Episode Highlights

In this episode of The Intersect, hosts Chelsea and Georgia explore the fascinating world of creative borrowing and artistic influence through the lens of technology. From Leonardo da Vinci's 500-year-old helicopter designs coming to life in modern 3D animations to contemporary artists reclaiming historical narratives, this episode examines where inspiration ends and appropriation begins.

• 00:00:21 The Ethics of Creative Theft
• 00:01:07 Art and Engineering of Spider Webs
• 00:03:32 Influence of Video Games on Cinema
• 00:05:51 Nuanced Perspectives on Art and Tech
• 00:06:58 Soundscapes of Urban Environments
• 00:10:50 The Comfort of Haptic Technology
• 00:12:42 Reclaiming Women’s Narratives in Art
• 00:15:31 Nature's Dual-Purpose Designs
• 00:15:49 Virtual Reality and Artistic Intent

Topics Discussed

• Leonardo's Lost Inventions: Discover how da Vinci's aerial screw, robotic knights, and 80-foot crossbow designs are being brought to life through modern animation, revealing the genius of Renaissance engineering
• Gaming's Cinematic Legacy: How video games from Tron to WarGames established the visual language we still use in movies today, for better and worse
• The Sound of Silence: Montreal sound artist Nicola Di Croce creates alternative urban soundscapes by removing car noise, revealing the hidden layers of city life
• Meta's Rating Controversy: The tech giant's attempt to borrow the PG-13 rating system for teen accounts and why it backfired
• Touch Technology: TruTru's haptic companion device promises comfort through simulated textures, but at what cost to authentic experience?
• Reclaiming Art History: Artist Grace Weston uses dolls and miniatures to flip sexist narratives in classical art, giving women back their agency
• Spider Web Engineering: New research reveals that decorative patterns in spider webs are actually sophisticated vibration-tuning devices
• Virtual Michelangelo: Florence's new VR experience uses AI to recreate the master's voice, guiding visitors through the creation of David

Key Takeaways

The episode reveals how the line between inspiration and appropriation is constantly being negotiated across art and technology. Whether it's Meta borrowing established rating systems or artists reimagining historical works, the conversation highlights the importance of understanding both the creative and ethical dimensions of borrowing in our interconnected world.

About The Intersect

The Intersect explores the dynamic relationship between art and technology through weekly analysis, case studies, and practitioner perspectives. The podcast and newsletter examine everything from analog fabrication to sound synthesis, providing nuanced insights without polarization.

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I was just looking through the latest Intersect newsletter, and honestly, it really made me think about how much we.

Well, we borrow from each other, creatively speaking.

It's true.

That's actually what we're talking about today on the Intersect of Art and Tech.

The latest issue, number 60, is called Remixing.

The Ethics of Creative Theft.

And it really just looks at all the different ways that happens.

Oh, I like that.

So creative borrowing or maybe creative stealing, depending on how you look at it.

What kind of, like, stories are we checking out this time around?

Exactly?

We've got some fascinating examples this week.

I mean, we're talking about everything from Leonardo da Vinci's 500-year-old helicopter designs actually coming to life in 3D animations, which is just wild.

To an artist named Grace Weston, who uses dolls to totally flip art history' old, you know, sexist narratives.

Wow, that sounds really interesting.

And then we get into, well, some slightly messier stuff like Meta actually getting a cease and desist order because they tried to borrow the PG13 rating for their teen accounts.

Even something as seemingly simple as spider webs, you know, they really blur that line between being functional engineering and artistic decoration.

It's a fun one.

So.

So I was just reading something about Leonardo da Vinci and it just blew my mind, really.

Did you know his design for what looks like an early helicopter?

That aerial screw would have needed, like, four men running in a circle to even make it lift off the ground.

Yeah, that's wild, isn't it?

It just shows you how he was thinking way, way ahead.

And there's this new video from Lost in Time.

It's just brilliant.

It brings those notebook sketches of his to life through 3D.

You see these contraptions.

Not just the helicopter, but also things like robotic knights and even diving suits.

There's even an 80 foot crossbow.

I mean, it's really something to behold.

Robotic knights.

That sounds like something out of a sci fi movie.

I always just think of his paintings, you know, not him as this inventor.

Well, that's it, you know, our curator, Jurgen, he often talks about the mental exercise of imagining a world completely devoid of electricity or motors.

It's hard for us to grasp today, but that's the world Leonardo lived in.

And when you think about it from that perspective, these designs become even more incredible.

Can you imagine his contemporaries seeing, like, a seated knight suddenly stand up, and then you look inside and realize there's nobody there?

They would have been absolutely stunned.

That's a good point.

I haven't really thought about it that way.

It's like we're so used to everything being possible with, you know, some kind of engine or computer.

Exactly.

It makes you wonder then how much of our own current innovation, the things that we're working on now, are actually limited by constraints that we simply can't see past yet.

What are we missing because we're too stuck in our own present day thinking.

I have to say, when I saw this next one and its connection to, well, something like the Marvel Universe, it really grabbed me.

It's wild to think about how much influence video games actually have on how we tell stories in movies.

