The Intersect: Art in Tech and Tech in Art - Creativity in the Crossfire: Artists, Platforms, and a Changing Industry

Greetings from Juergen

Hi friends,

This week, I’ve put together a fascinating range of stories highlighting the intricate and sometimes thorny intersections of art and technology. First, we explore Geoffrey Pugen’s "Webtology: Prisms," a visually stunning mix of digital textures and salvaged materials that raises questions about the meaning of technology-driven art. Then, I take a closer look at Spotify’s $10 billion payouts to the music industry and unpack the stark inequalities that persist for independent creators.

We’ll also examine the growing tension between artists and AI, with platforms quietly exploiting creative content, and how tools like Glaze and Nightshade are helping artists fight back. And if you’re curious about AI’s attempts to tackle ancient philosophy, there’s a piece about HumanDesign.ai—a system claiming to merge mysticism with machine learning. Lastly, I highlight an all-women-led game art studio redefining outsourcing and a thought-provoking exhibition in Amsterdam that confronts the eerie "ghosts" of AI-generated imagery.

Catch this week’s stories on "The Intersect: Art in Tech and Tech in Art" podcast, where we unpack these topics in a conversational format. Subscribe today!

Art Narratives

Webtology: Prisms by Geoffrey Pugen at MKG127

Geoffrey Pugen’s Webtology: Prisms at MKG127, as described in Thisispaper, reconstructs digital debris into layered, speculative landscapes. Using AI-generated textures, 3D modeling, and salvaged materials, Pugen’s work blends past and present, collapsing utopian sci-fi visions into fragmented digital artifacts. His video sculptures—a black hole and a crystal—symbolize entropy and renewal, questioning how technology shapes our perception of time, decay, and transformation.

I’ve seen a lot of exhibitions lately that throw AI, AR, and VR into the mix, often with vague commentary on "technology’s impact" or "digital futures." The materials and themes of Webtology: Prisms are intriguing, but I keep coming back to a few questions: What’s the guiding principle behind this kind of curation? What value is being added? Is this pushing the conversation forward—or just remixing familiar aesthetics?

"Is this a word salad merely inviting clicks, or is there something more substantial here?"

Where is the line between meaningful critique and visual spectacle in tech-based art today?

Technology in Music

Spotify Paid More Than Ten Billion Dollars to the Music Industry in 2024

Spotify’s Loud & Clear report boasts a record $10 billion payout to the music industry in 2024, as covered by CBC. That sounds impressive—until you dig deeper. While 1,500 artists earned over $1 million, the vast majority are still making pennies per stream. And for songwriters? The numbers are even worse.

Spotify’s model benefits labels and top-tier artists, but independent musicians and writers are left scrambling. Exposure is great, but it doesn’t pay the rent. Meanwhile, Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek cashed out $376 million in stock last year—more than all U.S. songwriters combined made from the platform.

“Spotify continues to announce royalty payout numbers that distort the infinitesimal amount that ends up going to songwriters,” said David Israelite, president of the National Music Publishers’ Association.

How do we fix a system that thrives on artist-driven content but leaves most creators struggling?

AI in Visual Arts

New AI Bullshit Artists Have to Put Up With – Spring 2025 Edition & How to Protect Your Art Against AI

Julia Bausenhardt’s latest piece calls out the creeping AI policies on platforms like Pinterest and Skillshare. Pinterest is now using saved images to train AI, and Skillshare is quietly allowing AI companies to analyze teachers' video content. While both offer opt-outs, there’s little guarantee they’ll be honored. The article also revisits tools like Glaze and Nightshade that help artists safeguard their work from being scraped into AI datasets.

This trend of platforms shifting towards AI exploitation isn’t surprising, but it is exhausting. Artists are increasingly leaving Instagram for smaller, less exploitative spaces like Bluesky and FOTO, seeking communities where their work isn’t just fodder for algorithms.

“Don’t put your art in billionaire data silos like Instagram.”

How much longer will artists tolerate the slow erosion of control over their own work before abandoning these platforms entirely?

Substack

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Artificial Intelligence and Creativity

HumanDesign.ai Claims to Merge "Ancient Wisdom With Modern Technology"

HumanDesign.ai, a UK-based platform featured on TrendHunter, claims to merge astrology, the I Ching, Kabbalah, and quantum physics into an AI-powered system that reveals a person's inherent strengths and life purpose. It’s marketed as a tool for self-discovery, making this once niche framework more widely accessible. But when ancient wisdom meets machine learning, how much of the original depth is preserved?

I’m always skeptical when a tool promises transformation through automation. The richness of these mystical traditions comes from contemplation, personal interpretation, and lived experience. Can an algorithm truly distill that? Or does it flatten something deeply human into a neatly packaged digital fortune cookie?

