Link About It: This Week’s Picks

Belgium's beautiful bike route, Australia's guerilla environmental group, Sweden's floating hotel and more from the web

Record-Setting NASA Astronaut Returns to Earth Record-setting NASA astronaut Christina Koch has returned to her home planet after an incredible 328 days in orbit—the second-longest single trip into space by an American astronaut. During those 11 months among the stars, Koch took part in the first three all-woman spacewalks, “completed 5,248 orbits of the Earth and a journey of 139 million miles, roughly the equivalent …

Lisbon Triennale Surveys Ornament in Architecture

The theme for this year’s Lisbon Triennale—”The Poetics of Reason”—poses the question of whether or not ornament is integral to architecture. Positioning photographs and up-close sculptural renderings of classical Victorian structures and their decorations alongside an international assortment of patterns, prints, decorations and furniture, the curators encourage visitors to understand architecture and ornament as two separate entities. The former is rooted in reason, while the …

MAAT’s Playmode Exhibition Intertwines Art and Games

Playful but precise and poignant, the Playmode exhibition (curated by Filipe Pais and Patrícia Gouveiaat and on now through 17 February) at Lisbon’s Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology features works by David Shrigley, Mary Flanagan and plenty of others. The work range from dark and conceptual to entertaining and emotionally informative, and span visual art and gaming to form coherent narratives about life and …