Oh, absolutely.

It's pretty profound.

You know, you look at early films about gaming, like Tron back in the 80s, and then war games too, they really established a visual language that we still use today in cinema.

Think about it.

The specific ways characters hold a controller, or the way you see lines of code reflecting in a player's eyes, or even how stories are structured around, you know, final levels or boss battles.

Those ideas, they weren't always there in movies.

They really, really came from that gaming sensibility.

So they kind of basically set the whole blueprint for how we even visualize gaming culture on screen.

That's incredible.

Exactly.

They did.

But the thing is, Jurgen points out that sometimes those early narratives, well, they also ended up passing on some less great stuff.

Like a lot of gaming stories, even then, often ended up perpetuating violence or, unfortunately, some misogynistic behaviors.

It was built into some of those early game designs and narratives, and it just sort of.

It just sort of seeped into the films that were inspired by them.

That makes a lot of sense.

You know, if you're borrowing the visual language and the excitement, you might also well be borrowing some of the underlying problems without even realizing it's happening.

Yeah.

You know, it just makes you wonder when we take those gaming aesthetics and elevate them with, you know, huge movie budgets and top tier production, does it genuinely expand how we tell stories?

Or are we just reinforcing those limited narratives with better visuals?

You know, it's something to think about.

It feels like all these stories, they really show how deeply art and technology influence each other.

Like, they're always in conversation, aren't they?

They really are.

And that's exactly why we do what we do here at the Intersect, the podcast and the newsletter too.

Because understanding that, give and take, that reciprocal relationship between technology and artistic expression, it just matters so much.

Right.

Because it's not just about shiny new gadgets, it's about everything.

Exactly.

And we know sometimes you know, when we talk about things like AI, it can feel a little distasteful to some artists, and we get that.

But it's also important to sometimes look at those aspects too, because they are shaping things.

The thing is, we cover the whole spectrum.

It's not just generative AI or digital art.

We look at everything from analog fabrication all the way to sound synthesis, digital design, you know, everything in between.

So it's about getting that full, nuanced picture rather than just picking a side.

Precisely.

We really aim to provide that kind of nuanced analysis without getting caught up in polarization.

It's about seeing how everything connects.

If you want to keep getting this kind of weekly analysis, these case studies that really dig into these connections, you should definitely subscribe to the newsletter at the intersection.

It's a great way to stay on top of how art and tech are always pushing each other forward.

So, you know those sleep machines or apps that play city sounds like rain hitting pavement or distant traffic?

This next story kind of reminds me of that, but in reverse.

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.

This project by Nicola de Croce in Montreal is really cool.

He's a sound artist, and he took recordings from a public square, Place de la Paix, but then he manipulated them to remove all the car noise.

Wait, so what does a city square sound like without cars?

Just quiet.

Not exactly quiet.

More like revealing a whole other layer of sound.

You hear the wind, the distant chatter, maybe a bike bell, but none of that constant engine hum.

It kind of highlights what's usually drowned out.

That's wild.

It's like listening to the ghost of a city.

Jurgen actually had an interesting observation about that.

He said he knows people, city dwellers, who find urban noise really soothing when they're on vacation.

Like, if they go to the countryside, they actually miss the hum of the city because it's so familiar and almost comforting.

That makes sense in a strange way.

It's what they're used to.

Exactly.

And de Croce's approach wasn't about saying, cars are bad, let's silence them.

It was more about creating these altern soundscapes, giving people a chance to experience what a city could sound like without actively policing what they hear every day.

It's about opening up possibilities.

So it's not about making a judgment.

It's about offering a different perspective.

But do you think people would actually miss that familiar urban hum, even if they complain about it sometimes?

Would it feel too empty?

That's a great question.

I think for some, definitely.

It's so ingrained in how we perceive a bustling place.

It would be a huge shift, wouldn't it?

You know, I was thinking about this when I saw the newsletter.

Can you actually copyright something like a PG13 rating?

It just seems so ingrained in our culture.

That's a good question.

And.

And it's something the Motion Picture association definitely thinks they own.

Basically, they sent Meta a cease and desist letter because Meta was trying to use that exact PG13 rating for their teen accounts.

The MPA was not happy about it.

Wait, so Meta just tried to, like, slap PG13 on their own teen accounts?

That's quite bold.

What were they thinking, trying to borrow that kind of established label?

Well, that's really the core of it, isn't it?

Jurgen actually brought up a great point in the newsletter, saying that Meta's move here really decreased trust rather than built it.

When you try to borrow credibility from an established system like the MPA's rating, it can easily backfire and just dilute that system or make people question your intentions.

Yeah, I can see that.

It's like they wanted the instant recognition without putting in the work to earn that level of trust themselves.

So when does that kind of cultural shorthand, you know, something everyone recognizes, cross the line into becoming unfair use?

You know, I'm always a little skeptical about things that promise to make us too comfortable, if that makes sense.

It feels like sometimes we go a bit far trying to smooth out every single rough edge in life.

I hear you.

And this next story from the Intersect is a good one for that exact feeling.

