questioned, if building is part of the problem, can architecture, which means more building, really be the primary solution?

Hmm.

It complicates that call for a new level of thinking, doesn't it?

What does that really mean for the field?

That's the crux of Jurgen's hesitation there.

Okay.

Another topic's from Milan Design Week, an installation by the firm Big for Roka Design.

Boom covered this, right?

This was an interactive water fountain thing showcasing Roka's smart water platform.

Roka Connect.

Yeah, a closed loop system visualizing water conservation.

Jurgen's first thought, product placement.

A sophisticated kind, perhaps, but still, he.

Drew a historical parallel, didn't he?

He did.

Interestingly, he compared it to Renaissance patronage, rich families funding art, maybe with their own goals in mind.

So his concern, or maybe hope, was about the artists involved.

Yes.

He hoped they were properly paid and genuinely collaborated, rather than just being, you know, co opted for promotion.

It raises questions about that line between art and advertising when tech companies commission work like this.

Makes sense.

Also from Milan, Design Week and Design Boom, Jurgen looked at A.A.

murakami's work.

Ah, yes, the ephemeral tech.

They use robotics, fluid dynamics, things like that to create installations that feel like natural processes, fog bubbles.

And Jurgen was really struck by the language they use.

He was particularly using ephemeral for technology, which we often think of as permanent, and the phrase invoking nature rather than, say, simulating it.

He wondered if that was like a cultural thing in how it was described.

More suggestive, less literal, possibly leaving more to the imagination.

Murakami themselves said something like, we're creating environments that feel natural, but they are entirely artificial.

It's about the feeling of nature, not copying it.

Interesting distinction.

Okay, one last quick one Jurgen touched on.

This was more scientific.

All right.

Reports in Life Science and Science Advances about scientists at UC Berkeley.

They use lasers to temporarily let people see a new color.

A new color.

Wow.

They called it olo.

Yep.

Jurgen saw the scientific value.

Of course, understanding vision may be helping with retinal issues down the line, but.

For art, he wasn't convinced.

Not really for practical application, no.

His skepticism was about the method needing lasers.

Having the subject stay completely still, it just didn't seem feasible as a tool for artists to actually use in their creative process.

Right.

Practicality matters there.

So that's a run through of some key points Jurgen explored in issue 51.

It really covers a lot of ground, showing how intertwined art and tech are becoming, from AI tools to architectural challenges to, well, even perceiving color.

We hope this discussion around Jurgen's commentary gives you a good sense of what the Intersect offers.

Definitely.

And if you want to read his full thoughts, see the original articles he linked to and really dig deeper.

You should head over to the Intersect Art.

That's T H E I N T E R S E C t dot A R T.

You can sign up for the newsletter there and keep up with Yurine's curation.

It's a great way to stay informed on this constantly evolving relationship between creativity and technology.