"A transformative system that fuses elements from astrology, the I Ching, Kabbalah, and quantum physics to provide a detailed blueprint of an individual's inherent strengths, challenges, and life purpose." Makes me wonder about the difference between over-promising and under-delivering versus under-promising and over-delivering. Which category do you think this falls into?

Would love to hear—have you tried these AI-driven self-discovery tools? Did they resonate or just skim the surface?

Definitely Not AI

Mother Design's Global Rebrand of Scribd Positions It as the Antidote to AI

Mother Design’s rebrand of Scribd, covered by Creative Boom, positions the platform as an antidote to AI-generated noise. Scribd, long a resource for deep reading, now leans into its role as a trusted source for serious information seekers. The redesign embraces a scholarly aesthetic, drawing from physical archives to emphasize research and understanding over shallow, algorithm-driven summaries.

I’ve been familiar with Scribd for years, especially in podcasting, where having reliable reference materials is essential. Their ambition to promote democratic access to information is bold, but in a digital world increasingly dominated by AI-generated content, it’s also necessary. Whether their approach resonates widely remains to be seen, but I respect the intent.

The idea of a platform positioning itself as a curator of authentic knowledge, rather than just another content aggregator, is compelling. We need spaces that reward curiosity instead of just feeding engagement algorithms.

Can a brand identity really shift public perception in an era of information overload?

Gaming

Indomi Studio: An All-Women-Led Team in the Art Gaming Industry

Indomi Studio, an all-women-led game art outsourcing firm based in Armenia, is making waves in the gaming industry. PlayStation Universe highlights how this team is reshaping industry norms, proving that high-quality game art doesn’t require massive in-house teams. Their work spans concept art, 3D modeling, and animation, serving studios worldwide.

I love seeing women-led teams thrive in game development, especially in outsourcing. Too often, the art side of gaming is overshadowed by tech-heavy narratives, but studios like Indomi remind us that visual storytelling is just as crucial. Supporting diverse studios like this doesn’t just mean better representation — it enriches the creative landscape.

"Outsourcing in gaming has long been a necessity, but what Indomi Studio proves is that a specialized, independent team can bring a unique artistic voice to the table while still meeting industry demands."

What other underrepresented creative teams are out there reshaping the industry behind the scenes?

Virtual and Augmented Reality in Art

XR at SXSW 2025: Expanding the Boundaries of Immersion

SXSW’s XR showcase continues to push the boundaries of immersive storytelling, as covered in Forbes. From haptic-driven VR narratives to large-scale dome projections, this year’s lineup featured deeply personal and politically charged works. Cameron Kostopoulos’ In the Current of Being used haptic feedback to make participants physically feel the experiences of an electroshock conversion therapy survivor, while All I Know About Teacher Li turned censorship and digital activism into an interactive experience.

I still have to remind myself what XR actually stands for—extended reality, a mix of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality. While those immersed in the industry know it well, SXSW demonstrated how far the medium has expanded beyond the niche tech crowd.

"This shift allowed more attendees to engage without the throughput limitations of individual VR headsets." That’s a big deal. The bottleneck of traditional VR is that only a few people can experience it at a time. These multi-user, non-headset installations open new possibilities for accessibility and audience engagement.

Are these experiences storytelling, technology, or something entirely new?

Exhibitions & Events

Amsterdam’s Upstream Gallery Haunted by Machine Intelligence

Amsterdam’s Upstream Gallery is hosting Ghosts, a new exhibition curated by Anne de Jong, which examines AI-generated entities that exist in a liminal space between real and unreal. Featuring works by artists like Holly Herndon, Mat Dryhurst, and Jonas Lund, the show explores the eerie presence of machine-generated figures that mimic human traits while remaining fundamentally alien. HOLO Magazine covers how the exhibit interrogates the ways AI reflects and distorts humanity.

We often talk about the "uncanny valley" here at The Intersect—that uneasy spot where something looks almost human but feels disturbingly off. AI-generated faces and voices are no longer just unsettling imitations; they’re becoming part of our visual and cultural landscape. This exhibition digs deeper, not just into how AI mimics us, but how its distortions expose hidden biases, ghost labor, and the uncomfortable truth that these systems reinforce past human decisions.

“Yet the ghostly appearances of people in AI-generated imagery have an uncanny quality: they seem human yet feel profoundly unfamiliar. They reveal how AI looks back at us, reflecting humanity like a funhouse mirror. This uncanny character extends beyond just images to the mysterious workings of the "black box" that generative AI systems represent.”

Are we becoming numb to these digital ghosts, or do they still haunt us in ways we don't yet understand?

The Last Word

Thanks for spending time with me exploring these stories. I truly appreciate your curiosity and engagement with the ever-shifting dialogue between art and technology. If you have thoughts, questions, or even your own stories to share, I’d love to hear from you—this space thrives on your perspectives.

Let’s continue to push the conversation forward and uncover what lies beneath the surface of these fascinating intersections. Until next time, keep asking questions and seeking out the unexpected.

Warmly, Juergen