Design has, for some time now, partaken in that celebration of auteurship, borrowed in equal shares from fine art and fashion. It’s a fixation that has made modern superstars of the likes of Philippe Starck and Marc Newson, dug trenches of recognition between “big names” and “big firms,” and driven a handful of designers towards knee-jerk anonymity. To successfully navigate the fine line between art and design – or to tightrope walk over the precipice that is their intersection – is the Holy Grail of the creative disciplines. BLESS is in no uncertain terms a forerunner in its pursuit. An interview with BLESS designers INES KAAG and DÉSIRÉE HEISS on their brand's balancing between art and design. more – ‘The BLESS Question’

An interview with artist LUCAS SAMARAS on his influence and influences spanning many New York decades. more – ‘Filthy Artist, Not a Prince.’

A discussion between architect ADAM CARUSO, curator UDO KITTELMANN, and artist THOMAS DEMAND on Demand's 2009 exhibition at the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin. more – ‘Neverland’

A preface to art collective Slavs and Tatars' 1989 chapter in their project 79/89/09. more – ‘Poland: In Praise of the Normal, Methodical, and Slow’

An interview with architect ARNO BRANDLHUBER on his new building, Brunnenstrasse 9, in Berlin-Mitte. more – ‘Phoenix’

On the geopolitics of Madagascar. more – ‘Geopotropica’

Damir Doma’s clothing evades quick explanation. He designs for men (but intends to design for women as well), and though his well-conceived pieces are easy to describe in broad strokes (draping, flowing, layered, black, grey), their effect is difficult to evoke in text. Like food to its eater, the actual garments convey an experience known only to their wearer. more – ‘Melancholia – A portrait of fashion designer DAMIR DOMA’

Fiction once gave way to reality; now reality is augmented right into our habitat: Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram’s HYPERSKY is a digital fresco for the 21st century. Designed for a family home in Cologne, Germany, the installation is a cacophony of electronic data channeled into a sublime experience, synthesizing the cosmos and the human... more – ‘CLEMENS WEISSHAAR’s Future Fresco’

The story of a woman who falls in love with the world’s greatest obscene phone call. more – ‘The Telephone Book’

This year marks the 260th anniversary of the Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg in Munich, renowned for modeler Franz Anton Bustelli’s 18th-century Commedia dell’Arte figurines – now precious icons for the history of drama and masquerade. Iterations of the Commedia dell’Arte have certainly preoccupied theatrical traditions from Rococo through to silent cinema; recently, though, this heritage has manifested itself most strongly in fashion. more – ‘Nymphenburg Porcelain’

I was having pistachios and tea served in grade-A Slavic plastic cups sporting Josip Broz Tito’s face in my war photographer friend’s flat in Cairo. The interior decoration had a “Storage of Unwanted Gifts from Presidents of Non Aligned Countries” theme: on the bamboo shelves (courtesy of the cutthroat landlord) were neon-colored Jimmy Carter voodoo dolls, Bakelite and gold-plastic Fabergé eggs, while the faux-leather sofa was covered with tie-dyed and tribal-print fabrics, an African politician’s portrait hidden among the cloth. Muammar Gaddafi smiled down at us, bearing his playboy teeth from a framed painting above. You get the picture. more – ‘Carpet Bombs. Afghan War Carpets’

During the golden age of the Rive Gauche, in the Paris of the 1960s, the MONTANA was a gentlemen’s club where Alain Delon and Catherine Deneuve danced cheek to cheek. Having fallen off the radar in the early 1980s, nobody has dared to reinvent its myth. But last winter the legendary MONTANA reopened with a new host-triumvirate worthy of the old guard: Parisian graffiti artist André, homme-of-all-trades Jean-Yves Le Fur, and Purple magazine editor Olivier Zahm. more – ‘Lust, Not Love’

A portrait of fashion designer ADAM KIMMEL's Spring/Summer 2010 collection. By Christopher Bollen more – ‘Adam Kimmel’

