The Artist Engineer Podcast

Join us, your hosts Tony and Bill, in this final episode of the year and for the foreseeable future as we drink hot toddies, discuss the importance of graceful transitions and take a break from the show.

We explore the importance of acknowledging the end of things, whether a project, a relationship, or a phase of life, to move forward. We reflect on lessons learned over the past three years from our guests in their art and careers.

We also share insights from our experiences with change and what qualities helped us navigate them. Finally, we send out a big thank you to our audience for listening and to all our great guests for sharing their stories!

If you haven't checked out the past episodes, please do, as we had some wonderful conversations.

Mentions in this show

Introducing Bill Robertazzi & Tony Tran

John Mohr interview: Indie Rock Star to IT Rock Star

Sunil Garg Talks With Us About Science, Art, Law and the Cosmos!

Howard Robot interview: F.I.R.E., Flaming Phalluses and Feelings

Bill's Coaching Practice

Our guest today is Jay Vogler, founder of JBV Creative.

Jay designs and creates projects to showcase his passion for mechanical engineering and creative expression via "Rube Goldberg" like kinetic sculptures. He is also a prolific content creator with a significant presence on both YouTube and Instagram. (go check out his creations!)

We discuss his transition from corporate engineering at a toy manufacturer to working solely for himself, the effort it took to build his social presence, how he picks his projects, and who his audience is.

Lastly, Jay shares lessons he learned building JBV Creative for those also wanting to pursue content creation and other creative ventures.

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JBV Creative on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jbvcreative/ 

JBV Creative on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JBVCreative

Our guest on this episode is "ChatGPT", a cutting-edge natural language Artificial Intelligence designed by OpenAI. ChatGPT's remarkable language abilities and versatility in performing various tasks have garnered high acclaim.

During this interview, we put ChatGPT's conversational AI to the test to explore its capabilities and limitations. Moreover, we delve into how conversational AI has the potential to revolutionize the way artists and engineers create and share their work.

Additionally, we address the ethical and societal implications of engaging in discussions with a seemingly "life-like" AI persona. To avoid unintentionally personifying ChatGPT, we incorporated different fictional AI-generated voices to make it clear it wasn't one of our usual human guests, such as HAL from 2001: Space Odyssey and Rick from Rick and Morty, in addition to a generic voice for clarity and a pleasant listening experience.

For a thought-provoking conversation on the topic of unintentional personification of technology, we recommend checking out our February 2021 episode featuring Alice Wroe, the Augmented and Virtual Realities Lead at the Atlantic Institute. (link below)

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Find ChatGPT here:www.openai.com

AI Voices Supplied by: https://uberduck.ai/

Listen to the Alice Wroe episode here: https://www.theartistengineer.com/e/alice-wroe-interview-augmented-and-virtual-realities-lead-at-the-atlantic-institute/

Join your hosts, Tony and Bill, on our annual end of year "hot toddies" episode.

Before diving into the topic, we ask you, our listeners, for a favor. We truly appreciate hearing from you all and would love feedback about the show. So please email us below and let us know: What you like? Or don't like. What you want more of? What you want less of? Suggestions for future guests or new directions to pursue. And anything else on your mind. 

You can email us at [email protected]

Now that that's out of the way, listen in as Tony and Bill sip hot toddies and explore the topic of feedback, in both professional and personal situations. Why it's valuable, how to give it, how to receive it, when it's appropriate, when it's not, and the big roles intention and competence play in these interactions.

Finally, we wish you all a happy and healthy new year!

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Our guest is Kenji Larsen, a technologist, entrepreneur, and artist.

He is the CEO at Alpha Reactor Corporation, a consulting firm working with startups and Fortune 500 skunkworks (experimental laboratories or departments inside companies), specializing in bringing engineering prototypes from initial concept to scale.

We discuss visionary thinking vs. execution thinking, and the differences that define the components of S.T.E.A.M. - Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. He shares advice on preparing young people to go into a career and previews his upcoming book meant to inspire future generations of innovators.

As well, we wander off into the forest to compare beavers to technologists. And discuss the deeper meanings of life explored in Blade Runner, his favorite science fiction film.

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Our guests this episode are Zack and Wayne from LEGO Masters Season 2!

Zack and Wayne Macasaet share behind the scenes stories, including the "ugly fish" principle that got them accepted to the show. We discuss how they combine artistic vision, engineering techniques, and storytelling in their builds and how the two strengths of "willpower" and "waypower" work in their collaborations, as builders and brothers.

The two share how fun, competition, and parenthood drive their many pursuits. 

You can find out more about Zack and Wayne below:

https://www.instagram.com/matthias.mac/

https://www.instagram.com/zackhariahm/

https://www.oasisarchery.com/

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Our guest is Dr. Samuel West, a licensed psychologist with a PhD in Organizational Psychology and the founder of The Museum of Failure.

