Music 360°

ALEXEY DANILIN CONCEIVES ‘hope’ CERAMIC TABLE LAMP for MAYTONIDesigned by Alexey Danilin for German lighting brand Maytoni, Hope is a table lamp composed almost entirely of natural ceramic. Conceived for mass production within technical and budgetary parameters, the design replaces conventional fabric or metal shades with a split ceramic envelope, allowing approximately 90% of the fixture’s mass to remain recyclable at the end of its lifecycle. Hope table lamp was designed by Alexey Danilin for German lighting manufacturer Maytoni | image ©Sebastian KruthofferLED MODULES PROJECT REFLECTED LIGHT THROUGH SLIT OF SPLIT VOLUMESFor the lamp’s sculptural silhouette, designer Alexey Danilin draws inspiration from classical Roman statuary and traditional pottery forms, pairing curved, arching geometries with contemporary product design. Internally, integrated LED boards are oriented to direct illumination outward through the central gap separating the two ceramic halves, utilizing surface reflection to soften light output. A central vertical stem fastens the two ceramic elements, capped by a small metal sphere at the top.

Tens of thousands gathered at Place d’Italie in Paris for a march led in part by culture-sector coalitions demanding a better life for artists. Artists, art students, and cultural workers joined hundreds of thousands of protesters marching across France on October 24, 2026. (photo Nicolas Tucat / AFP via Getty Images)

flash forest plants for life after wildfiresAcross the blackened forests of northern Quebec, drones fly above the remains of burned trees, launching small, seed-filled capsules into the earth. Each carries the beginnings of a new tree, packed with ingredients intended to help it grow in damaged soil. The system is developed by Canadian company Flash Forest, which is using aerial technology to replant landscapes devastated by wildfire, including remote areas that are difficult to reach on foot. The work follows Quebec’s devastating 2023 wildfire season, when around 4.5 million hectares of forest burned across the province. Flash Forest has since expanded its planting operations across Canada. According to its latest impact report, the company planted 686,147 trees across five sites in 2025, covering 429 hectares of burned forest. The technology allows large areas to be seeded quickly while keeping heavy planting equipment off the forest floor.

If you were on the internet in 2015, you likely followed the twisty tale of the Wu-Tang Clan‘s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. The Staten Island hip-hop titans conceived of the album as a conceptual artwork, a protest against the cheapening of music in the age of widespread piracy. Rather than release the music to the general public, the work was sold at auction for a reported $2 million to a then-anonymous American buyer, seemingly proving that music could sell at the level of Picasso and Warhol. It proved a Pyrrhic victory when the buyer was revealed to be the hated “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli. The episode was a bitter lesson for the group, resulting in resentment and division. Even Clan member Method Man said, “Fuck that album. … When music can’t be music and y’all turning it into something else, fuck that. Give it to the people, if they want to hear the shit, let them have it. Give it away free.” (He somewhat softened his stance recently, on finally hearing the album.)

In September 1991, I had just been thrown into the meat-grinder of a Midlands boarding school. In this bear pit, there were predators and there was prey. You were either the swaggering rugby alpha, whipping a wet towel at pale bodies in the eight-boy dormitory; or the homesick ghost, keeping your guard up, endlessly braced for your toilet cubicle to be kicked open or your washbag chucked off the fire escape. My mind had always been loud, racing with opinions, stories, jokes. But by the time I adequately considered a thought, the conversation had raced on without me. Suddenly, under 24/7 social scrutiny in a world where bullhorn confidence is king, I felt dismissed. Up to that point, music hadn’t helped. Every rock star I had ever seen – Elton John, Freddie Mercury, Mick Jagger – was a showboating peacock, all hips, handclaps and absurd glasses, seeming to whisper in my ear: “This isn’t for you, bookworm.” But that September, I stumbled across the Stone Roses’ self-titled 1989 debut album. I must have seen John Squire’s genius before I heard it, on his paint-splashed, lemon-drizzled sleeve art.

The latest on the student protests in France, the art world’s AI problem, one-on-one with Rosana Paulino, and Beer With a Painter featuring Melissa Brown. The subway car rattles, shakes, and screeches as it tunnels us from Brooklyn to Manhattan underneath the East River. I hold on tight to a pole, while my eyes are fixed on an ad for the Broadway musical Les Misérables. My social media feed shows me only looting and vandalism in France, painting a violent picture of the largely peaceful student protests. Panicking, the art world’s blue-chip class shuts down Art Basel Paris early and flees the city. The Louvre also closes to protect its treasures. Loot a little and they throw you in jail; loot a lot and they let you open a museum. I get to a benefit dinner for an art residency held in a former bank. A peppy auctioneer asks the who’s who to open their hearts and wallets. Paddles go up and down, and a donation ticker on a big screen climbs to astronomical numbers while I admire the building’s huge stained-glass skylight.

