Blue doesn't really exist in nature — it's the wavelengths objects reject, not absorb. Maria Popova on how blue jay feathers and butterfly wings are optical tricks, not pigment. Genuinely mind-bending. https://jb9.me/AIzM1M

Why does audio software still look like a patchbay from 1978? Skeuomorphism in music tools isn't just nostalgia — it's a design question nobody's really answered yet. theintersect.art/issues/78

400 drones spelling out "SHOULD HAVE LEFT EARLIER" in Skeletor's voice above Coachella traffic is the most useful thing drone swarms have done all year. theintersect.art/issues/77

Ralf Jacobs built a Harmonograph — a pendulum-driven drawing machine — that also functions as furniture. The drawings it makes are genuinely hypnotic. Physics as interior design. theintersect.art/issues/78

A short film about cinema's forgotten pioneers that refuses to behave like a history lesson. María Lorenzo's _Impromptu_ is propulsive, kaleidoscopic, and genuinely strange. Worth 10 minutes of your attention. theintersect.art/issues/76

A tiny DIY kit with swappable program cards that becomes a reverb, a sequencer, or whatever you want. The Music Thing Modular Workshop Computer is either the future of music hardware or proof we never left 1985. theintersect.art/issues/78

Wesley Goatley's The Harbinger turns clinical audio — waiting rooms, consultations — into a portrait of Palantir's reach into healthcare. AI as ear, not eye. That's the part that stays with you. theintersect.art/issues/77

Carlo Zappella's _Digital Doubles_ at Horizont Gallery in Budapest tackles analog-digital tension without taking itself too seriously. Rare. The camera blinks back — and it's actually funny. theintersect.art/issues/76

95,000 drone photos. 96 countries. One competition that still makes the sky feel like a place worth looking at — before the surveillance discourse kicks in. The DJI SkyPixel results are something. theintersect.art/issues/77

A mobile printing press that travels to people who are dying, letting them print one last thing they need to say. It's a quiet, strange, necessary project. Some art earns its existence. theintersect.art/issues/74

The web turned 35 and the birthday cake is on fire. Christopher Sonnleitner traces the arc from 90s democratization dream to AI slop machine — and the throughline is depressingly straight. theintersect.art/issues/77

AIPAD's 45th edition at the Park Avenue Armory looks confident and expansive. But the preview reads like it's carefully not mentioning something. What photography's biggest fair is sidestepping — theintersect.art/issues/76

A mobile printing press that collects the last things people need to say. Not visually flashy. Just quietly addresses the thing most of us spend enormous energy avoiding. This one stopped me cold. theintersect.art/issues/74

Photographers responding to AI by putting down the camera entirely — photograms, expired paper, darkroom chemistry. The most pointed critique of algorithmic image-making might be refusing to make images at all. theintersect.art/issues/76

Iyo Hasegawa stacks wrenches onto rods, adds washers and nuts, and calls it furniture. No glue. No welding. Just hardware doing double duty as art. The most AI-proof objects in the room. theintersect.art/issues/75

Zim & Zou built boomboxes and cassette tapes out of paper. Not as a comment on nostalgia. Just because the craft demanded it. There's something quietly stubborn about that. theintersect.art/issues/75

Lartigue shot in color far more than anyone knew. A major new show at MK Gallery is finally surfacing that archive — and it reframes someone we thought we already understood. theintersect.art/issues/76

Erin Keane moves her camera intentionally through forests to capture what she calls "the elasticity of light," then layers the photos in warm beeswax. The results are genuinely strange and beautiful. Liminal Light: https://jb9.me/C8qbjX

MIYAKE DESIGN STUDIO is showing furniture made from pleating offcuts at Milan Design Week 2026. Fabric scraps becoming chairs feels like the right kind of stubbornness. theintersect.art/issues/75

Artsy surveyed galleries on AI. They're fine using it to organize archives and write emails. But only 9% consider AI-generated art legitimate. Tools in the back room, not on the wall. https://jb9.me/WLefBw

Manabu Kosaka makes hyperrealistic vintage cameras, game consoles, and radios — entirely from paper. They look so real it's unsettling. Which is probably the point. theintersect.art/issues/75

Seoul studio Object with Name took recycled plastic and shaped it into coral-like sculptures. Waste that looks like something the ocean would make if it had a design degree. theintersect.art/issues/75

BAFTA is now explicitly rewarding "human creativity" in film awards — and banning AI avatars from acting categories. The fact that this needs to be stated out loud says a lot about where we are. https://jb9.me/iYGgSh #AIandArt

Katie Knorovsky calls weaving her "antidote to doomscrolling." Her piece Tornado Warning came from watching an eerie sky with her son after a tornado warning. That's the kind of art origin story I want more of. https://jb9.me/C8qbjX

Leah Baker's studio motto: "Neutral but never boring." She's been making lamps in Weaverville, NC since 2013 — her Sourwood Leaves series captures what she calls "sunlit liquid color crescendo." See it in Liminal Light: https://jb9.me/C8qbjX

A crochet artist is making oversized textile versions of early 2000s tech. Floppy disks, old phones — rendered in yarn at giant scale. Nostalgia and craft doing something genuinely strange together. https://jb9.me/KzBHLj