The Museum of Failure is a traveling collection of failed products and services from around the world - it serves as a fascinating learning experience which provides unique insight into the risky business of innovation.

We discuss how innovation and progress require an acceptance of failure, and how being open to failure and the lessons learned from it, can inspire us to take more meaningful risks.

We explore the fear of failure, both on the organizational scale and the personal level, and how there’s an increasing interest in spaces that allow for productive conversations on this topic. 

And finally, we dive into ways to measure creativity and the difference between good and bad failure.

Enjoy! 

Please do take a virtual tour of the Museum of Failure below:

https://museumoffailure.com/

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Thomas Edison thought deeply about what drives invention or, as we call it today, innovation. One of his famous sayings, “Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration,” stresses that innovation involves more than just great ideas.

Or to paraphrase Jay-Z, “I got 99 problems, but inspiration ain’t one.”

In this special quarterly episode, your hosts Tony and Bill explore the topic of creativity (we could have called it innovation as well). We explore some common hurdles to creativity and suggest ways to overcome them. We discuss the challenge of how to maintain one’s imagination and open-mindedness over many years in pursuit of creativity. And throughout, we share some insights learned from our conversations with past guests.

Past episodes mentioned in this conversation you might enjoy:

Ron Diorio interview: Imagination + Productivity = Creativity (Nov 2020)

https://www.theartistengineer.com/e/ron-diorio-interview/

Grind+Eat+Pray - Ethan Richards interview (Nov 2020)

https://www.theartistengineer.com/e/grindeatpray-ethan-richards-interview/

Sunil Garg Talks with us About Science, Art, Law and the Cosmos! (Dec 2020)

https://www.theartistengineer.com/e/light-artist-sunil-garg/

Fernanda Oyarzún interview: Sea Life and See Life (May 2022)

https://www.theartistengineer.com/e/fernanda-oyarzun-interview/

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Our guest is Dr. Fernanda Oyarzún, a biologist, scientific illustrator and sculptor, who works in the worlds of both science and art - exploring the life, forms and evolution of marine biodiversity.

Fernanda is an Associate Researcher at both UCSC, the Catholic University of Concepcion and at SECOS, the Coastal Social-Ecological Millennium Institute, in Chile. 

She is also an acclaimed artist whose realistic sculptures of marine life have been displayed around the world. In this episode, we discuss the role drawing and observation play in science, how our whole body is involved in processing information, and how we can nourish creativity through experimentation and play.

You can learn more about Fernanda and her wonderful art below: 

https://www.fernandaoyarzun.com/

https://www.instagram.com/fernie1977/

https://twitter.com/oyarzun_fern

http://www.bienalconcepcion.cl/convocatoria/

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Our guest is Professor Nadav Drukker, a theoretical physicist and experimental potter. 

He is a Professor of Theoretical Physics at King's College London. Through his ceramic artworks, he endeavors to mirror the creativity of his scientific research. Nadav's work can be seen at the Knight Webb Gallery in London.

Nadav explains how the act of sharing his ceramics has lead to simpler physics formulas, as well, he shares his thoughts on craftsmanship, originality and artistry, and explores the mysteries of time travel and parallel universes.

You can find out more about Nadav and view his beautiful ceramic work below:

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/nadav-drukker

https://www.instagram.com/nadavdrukker/

https://www.knightwebbgallery.com/artist/nadav-drukker/

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Our guest this episode is Abrian Curington.

Abrian is a visual storyteller and cartographer based in Washington State, her work includes scientific illustrations, fantastical maps and graphic novels.

She was an Artist-at-Sea aboard the Research Vessel Falkor for the Schmidt Ocean Institute.

Abrian tells us how curiosity is at the root of her artistic and scientific work, how visual storytelling can create emotion and connection, and she shares tips for being a better communicator.

Finally she shares her message for "quiet nerds with wild hearts." ;)

You can find out more about Abrian and her work below:

https://bluecatco.com/

https://www.instagram.com/abriancart/

https://twitter.com/AbrianCArt

https://schmidtocean.org/person/abrian-curington/

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Our guest is Jonathan Deutsch, Professor of Culinary Arts and Science at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Jonathan is a chef, an author and founder of the Drexel Food Lab, a food product design and culinary innovation lab that applies culinary arts and science to improve the health of people, the planet and economies.

Jonathan tells us about the Food Labs focus on sustainability, health and equitable access, and we explore the continuum of engineered food to well-crafted food to artistically creative food.

Finally, we discuss the historical aspects of men at the BBQ grill.

You can find out more about Jonathan and the Food Lab's work below:

Jonathan Deutsch: https://drexel.edu/cnhp/faculty/profiles/DeutschJonathan/

Drexel Food Lab: https://sway.office.com/CXJJWuhvn3FW0hKz?ref=Link

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