Wolfgang & Hite’s Starchitect Dildos + Butt Plug

Referencing the towers and sculptures of Hudson Yards, Wolfgang & Hite’s skyscraper-shaped dildos (and sculptural butt plug) comprise their XXX-HY sex toy collection. A silicone critique of NYC’s high-end real estate, the series features Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s The Shed, Heatherwick Studio’s Vessel, and several towers, including 50 Hudson Yards by Foster + Partners. They’re abstracted versions, but to scale, rather than exact replicas—and unfortunately …

New Technology Enhances Dog-Human Communication

From Maria Goodavage’s brand new book Doctor Dogs, an excerpt in Wired probes the FIDO program at Georgia Institute of Technology’s Animal-Computer Interaction Lab. The epicenter of dog-human communication studies in the US, FIDO’s researchers have developed several prototype talking vest for dogs. They employ tabs and pulleys that trigger prerecorded statements that the wearer dog intends to convey. FIDO is also experimenting with touchscreens …

The Chemist Preserving The Met’s Art Collection

“Conservation started by looking at how to treat objects that have been damaged… Now we’re thinking about how to set up displays and storage so that kind of damage doesn’t happen in the first place,” Eric Breitung, a conservation scientist at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, says. Typically, if damage occurs, it’s the job of his staff to undo it. Instead of prepping the museum …