It's about this glowing companion device called Tru Tru.

And what it does is simulate textures through haptic feedback.

Imagine it can make you feel everything from a smooth stone to falling rain right in your hand.

So it's like a touchable mood ring, almost.

I mean, what's the goal here?

To feel a virtual pebble?

Well, it's designed to provide comfort, right?

But Jurgen, who curates the Intersect, raised a really interesting point about it.

He wondered if ergonomics, you know, designing things for human comfort can sometimes go too far.

He compared it to universal design, like curb cuts that help everyone versus technology that's specifically mediating your emotions, emotional state.

That's a good distinction.

It makes me think about, well, whether designing away all friction, all discomfort, is actually true care, or if it's almost like infantilization, you know, taking away opportunities to, I don't know, just experience things as they are.

I was looking at Grace Weston's work, and the first thing that hits you is just how detailed these scenes are.

The.

The little props, the tiny furniture, and these dolls, you know, they look so real, almost uncanny.

It's like you could step right into those miniature worlds.

Yeah, she really excels at building those very specific, almost theatrical spaces.

But the interesting thing, the core of her art, is that she takes those familiar doll figures and these miniature scenes and.

And she just totally flips the script on traditional art history.

She's giving women back their agency, making them active players, not just passive subjects.

That's what I loved about it.

Like in Venus and the Pill, where the reclining nude isn't just lying there for someone to look at.

She's holding a birth control pill.

And that small detail just changes everything about the power dynamic.

It's a statement.

It really is.

It takes these ingrained images we have of women in art, often as muses or objects, and injects some modern, intentional perspective.

And there's another great one in her CE si n' est FA un homme piece, where she swaps out the phallic banana from Magritte's famous painting with a woman eating a papadia.

It's such a clever, subversive move.

That's brilliant.

So it's about reclaiming those stories, then giving women narratives they never got to write themselves.

Exactly.

And it goes even further with her upcoming series Resistance, which is going to feature Lee Miller.

You know, the famous image of Lee Miller, the war photographer in Hitler's bathtub.

Weston is reimagining that moment, making it entirely about Miller's perspective, her defiance.

It really brings home what Morgan Lawrence discussed when she interviewed Grace about her Witchy Women exhibition.

It's about shifting the gaze, challenging those historical assumptions.

I mean, it's such a powerful way to reinterpret history.

It makes you wonder, can these miniature worlds, these small, carefully constructed scenes, really start to undo centuries of how women have been, well, objectified in art?

I was thinking about, you know, those zigzag patterns some spires put in their webs?

It's always felt like a bit of a mystery to me.

Like, why do they do that?

Yeah, those are called stabilimenta.

And for centuries, people really wondered what their purpose was.

Some thought they were camouflage.

Others said they were warning signs for birds.

But a recent study in plos One actually cracked it, or, well, at least offered a very strong theory.

Oh, tell me, what did they find out?

The researchers discovered these decorations are actually tuning devices.

They help the spider web detect vibrations more effectively, almost like an antenna.

So it's not just for show.

It's a critical part of their sensory system for hunting prey.

Jurgen noted this perfectly.

That spiders are essentially creating art, but with a deeply predatory purpose.

So it's like a dual purpose design, both aesthetic in a way and super functional.

Exactly.

Take wasp spiders, for instance.

The study showed they adjust their web design, including the stabilimenta, based on light conditions and the size of their prey.

So if they're expecting smaller insects, the tuning might be different than if they're aiming for something larger.

It's adaptive engineering.

It makes you wonder then if functional design and artistic expression are actually more blurred than we often think, even in nature.

So what if you could actually, like have Michelangelo himself guide you through the process of creating his David?

Imagine that, you know, being right there.

Well, that's kind of what this new VR experience for Florence is aiming for.

It's an app that gives you a virtual reality tour.

And the cool part is it uses an AI recreated voice of Michelangelo to narrate his whole creative process as if he's speaking directly to you.

An AI voice that's.

That's pretty wild.

So you're actually hearing what sounds like Michelangelo talking about how he carved David.

Exactly.

It's meant to put you right there in his head, you know, as he's working on it.

They even include that famous, though possibly apocryphal quote about how he just chipped away everything that didn't look like David.

It really tries to bring that thought process to life.

It sounds incredible.

I mean, you're getting a whole new layer of insight.

But then I wonder, does experiencing art like this, through technology really bring us closer to the creator's actual intent?

Or does it make the physical sculpture itself almost an afterthought?

It really makes you think about all those different ways we borrow, doesn't it?

From Leonardo's early designs to those amazing spiderwebs.

And then where that line is for what's an homage versus, you know, just outright taking something.

It absolutely does.

And that's really what we try to get at here on the intersect of art and tech.

It's so clear that when technology is actually understand artistic principles, they built things that are more human centered.

And when artists grasp technical tools, their creative possibilities expand exponentially.

That interconnectedness is so important.

Exactly.

It's about seeing those connections.

So if you want to keep exploring how technology and art influence each other, we bring you fresh analysis and practitioners perspectives every week.

Just subscribe to the Intersect.

At the Intersect Art.