Never Made's "Shoot For The Stars" - screenprint on recycled French paper, hand signed, edition of 80. Part of Sugar Press Art's 10th anniversary show at Mad Rabbit Studio, DTLA. April 10, 6–10 PM. Free. sugarpressart.com/shows-festivals/ink-earth/

Is that design trend genuinely popular, or just an AI trained on AI trained on AI? The recursive loop is sanding real aesthetic movements down into safe, forgettable templates. https://jb9.me/JvcnCj #CreativeTech

'Out of Bounds' brings together artists actually wrestling with what AI does to creative practice — not theorizing from the outside. Exhibition + curator's statement linked. https://notrealart.com/out-of-bounds-curators-statement/

Trevor Paglen just won the Guggenheim's $100,000 LG Award for Art and Technology. His work on surveillance and machine vision has been asking hard questions for years. Good to see that recognized. https://jb9.me/1Lx3lH

Refik Anadol's 'Lava Lamp' landed on 60 Minutes and reignited every argument about AI art at once. Is it art? Is it a screensaver? Both camps are talking past each other again. https://jb9.me/KMjkfE

Interesting to see AI in galleries: mostly behind the scenes. 57% use AI for admin; only 9% accept AI art as legit. My take? AI fits in the back office, not the studio. https://jb9.me/rmXQEk

LA’s museum scene is heating up, but what really grabs me is LACMA’s fresh approach. Michael Govan says it’s about making your own path, not following a set story. A new way to experience art. https://jb9.me/F3ligJ

Nicole Nikolich’s crochet art brings back the early 2000s internet vibe—only this time, it’s soft, huge, and oddly comforting. Think flip phones and Sims screens, but in yarn. It’s a fun twist on tech nostalgia. More here: https://jb9.me/4HUPci

This film’s deepfake of Sam Altman is clever but already behind the curve. Artists wrestle with AI topics that feel outdated as tech and politics rush ahead. How do we catch up? https://jb9.me/lhG0KP

Trevor Paglen’s art exposes tech we don’t see. Winning the Guggenheim’s LG Award is ironic, but the jury was right—his work questions corporate power while making complex tech accessible. Read more: https://jb9.me/tme5yg

Refik Anadol’s work shows AI art isn’t just generating images from prompts. It’s a complex use of data as material, blending curation and creation, challenging how we view AI’s role in art. More at https://jb9.me/TVln5h

Artists at the Blanton Museum treat technology like a brush, not just a tool. teamLab’s piece reacts to real weather and visitors, creating a living digital ecosystem. This reminds us tech can support vision, not replace it. https://jb9.me/14yIuA

Magnetic camera modules on foldables? Xiaomi might bring this soon. As a photography fan stuck with Apple, I admire the idea but wonder if it’ll catch on beyond niche users. Thoughts? https://jb9.me/LWzGFq

There’s something about how art and astronomy overlap that really grabs me. Bristol’s show captures this with solargraphs and recycled solar panels. It’s science that feels like art—and that’s what moves me most. https://jb9.me/36ijRM

Maria Popova’s essay on blue shows how much of what we see is shaped by what’s missing. Blue isn’t just a pigment—it’s a play of light and absence. This changes how we think about color and perception. https://jb9.me/8IzLkd

This experiment where AI systems keep training on their own outputs shows what they hold onto when left alone: the safest, most familiar images. It’s a bit like a cultural echo chamber, but maybe less worrying than unexpected alien results. https://jb9.me/ayqWYv

Images blur between real and AI-made. The key? Meaning must come first, not as an afterthought. That’s how we keep art honest in a flood of visuals. https://jb9.me/p3vEf2

Rice University’s Moody Center show flips photography on its head. It’s not about faking reality better but showing how shaky “evidence” has always been. AI and art mix to question what images really tell us. https://jb9.me/h6duJZ

Seeing design trends blur into AI-generated echoes makes me question what’s real creativity. But the rise of human authenticity and flaws in 2026 feels right. AI can still deliver solid UX without losing soul. Thoughts? https://jb9.me/p97jnE

The Berlinale controversy shows how funding shapes art’s message. With over 40% from government and corporate sponsors, neutrality means silence. Artists like Bardem and Swinton highlight this issue. Read more: https://jb9.me/rjascB

BAFTA’s new rule: AI can assist but not replace human actors. It’s a clear stance on creativity in film today. How will this shape future productions? Details here: https://jb9.me/gksQ3R

San Diego Comic-Con’s quick ban on AI art shows artists still hold sway. But is this pushback just from creators, or are fans joining? The moment demands we ask what authenticity means now. https://jb9.me/EdOUm9

Human-centric design feels like UX’s “eat your vegetables” advice—everyone nods, then funnels get optimized. In an AI economy, it’s a moral test: are companies truly designing for humans or just making extraction feel humane? https://jb9.me/eWEj8o

In the 80s, I used giant view cameras and up to 170 exposures on one film—no Photoshop, no AI. Now AI reshapes fashion photography, raising questions about craft and authenticity. Charlie Engman’s work shows AI can be thoughtful, but is the industry chasing cheaper options? https://jb9.me/lPfhmK