What’s Happening: Fusion, a ballet conceived by Harry Yeff and numerous collaborators, has grabbed headlines as the first “AI ballet.” But with humans behind the concept, choreography, compositions, stage design, and performance, is the label deserved?

The Download: In late May, the German company Leipzig Ballet debuted Fusion, a multimedia production created by artist Harry Yeff and an extensive list of collaborators. Two composers, Gadi Sassoon and Teddy Riley, along with dramaturge Thilo Reinhardt, worked with Yeff on the music while Mario Schroder choreographed and Paul Zoller is credited with stage design. Oper Leipzig is hosting the production, which premiered on May 28 and runs through July 8, performed by the city’s acclaimed contemporary dance and ballet company.

In this long list of collaborators, one name is repeatedly touted in coverage of the work: AI. To give credit where it’s due, neither Oper Leipzig nor the ballet’s promotional materials call it an “AI ballet” in the same way no fewer than six publications do. Yeff, a neurodivergent artist, often experiments with voice technology in his work. Fusion explores the balance between humanity, AI, and nature, pulling inspiration from Plato’s concept of the divided self. Yeff used the technology to create synthetic voices for the ballet’s musical overtures.

For ballet, a notoriously slow-to-evolve discipline, using AI in the creative process is newsworthy and—depending on who you ask—worth celebrating. Yeff’s own description of the work, “a timely reflection on the relationship between humanity and technology,” is both apt and uncommonly timely for the medium, especially considering that Leipzig Ballet has existed since the late-17th century. Whether it makes sense to call it an “AI ballet” when humans oversaw everything, including the hundreds of hours spent training generative models to contribute to the work, is a question we’d love to ask Yeff.

In Their Own Words: “As a neurodivergent director and coming from a working-class background, this feels like a moment to be trusted to fuse so many worlds into one work,” Yeff says. “It’s a sign there’s more openness for new kinds of expertise to be celebrated, regardless of where you come from.”

Surface Says: Rest easy, artistic directors and choreographers. Despite what (other) headlines may imply, AI isn’t coming for your jobs just yet.

Have a news story our readers need to see? Submit it here.

Reach the design world every morning. Find out more about advertising in the Design Dispatch.

Opening Shot is a column that peeks inside new hotels, restaurants, bars, and shops with dreamy interiors.

Name: MIX

Location: Brussels

Designer: Atelier Lionel Jadot

On Offer: Jadot walked by La Royal Belge, the 1960s Brussels landmark designed by René Stapels and Pierre Dufau, every week on his way to his grandmother’s house. “Its colors and shades of autumn always fascinated me,” he says. “The first time I went inside, I had an aesthetic shock. It’s a functionalist cathedral of Cor-Ten steel and concrete.”

He now unveils MIX, a sort of spiritual transformation—accomplished in consortium with Caruso St John in London, Bovenbouw Architecture in Antwerp, and Brussels’ own DDS+ and MA2—from metaphorical cathedral to 27,000-square-foot hospitality complex. The four-star hotel offers 140 rooms and 40 studio suites, along with a gym and wellness center, auditorium, a food court, and a trio of restaurants.

Cedric Mitchell’s first art form may have been hip-hop, but the Tulsa local truly hit his stride when he discovered glassblowing and relocated to Los Angeles to establish his studio. He now explores glass as an inspired medium for personal expression, creating marvelous glass objects that combine electric hues and simple forms inspired by Memphis Milano, graffiti art, and ‘90s-era pop culture to dazzling effect.

When: June 22–24

Where: Frieze Cork Street, London

What: Eight young North American galleries straddling art, craft, and design will take over a room at the townhouse-turned-gallery to present their idiosyncratic visions of curation and narrative. Spearheaded by Alex Tieghi-Walker, the British-born founder of TIWA Select, the exhibition will feature highlights including Appalachian quilts by the Gee’s Bend collective, William Moss and Matt Momchilov’s pseudo-historical portraits of fictional queer dandies, and delicate glass vessels by Valentina Cameranesi-Sgroi. The guiding principle is a celebration of cultures existing side-by-side—and exposing British audiences to this visual history.

Each year, Louis Vuitton asks six bold-faced artists to reimagine the coveted Capucine bag. Sold in a limited run of 200, each Artycapucine becomes a bona fide collector’s item fetching high prices. That’s why the French label teamed with Sotheby’s to auction 22 “exceptionally remade” bags, with proceeds benefiting the likes of UNICEF, Médecins sans Frontières, the United Negro College Fund, Teach for China, World Central Kitchen, and Opendorf Afrika. Artists like Alex Israel, Paola Pivi, Ugo Rondinone, Tschabalala Self, and Kennedy Yanko are participating in the auction, which will be conducted online between June 28 and July 12.

Baggu caught a break when Teen Vogue gave them a one-page spread back in 2007, but today the brand has TikTok. Gen Z’s reusable bag of choice has surged in popularity thanks to exuberant prints, a light build, and affordable prices, sparking a wave of self-described “Baggu girlies” who wax poetic about their favorite bags on the platform. TikToks tagged #Baggu have accrued an eye-watering 135 million views. But don’t call it a fad—the brand has even caught the discerning eyes of the MoMA Design Store, which offers their crew socks, picnic blankets, cooler bags, sun hats, fanny packs, and laptop sleeves.

Standard is the L.A. architecture and interior design partnership of architects Jeffrey Allsbrook and Silvia Kuhle. Standard’s projects are guided by identity and culture, reflecting the narrative for which they’re designed.

Surface Says: Standard’s work exemplifies a mastery of harmony, craft, and complimentary existence with the natural world. Look no further than their residential projects like Forrest Knoll and Wildlife, which accentuate the finer points of picturesque Southern California.

One of Enzo Mari’s most sought-after books is living on as a vinyl record.

Michael Finkel’s The Art Thief reveals the limitations of museum security.

Takashi Murakami is fascinated by AI, but fears it may make him obsolete.

One small dose of MDMA dissolved a white nationalist’s extremist beliefs.