What’s Happening: The social network plans to paywall its third-party API on Feb. 9, threatening to shut down one of its coolest features: the trove of bots programmed to tweet images of oddball architecture and obscure design.

The Download: Last week, Twitter announced it would soon eliminate free access to its third-party API. The move stems from new owner Elon Musk’s intent to purge the service of automated accounts not controlled by humans, which account for up to 29 percent of all U.S. content on the platform. Many of these accounts churn out fake responses—hashtags used en masse to influence trending topics, or perhaps to spew incendiary political rhetoric—that Musk describes as “bot scammers and opinion manipulators.” (Much to his chagrin, they can also track his private jet.) Under a new policy, access to Twitter’s API would cost $99 per month, and numerous bot accounts tweeted they’d likely go dark when the changes hit.

The move could impact a multitude of services that make using Twitter more seamless and enjoyable. Many bots offer helpful features, like the ability to take screenshots, get reminders, read threads in a more organized way, and receive alt text for images. Others range from silly (the dictionary-probing @everyword) to serious (the eyebrow-raising @NYPDedits), splicing up crowded, increasingly volatile feeds with information that pays no attention to trending topics or political turbulence.

As design critic Alexandra Lange notes in Curbed, the change could also eliminate the presence of design and museum bots. These are programmed to crawl public collections, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Open Access to 492,000 artworks, and tweet images multiple times a day. The most prolific bot maker is John Emerson (@backspace), who has set up tidy feeds that reveal what’s inside the Cooper-Hewitt, Brooklyn Museum, and the Louvre. Bots also exist that post a range of design-minded topics such as Brutalism eye candy, wacky post offices, census tracts, and every lot in New York.

The beauty of aesthetic bots lies in their “absolute lack of adherence to what’s going on now,” Lange writes, noting how they pepper feeds with neutral images unaffected by influencers and the algorithm. “When the news is bad or overwhelming or both, they remind you that now is not always and to take a breather and look at something pretty or unique or weird.” She took a particular liking to @slam_decorative, which shares artworks from the Decorative Arts and Design department of the Saint Louis Art Museum. It’s easy to understand why—a quick scroll yields a trove of fascinating finds, from a 17th-century sporting rifle and a Robert Gwathmey painting to a loud Ettorre Sottsass wardrobe.

Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter has been scrutinized since the day he acquired the social network this past fall, with journalists dissecting the erratic billionaire’s every cost-cutting move and sudden policy change. His decision to paywall the API may not be the most surprising course, but it still drew criticism from developers of benign bots that offer basic services, many of whom have already migrated to decentralized platforms like Mastodon. In true Elon fashion, he already backpedaled on the news, tweeting that the network would instead enable a “light, write-only API for bots providing good content that is free.” What constitutes good content remains to be seen.

In Their Own Words: “We’re likely to lose even the pleasure of bots tweeting the elegant products of past plutocrats into a feed that feels both increasingly deserted and increasingly junky,” Lange writes. “The open API of some of America’s greatest cultural institutions meets the close-minded penny-pinching of America’s greatest self-mythologizer, and the result is… nothing. No more Nakashima chairs, no more Tulip tables, no more textile samples.”

Surface Says: Twitter complaining about a policy change is just so Twitter.

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The past year has been a tumultuous one for creative leaders in fashion. Daniel Lee, who ascended to Burberry’s top creative job amid the industry’s recent round of leadership musical chairs, has given us a peek at the British heritage brand’s next chapter with a new campaign. There’s a lot to unpack.

A new royal-blue logo features a redesign of the brand’s signature knight on horseback—and signals the end of an era where many of the major fashion houses adopted lookalike, block-letter logo styles. Rapper Shygirl and soccer star Raheem Sterling are among the fresh faces tapped to signal the brand’s desire to resonate with contemporary Britain. Along with this new swath of ambassadors, the campaign also features a curious number of roses and, inexplicably, an archival tartan bikini worn by model Liberty Ross amid a mix of otherwise seasonally appropriate styling. Lee’s first pieces for the brand, however, are conspicuously absent from the promotion and are set to debut during London Fashion Week.

Vo Trong Nghia Architects has pulled back the curtain on its lush new office in Ho Chi Minh City, showcasing the award-winning firm’s signature style of low-energy, foliage-filled architecture. The concrete-framed building is almost completely covered in a “vertical farm” of greenery, preventing overheating and creating a shaded microclimate inside. Workplaces are situated around a central atrium, where full-height sliding glass doors provide access to balcony areas for growth and harvesting.

Since launching in 2006, Nghia’s firm has garnered praise for its fusion of natural elements with contemporary design techniques while respecting local vernacular. The newly unveiled building embodies this alchemy, which the firm explains helps foster connection with nature as rapid urbanization pulls Vietnamese cities away from their origins as sprawling tropical forests. “People are being taken away from the moment, and away from nature,” the architect once told the New York Times. “Without nature around us, we become crazy. So we try to wrap nature around our lives.”

In a particularly gripping new canvas on view at Silverlens New York, the Manila-based artist imagines the languid debauchery of disaffected subjects who should probably stop doom-scrolling.

Here, we ask an artist to frame the essential details behind one of their latest works.

Bio: Pow Martinez, 39, Manila.

Title of work: The Dreamers (2022).

Where to see it: Silverlens Gallery, New York, until March 4.

How it reflects your practice as a whole: I always paint a scene with a happening that I am reacting to, focusing on specific things that interest me about the event, what I’m watching on Youtube at the moment, or browsing the web. For this painting, I was watching too much news—documentaries about war and conflict, the climate crises, etc. So I guess this painting is my way of absorbing or imagining myself in that situation.

The original design that paved the way for Poemet’s range of silk scarves inspired by the human body, “In the Beginning” illustrates a kaleidoscopic view of cell cultures rendered in hues of lilac, beige, navy, and charcoal. The brand’s founder, New York graphic designer Michal Lifshitz, devises each hand- and computer-illustrated pattern and digitally prints them on 100 percent silk twill in the United Kingdom.

On the list of unpleasant human experiences, using a public restroom has to go right near the top. That’s especially true in Japan, where denizens rarely use them because they’re often dark, dirty, smelly, and even scary. “There are two concerns with public toilets located in parks—whether they’re clean and if there’s anyone hiding inside,” says Shigeru Ban, who was enlisted by the Nippon Foundation to design restrooms at Haru-no-Ogawa Community Park as part of the Tokyo Toilet Project. Clad in colorful transparent glass, each cube-shaped facility becomes opaque when the doors lock, guaranteeing privacy.

The Tokyo Toilet Project enjoyed somewhat of a viral media moment when Ban’s clever proposal was unveiled in 2020. Organized in partnership with Shibuya City and Shibuya Tourism Association, the initiative is revamping lavatories across central Tokyo by commissioning homegrown heavyweights like Tadao Ando, Toyo Ito, Kengo Kuma, and Sou Fujimoto, as well as international designers like Marc Newson. In doing so, it aims to bring Japan’s high-hygiene standards, artistic sensibilities, and emphasis on omotenashi (hospitality) to communal bogs.

Founded in 1997, Moleskine revived the legendary notebook used by artists and thinkers—such as Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Bruce Chatwin—over the past two centuries. Today, Moleskine is known as an iconic brand that is an open platform for creativity, reflection, and sharing.

Surface Says: Best-known for the stalwart minimalism of its classic notebooks, Moleskine also produces bags, accessories, and illustrated books. The high quality of its products, as well as their references to history, evoke a nostalgia that inspires writers and authors to this day.

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