Vertical dramas – that is, short-form content made specifically for phones – are big business in 2026. They are particularly popular in countries such as China and India, and the global market is expected to be worth $26bn by 2030. It makes sense: much has been made of the double-screening epidemic, and of people scrolling so much that Netflix has to remind them what is going on on their TV screens every few seconds. Why not just cut out the middleman and ditch the telly bit altogether? Enter Channel 4, which has released its first vertical drama on social media in the UK. It’s described as “a bold, character-led series” that explores “the friendship, ambition and lives of a diverse group of intelligent young women”. The Guest List is made in partnership with the skincare brand Sol de Janeiro, and episodes are around 90 seconds to two minutes in length. The microdramas that have gripped Asia are camp and cliffhanger-heavy – one producer described them as “soap operas on cocaine”. The Guest List is less cocaine, more Coke Zero: sweet, syrupy, probably not bad for you but not especially good either. Anodyne.

The Irish traditional musician Dónal Lunny has died at the age of 79 from cancer. Lunny rose to prominence in the trio Rakes of Kildare alongside his brother Frank and Christy Moore. He went on to play in bands such as Planxty, Moving Hearts, the Bothy Band and Coolfin among others and toured the world. A post on his Facebook page confirmed that Lunny died in St James’s hospital in Dublin on Friday morning. “We are heartbroken to confirm that our beloved Dónal passed away peacefully this morning in Dublin following a short stay in St James’s hospital,” the post said. “Thank you for helping us to remember and celebrate his immense contribution to music, to culture and to so many people’s lives all over the world.”Catherine Connolly said Lunny was ‘central to so many of the most influential moments of the last 60 years of Irish music’. Photograph: Niall Carson/PAThe Irish president, Catherine Connolly, expressed her “deepest condolences to the family, friends and many musical collaborators of Dónal Lunny”.

The literary power couple is a historically seductive concept. Two writers sharing a life, their private and creative worlds entwined, each becoming witness to and critic of the other’s work. Think Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne. Or, less auspiciously, Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. Now, into this illustrious company steps a new pair: the novelist Marlon James and the biographer Nicholas Boggs, whose books have each been shortlisted for one of Britain’s most prestigious literary awards – James for the Booker prize and Boggs for the Baillie Gifford prize for nonfiction. Between them, they have produced two formidable books, each the culmination of years of work, and each concerned with the lives of Black queer men whose stories have often been overlooked. “I’m not sure what to do with it,” James says, when I ask how they feel about the inevitable impending “literary power couple” label. “I have all these romantic notions that we were like Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne or something – I don’t know. What do you think?” He turns to Boggs, who laughs. “It’s all very new,” he says.

through a restrained palette of granite, plaster and steel, the project explores how simplicity, materiality and spatial continuity can transform a compact home into an open, cohesive and characterful living space. Oroco edited by christina vergopoulou October 24, 2026 3 min prefer designboom on googleOROCO STUDIO RECONFIGURES 40-SQM APARTMENT IN MADRIDRS19 is the renovation of a 40-sqm apartment in Madrid’s Palacio neighborhood, designed by OROCO Studio. Conceived as a first home, the project explores how a limited surface can accommodate everyday life while creating a sense of openness and spatial generosity. The intervention rethinks the existing layout to establish a more fluid relationship between spaces, prioritising continuity, functionality and the perception of depth. Rather than relying on an abundance of partitions or decorative gestures, the design seeks to achieve more with less, allowing the architecture and its material qualities to define the character of the interior.all images ©OROCO StudioGRANITE, PLASTER, AND STEEL ANCHOR RESTRAINED MATERIAL PALETTEA restrained palette of granite, plaster, and steel forms the foundation of the project by Oroco Studio.

I’m suspicious of travelogues, which often feature celebrities in contrived situations, serving up a sentimental postcard of a place that is tantamount to a lie. I also hate how famous people are inexorably drawn to golf: a boring game historically predicated on a rancid mix of social exclusivity and extensive land ownership. So it was perverse of me to watch a show in which author Tom Coyne drives around Ireland playing various courses with his friend, actor Bill Murray. It’s the perfect intersection of none of my interests. I was, however, hooked by a strange promise in A Course Called Ireland’s introductory sequence. “This is not a show about golf,” it says. “It’s not even a show about Bill Murray.” This was immediately followed by a scene in which an Irish woman standing by the roadside misidentified the actor as Bill Cosby. OK, I thought. What are they teeing up here? There’s a hole in at least one of those promises. A Course Called Ireland (Sunday 25 October, 9.30pm, BBC Two) is intended to be a jocular road trip, in which the two friends meet colourful characters and reflect on their own Irish heritage, between spectacular rounds on the rugged links.

