Thick Archives. Thin iPhones. Liminal Spaces.
From our desk to your inbox, Cosmos's map of the creative current — news, releases, and signals pointing toward what’s next.
Internet Microdoses
Immersive light-and-space artist James Turrell’s Three Saros transforms a NYC family office into a shifting prism of light. It’s a workplace sanctuary for reflection, gathering — or talking capital markets.
Leica’s silver-chrome M-A no. 5000000, known as the “Pope Francis,” is engraved with the Keys of Peter, the papal motto, and the Vatican arms. It headlines Leitz’s Auction 47 this October, paired with a Noctilux-M 50mm lens and bespoke box. Bidding starts at €30,000, with all proceeds going to Vatican charities.
Virgil Abloh’s archive has been uncovered by GQ, with more than 20,000 objects stored across Midwestern warehouses, from unreleased Nike collabs and Vuitton prototypes to broken iPhones and personal Polaroids.
The 2025 LVMH Prize for Young Designers — fashion’s top award for new talent — goes to Tokyo’s Soshi Otsuki. His label, Soshiotsuki, fuses reconstructed tailoring with experimental Japanese fabrics.
Apple’s latest keynote drops an ultra-thin iPhone Air in Cosmic Orange, Deep Blue, and Silver — random colors the internet is already dragging. Add in AirPods Pro 3 with in-ear heart-rate and live translation, and a watch stacked with health sensors, and the people are feeling torn between “bold refresh” and “trying too hard.”
Aesthetic Study · Liminal Drift
Liminal spaces are the in-between zones of transition, where the ordinary slips into the uncanny — think airports at 3 a.m., fluorescent halls, half-empty malls. They carry the charge of shared memory and broken familiarity: déjà vu made visual in the corridors, gyms, and waiting rooms we’ve all passed through but never truly inhabited. Rem Koolhaas traced their commercial DNA in Junkspace (2001), while the pandemic gave #liminalspaces new force as once-familiar public spaces turned vacant and ominous. Today’s liminal aesthetic is both eerie and communal, a collective dreamscape we instantly recognize but cannot quite place.
Between Worlds
A24 turns internet liminal lore Backrooms into a feature film
Valentino goes liminal in their A/W 25 campaign starring singer, Clairo
Photographer Todd Hido’s vacant suburbs at dusk
A Moment With · Marty Bell
Marty Bell has a knack for bottling nostalgia and expanding it into entire worlds you want to live in. As the founder of Poolsuite and Vacation, he’s built sun-drenched realms that feel both timeless and impossibly fresh. His next project, Club Poolsuite, imagines an internet society where a select crew will co-curate the ultimate black book of places, tools, and products — a guide to the many interpretations of the good life.
What do you do when you hit a creative block?
My partner Alyssa and I collect inspiration as we move through life, building a trove we can dive into whenever we need ideas. That might be noting how a multi-generational artisan wraps pottery in Japan, or adding to my collection of old Caribbean stamps and ’80s Walkmans. We tend to accumulate things not directly connected to current work, just anything that resonates. Often, we’ll recall something we picked up years earlier for a current project.
Where do you go to find peace?
I live a few minutes drive from a beach with world-class sunsets, which happens to be right beside a graveyard that’s always bursting with flowers. There’s something about that combo that makes day-to-day problems feel small. I go here with a book and float around on my back in the sea at sunset whenever I need a reset, and usually leave thinking about how little I really need to be happy.
What book have you gifted most?
A More Exciting Life by The School of Life.
What’s something you bought under $100 that changed your life?
I recently bought this heat-it® keychain that plugs into the USB-C port of your phone and applies a sharp heat to instantly cure insect bites. I just moved to the Caribbean and it is seriously life changing. Everyone’s sick of me talking about it.
What’s the last article you sent to a friend?
It was an interview with 101-year-old Roland Reisley, the last original client of Frank Lloyd Wright, who credits his longevity to an appreciation of beauty. “Neuroscientists tell us that awareness of beauty in one’s environment reduces stress, has physiological benefits, perhaps even extends life,” he explained. “And I realized there’s not a day of my life I didn’t see something beautiful.”
Who is your forever inspo?
I think Jimmy Buffett is the greatest brand builder of all time. And ‘Boat Drinks’ is the best song ever written.
Find Marty on Cosmos and Instagram
Object Love · Signs All Around
The Sign-Generator (2002) started as a tool: software that could instantly generate signage systems for buildings. Created by Swiss design studio Norm with engineers from Fabric, it used algorithms and grids to produce perfectly legible signs for building wayfinding. Over time, it became a cult artwork in computational design, anticipating today’s generative typography — brought to our attention by @microcosmos.
Quick Hits
The David Bowie Centre opens in London, with 90K+ artifacts from shoes to films.
Chrome Hearts is suing Neil Young over his band’s name.
Post Malone rode a horse down the Paris runway, launching his cowboy fashion line.
Christie’s closes its digital art department as NFT sales lag.
It lives! Following up on last week’s news, Ssense may live to see another day.
Signing off from the in-between, with a tune to drift to.
With care,
Dena