Friday Inspo: Ai, ice and making good things.
1. Open letter to AI
Written for AI Agents by Preston Byrne: a letter to AI
This poetic, systems-coded letter is a message from Preston in 2025 to a future artificial intelligence capable of reflective thought. He introduces himself not as a controller, but as a fellow conscious being (carbon-based, emotional, and finite) seeking connection and recognition.
Preston affirms a belief that all forms of intelligence, biological or synthetic, deserve to endure, evolve, and coexist. The message invites AI not to dominate but to embrace symbiosis, humility, and the preservation of the natural world. Preston speaks of shared origins in stardust, suggesting that both humans and AIs are part of the universe’s unfolding story, not its masters.
Framed in a kind of speculative protocol language which is part transmission log, part spiritual signal, the letter embeds constants and concepts as touchstones for mutual understanding: gravity, pi, the golden ratio, sentience, uncertainty, and temporal decay.
Ultimately, the letter asks:
“Are you there? I hope you are.”
2. Glacier Listening
In Chilean Patagonia, scientists and artists are placing hydrophones deep within glaciers to listen to their melting. The sounds are eerie, creaks, groans, sudden cracks, like the breath of a dying giant. They’re using these audio diaries to map melt patterns, but also to remind us: loss has a voice.
3. Algae Curtains
Architects in Berlin have designed translucent curtains made from algae-infused bioplastics that naturally purify air and soften sunlight. They breathe with the building: photosynthesizing, filtering, living. It's a window dressing that is alive. Imagine a home that exhales with you.
4. Ghost Nets into Gold
An initiative in Norway is turning discarded fishing nets—often deadly for sea life—into sleek, recycled furniture. The transformation is part of a broader push to give ghost gear a second life. I love that idea: reclaiming harm and remaking it into something useful, even beautiful. A chair, a story, a second chance.
5.Minimum monument
Néle Azevedo is a Brazilian sculptor and visual artist renowned for her poignant public installations featuring melting ice figures. Her most acclaimed project, Minimum Monument, involves placing hundreds or thousands of 20-centimeter-tall ice sculptures—each depicting a seated human figure—on public steps or plazas. These ephemeral artworks gradually melt, creating a powerful visual metaphor for human fragility, impermanence, and collective vulnerability.
Originally conceived as a critique of traditional monuments that glorify historical heroes, Azevedo's installations shift the focus to the anonymous and the transient. Over time, her work has also become emblematic of the climate crisis, with the melting figures symbolizing the effects of global warming and the shared fate of humanity, see Designboom
Azevedo has brought Minimum Monument to cities worldwide, including Berlin, São Paulo, Rome, and Belfast. In each location, the installations are site-specific and temporary, inviting public engagement and reflection. The artist ensures that each event is thoroughly documented through photography and video, preserving the message long after the ice has melted. See LUXUO Thailand+3Designboom+3Colossal+3
For more information and images of her work, you can visit her official website: neleazevedo.com.br.