A fitting tribute to the late star’s breakout album 20 years after its release, this special concert was held at the Roundhouse in north London earlier this week. It’s led by a team close to Winehouse’s music, including the album’s producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi, and features the Amy Winehouse Band playing all the hits including Valerie and Rehab. Special guests include Corinne Bailey Rae, Flo, Jessie Reyez and Jorja Smith. Hollie RichardsonStrictly Come Dancing6.30pm, BBC One We’ve already had a few themed weeks in this year’s competition, but now it’s back to basics. Lacey and Vito will be doing the tango to a Blondie banger; Cach and Maddie will take on a cha cha to Måneskin; and it’s time to jive with Lawrence and Jowita. HRSecrets of the Viking Ship With Bettany Hughes8pm, Channel 4

Siobhán McSweeney is teaching me her preferred way to enjoy a packet of cheese and onion crisps. She has arranged two matching slabs of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate, two piles of Tayto crisps and two cans of Guinness on the table in front of us – and is issuing strict instructions. “Don’t swallow!” she booms theatrically, and I freeze, my mouth full of Taytos. The trick, McSweeney explains, is to get the crisps, chocolate and Guinness into your mouth at the same time, and then swill it all around a bit to make a kind of boozy, oniony soup. “See?” McSweeney is watching me carefully to check I am putting all the ingredients into my mouth in the correct order. “It’s delicious! Just delicious!”McSweeney burst into the public consciousness back in 2018 with Derry Girls, a comedy series about a group of Catholic schoolgirls, set against the background of the Troubles in 1990s Northern Ireland. McSweeney won a Bafta playing the girls’ headmistress, Sister Michael – a potty-mouthed, judo-loving nun – and can count Martin Scorsese as a fan.

KINETIC THREAD COLUMN installation draws from SUDARE SCREENSCreated by Japanese artist, engineer, and researcher Youtaro Sakamoto, Schattenrequisit: Column is a kinetic installation formed from fine threads that explores the relationship between architectural permanence, human presence, and shifting shadow projections. Drawing conceptual inspiration from the light-filtering properties of sudare (traditional Japanese slatted screens), the project treats physical material and immaterial shadows as unified components of a single sculptural composition.all images ©Manabu TanakaANIMATING STATIC ARCHITECTURAL FORMS THROUGH HUMAN MOVEMENTThe installation takes the form of an architectural column constructed from closely spaced fine threads. Integrated millimeter-wave sensors detect the proximity of visitors, triggering a stepper motor developed through computational design and physical prototyping. In response to movement within the space, the motor slowly rotates and shifts the thread assembly, altering the overlap of the linear strands and continuously transforming the shadow silhouettes cast across surrounding walls and floors.

KINETIC THREAD COLUMN installation draws from SUDARE SCREENSCreated by Japanese artist, engineer, and researcher Yotaro Sakamoto, Schattenrequisit: Column is a kinetic installation formed from fine threads that explores the relationship between architectural permanence, human presence, and shifting shadow projections. Drawing conceptual inspiration from the light-filtering properties of sudare (traditional Japanese slatted screens), the project treats physical material and immaterial shadows as unified components of a single sculptural composition.all images ©Yotaro SakamotoANIMATING STATIC ARCHITECTURAL FORMS THROUGH HUMAN MOVEMENTThe installation takes the form of an architectural column constructed from closely spaced fine threads. Integrated millimeter-wave sensors detect the proximity of visitors, triggering a stepper motor developed through computational design and physical prototyping. In response to movement within the space, the motor slowly rotates and shifts the thread assembly, altering the overlap of the linear strands and continuously transforming the shadow silhouettes cast across surrounding walls and floors.

at florida southern college, the restored 1950s-era building reopens with its original circular seating and new digital projection system. kat barandy October 23, 2026 5 min prefer designboom on googlea dome full of stars returns to florida southern collegeTwo rings of curved red seating surround a central projector beneath the domed ceiling of Frank Lloyd Wright‘s only built planetarium, which has reopened at Florida Southern College in Lakeland. After more than two decades without regular star shows, the 1950s building has been restored by a team led by Jeff Baker of MCWB Architects. Its original seating has been returned to Wright’s circular arrangement, and a new digital projection system brings the night sky back overhead. The Miller Planetarium welcomed the public again on September 26th, 2026. The planetarium occupies the southern end of the Polk Science Building, part of the college‘s collection of thirteen Wright-designed structures. Built between 1954 and 1958, its pale concrete walls are patterned with geometric textile blocks, while a white dome rises above the surrounding low-slung buildings.