Reportage photographer for the likes of Monocle and Die Zeit Magazin, Jörg Koopman has released two contradistinctive books through his recently founded publishing house, Book with a Beard. Cat seen captures peculiar animals in often-overlooked places, and deserted post-Katrina houses with “abandoned pet” tags. In Born in Brennen*, Koopmann presents a visual travelogue of military... more – ‘JÖRG KOOPMAN’s Book with a Beard’

When the first international conference on the Nollywood film industry took place in Los Angeles in 2006, the following exchange occurred: more – ‘Nollywood’

MARK PARKER, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nike Inc., a multi-billion dollar footwear, apparel, and equipment supplier headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, once summarized his challenge in The Wall Street Journal: “The question is, how do you not let your size become a disadvantage? How do you keep an edge, a crispness, a relevance?” An interview with Nike's CEO MARK PARKER on creativity, commerce, and charity. more – ‘Never Walk Alone’

Barakei (“Killed by Roses,” 1963) is as beautiful as it is tortured. A collaboration between legendary photographer Eikoh Hosoe and writer Yukio Mishima, the tome conveys an uncanny, lyrical sadism that celebrates the partnership of two artists battling the cultural shifts of postwar Japan. In 1961, Mishima asked Hosoe to photograph him in his baroque... more – ‘BARAKEI’

Speaking to ADRIAN VAN HOOYDONK on a warm summer evening outside a Munich restaurant, I realized just how differently our respective careers have taken shape. In the early 1990s, a common friend introduced us while we were both new to Munich — he had just graduated from the Art Center Europe in Vevey, Switzerland, and I from the Royal College of Art in London. Adrian was just starting to work for BMW, and I was setting up my own studio as an industrial de signer. Employment versus independence. Corporate culture versus authorship. Two decades of working at opposite ends of the same profession. Adrian has come a long way, or rather, climbed high: starting as a hopeful young design graduate entering a large corporation, he has made it to the very top of the hierarchy. more – ‘It was my Dream Job’

In 2006, Irish artist John Gerrard happened upon one of the few remaining photos of the American prairie dust storms of April 15, 1935, otherwise known as “Black Sunday.” more – ‘JOHN GERRARD’s “Animated Scene”’

A portrait of the Berlin bookstore Pro QM and its 10th anniversary. more – ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRO QM!’

JULIA RESTOIN-ROITFELD has been a regular on Parisian party blogs and in New York fashion magazines for some time, but there’s more than meets the eye to the young globetrotter. Here, Anna Dyulgerova, founder of Moscow’s Cycles and Seasons art and fashion festival, weighs in on the Paris-born, New York-based creative consultant-cum-Jil Sander model, the new face of the Japanese-owned, German-Italian brand’s latest fragrance. A veritable citoyenne du monde indeed. more – ‘I Want to Be Everywhere, With Everybody, Always.’

A portrait of Tirana's governor and artist EDI RAMA and his unique race to win Tirana's presidency. more – ‘Venality and Virtue in Tirana’

An interview with music critic SIMON REYNOLDS on J.G. BALLARD's influence in rock. more – ‘Magisterial, Precise, Unsettling: SIMON REYNOLDS on J.G. BALLARD’

When Beirut’s women-only Ajram Beach failed to open this summer after a change of hands, Lana Daher and Dalila Barkache decided to make the most of the historic venue’s pending fate. This August, they launched “Ajram Beach by Night,” a series of all-night dance parties, opening the space to both sexes for the first time in decades with a line-up of local and imported acts, including Syrian folk techno guru Omar Souleyman and French electro house mixer Kavinsky. As summer came to a close, Daher and Barkache spoke to us about the histories and mysteries of Ajram Beach. more – ‘Ajram Jams’

A portrait of London-based, 22-person, all-ladies band, GAGGLE. more – ‘Ladies’ Gaggle’

A conversation between filmmaker TODD SOLONDZ and artist THOMAS DEMAND on Demand's 2009 exhibition at the Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, and Solondz's recent film Life During Wartime. more – ‘Storytelling’

An analysis of artist THOMAS DEMAND's Oval Office series PRESIDENCY, published in The New York Times Magazine. more – ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’

An interview with artist THOMAS DEMAND on his medium and preparation for his 2009 exhibition at the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin. “Our knowledge of images is my material.” more – ‘Memory Animation’