On protest, business as usual, and the surreal experience of attending an art fair while smelling burning plastic. A visitor looks at an Anish Kapoor painting at Art Basel Paris 2026. (all photos Naima Morelli/Hyperallergic)

When the Milwaukee Brewers face the Tampa Bay Rays in game one of the 122nd World Series tonight, they will be playing for more than just the right to hoist the sterling silver Commissioner’s Trophy after four wins. A rival museum’s Monet is also on the line. The teams’ local art museums—the Milwaukee Art Museum, four miles east of where the Brewers play at American Family Field, and the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, just over a mile west of the Rays’ Tropicana Field—have entered into a friendly wager, wherein the winning city’s museums earns the right to borrow a Monet painting from the loser’s collection.

A Virginia man allegedly beheaded one of six statues at the Iwo Jima monument near the Quantico Marine base, causing what police estimated was hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. According to the incident report, Prince William County police arrived at the site Wednesday night to find 27-year-old Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano “actively damaging the statue with a sledgehammer.” The attack cost one of the monument’s Marines his head and left a second figure’s helmet and face “chipped and gouged.” The stone bayonet from the rifle carved over the back of a third statue was also missing.

In the legal system, art created by refugees and incarcerated people can serve both as a form of therapy and as evidence of mass atrocities. A woman weeps in the foreground of a painting by Rohingya artist Enayet Khan, set against scenes of violence committed by Myanmar’s military during the Rohingya genocide. (image courtesy Enayet Khan)

As an artist who lived through the Reagan-era Culture Wars, I recommend Isaac Butler’s “The Perfect Moment” for the stories that parallel our current fight to defend creative expression. A self-portrait by Robert Mapplethorpe projected onto the facade of the Corcoran Gallery of Art during a protest on 30, 1989 (photo Carol Guzy/the Washington Post via Getty Images, all images courtesy Bloomsbury)

The rapper called his forthcoming film, "JEAN," a “love letter” to the late artist and ’80s New York in his announcement on October 21. Left: American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–88), c. 1985 (photo Rose Hartman via Getty Images); right: Kid Cudi in 2025 (photo Alan Chapman/Dave Benett via Getty Images)

It’s a provocative and discursive exploration of how artists respond to our late-capitalist epoch, but its focus on “rupture” raises questions. Detail of Wen Liu, "In Light, Where Edges Yield" (2025), prescribed herbal medicine, epoxy clay, resin, acrylic, varnish, stainless steel (photo Rebecca Tisdelle-Macias, courtesy Toronto Biennial of Art; all other photos Neil Price/Hyperallergic)

A ghost light is the name for a single lamp left on stage when a theatre is dark, and one glows throughout John Neumeier’s ballet Ghost Light. Also never not glowing is Alina Cojocaru, superlative ballerina and guest dancer with London City Ballet, who has a longtime working relationship with Neumeier and his Hamburg Ballet – with whom this work was originally created in 2020. When Cojocaru materialises onstage in silence, so ethereal it’s almost mystical, she is like a ghost of Swan Lake’s Odette, wings fluttering, eyes half closed, lost in a memory. Cojocaru’s divine delicacy embodies all of the romance of ballet, until suddenly her steps glitch, she stumbles over a chair and comes to. The stage is a place of dreams, for all the dancers who have crossed its boards and will continue to do so (superstition says that ghost lamps also allow spirits of former dancers to return to the stage). Neumeier evokes some of these dances in this piece, from a stray sylph upstage, to earnest solos, sparky allegro and two young men in a tender duet, passing each other sometimes in parallel worlds, sometimes in moments of connection. Time and its circularity …

The Prix Marcel Duchamp jury announced Thursday that it has awarded the 2026 prize to artist duo David Brognon and Stéphanie Rollin, known for their multidisciplinary practice that spans installation, sculpture, video, performance, and photography. The Prix Marcel Duchamp is considered France’s most prestigious art prize, with winners recieving €35,000, or just over $40,000. For the award, a jury typically selects four nominees, who show together at the Centre Pompidou in October. This year, however, five nominees were chosen—Malagasy artist Joël Andrianomearisoa, Josèfa Ntjam, a participant in last year’s Bienal de São Paulo, artist and filmmaker Laura Henno, and Brognon and Rollin—and the annual exhibition was held at Musée d’Arte Moderne de Paris due to the Pompidou’s extended closure.