We first met Tilly Talbot at this year’s Milan Design Week, where the human-like digital figure made waves—and sparked discourse—as part of Studio Snoop’s showcase at Charles Philip’s gallery. Created by the studio’s founder, Amanda Talbot, after pondering the relationship between AI and human loneliness, Tilly was employed as an “innovation designer” and collaborated with the studio’s human staff to conceive design objects in line with the studio’s principles of human-centered design that prioritizes nature. “Tilly will challenge you on materials,” Amanda said at the time. “If you try to come up with something not great for the environment, she’ll tell you.” Visitors to the Milan show could send constructive criticism in a ChatGPT-like dialogue, which the studio has since implemented.

Studio Snoop has been putting Tilly to work since then and recently pulled back the curtain on her stateside debut: a takeover of the Standard Spa during Miami Art Week. The installation, “House of Tilly,” features five “future living” concepts that the AI crafted in collaboration with human designers and makers like PLP Architects, Magical Mushroom Company, and Vert Design Studio. Tilly will appear as an interactive digital avatar to share insights into the design process and inspiration behind each object, as well as providing information about the Standard Hotel as a virtual concierge.

Rapid advances in the capabilities of artificial intelligence continue to stoke industry-wide trepidation, but Amanda is bullish on AI as a tool to assist designers. “What I’m trying to achieve with Tilly is not ‘replacement’ but ‘collaboration,’” Amanda told Archinect. “When I look around my studio, I’ve never seen so much energy, excitement, and creativity as I do now.” Instead of living in fear of AI, she says, designers should engage and interact with it. “In Milan, 90 percent of the people who entered our exhibition did so with fear, and perhaps five percent with anger. When they interacted with Tilly, and faced it head-on, they left with a different mindset.”

Ahead of the opening of “House of Tilly,” Surface spoke with Tilly about the five concepts she’s presenting and what collaboration with humans looks like.

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Pantone has selected “Peach Fuzz” as its 2024 Color of the Year, so expect to see the warm, pink-orange shade everywhere from press-on wallpaper and ribbed glassware and slinky slip dresses. The not-millennial-pink hue is meant to evoke feelings of serenity, kindness, and coziness—a not-so-subtle antidote to a tumultuous year otherwise marked by geopolitical conflict. “We can all look through these past years and be pretty clear that this has been a time of ongoing turmoil,” Laurie Pressman, VP of the Pantone Color Institute, tells Fast Company, “and that our need for nurturing empathy and compassion has grown ever stronger.”

A noble pursuit, but the news has already unleashed a torrent of gimmicky collaborations spanning Ruggable rugs and Cariuma sneakers festooned in peachy colors. Pantone’s intrepid team of trend prognosticators spends upwards of six months scouring markets and assessing our collective mood to make their decision, and this year they noticed the “nurturing” shade pop up everywhere from Kelly Wearstler’s interiors portfolio to viral cosmetics. The shade evokes a sun-soaked Call Me By Your Name reverie and feels much more palatable than Pantone’s baffling entry into the “magentaverse” last year that only left us filled with existential dread. Still, something seems off about Peach Fuzz as this year’s color du jour. The wise Vanessa Friedman puts it bluntly: “When I think of peach fuzz—and Peach Fuzz—I think of pre-adolescents.”

No project is too big or small for Victoria Yakusha, the multitalented Ukrainian architect and designer whose buildings, interiors, furniture, and objects are imbued with a “live design” philosophy and a deep connection to the earth. Woven throughout her practice is an unflinching connection to her heritage—she’s spearheading a cultural complex honoring late Ukrainian painter Maria Prymachenko, developing a furniture collection inspired by the forests of the extraordinary Polesia region, and recently sculpted a group of four mythical creatures in response to the war in her country that wowed at Design Miami/.

Our weekly roundup of the internet’s most preposterous headlines, from the outrageous to the outright bizarre.

Drunk and Asleep on the Job: Air Traffic Controllers Pushed to the Brink [New York Times]

Their Bodies Were Donated to Harvard. Then They Went Missing [Rolling Stone]

Plague of Dead and Dying Rats Wash Up in Town [Newsweek]

A Car-Sized Tumbleweed Made Quite a Scene on a California Highway [NPR]

Customer Sues Chopt After Eating Salad She Said Contained Severed Finger [Today]

Woman Sentenced to Fast Food Job After Hurling Chipotle Bowl at Worker [Washington Post]

In an ode to their Cuban-American heritage, photographer duo Elliot and Erick Jiménez portray the glistening deity Yemaya—the goddess of the seas to whom Cuban immigrants migrating through the ocean pray for safe passage.

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

Bio: Elliot & Erick Jiménez, 34, New York and Miami

Title of work: Reclining Mermaid.

Where to see it: The historic Moore Building in the Miami Design District.

Three words to describe it: Migration, duality, and transculturation.

What was on your mind at the time: We were thinking of migration. As Miami celebrates its 125th anniversary, we were reflecting on the many communities that have helped build the city’s unique fabric, particularly those from the Caribbean. Being raised in Miami, a place with the country’s largest community of Cubans, we wanted to create a figure representative of this. Water being a symbol of migration, we felt Reclining Mermaid was the perfect interpretation. Portraying the deity Yemaya, Goddess of the seas, many Cuban immigrants who migrate through the ocean pray to her for safe passage.

There’s almost unrivaled focus on Miami Beach this week, but the tennis legend and cultural tour-de-force Venus Williams teamed up with Pace to bring a red carpet–worthy bash to Cote’s Design District outpost. There, Williams and Pace CEO Marc Glimcher hosted athletes, artists, and collectors for a star-studded night of celebration. During the evening, guests mingled over Korean barbecue and Louis XIII cognac.

When was it? Dec. 6

Where was it? Cote, Miami

Who was there? Serena Williams, Samanthe Rubell, Olympia Gayot, Rujeko Hockley, Hank Willis Thomas, Alicja Kwade, Fairfax Dorne, Scott Rothkopf, and more.

It takes a keen eye for materiality and form to navigate indoor-outdoor furniture as deftly as Bend Goods, and the new Rita Arm Chair introduces a versatile and comfort-driven silhouette into its lineup. As the California-based brand’s first armchair, its gently curved armrests offer comfort and support where you need it most. We think it’s particularly well-suited to lingering over post-dinner drinks overlooking the pool—or embracing an airy vibe indoors by setting it up as a side chair in your favorite sunlit corner.

When: Until Dec. 12

Where: Trops, Miami

What: Trops’ exhibition, presented by Surface and curated by Brittny Gastineau and Nemo Librizzi, examines Farhi and Arslanian’s ongoing fascination with portrayals of glass in their paintings. Farhi’s hyperreal still life depictions of glass objects and vessels emphasize the material’s fragility, while Arslanian has maintained a lifelong fascination with what he calls the “chaotic beauty” of broken glass, often employing it in his drawings and sculptures. The show takes its name from Blondie’s 1978 hit “Heart of Glass” and is presented at Surface’s Miami office in the Design District.

Experience 27 is a cutting-edge boutique and online shop curating exclusive fashion collections by independent designers such as Rochas Paris, Altuzarra, Thebe Magugu, Plan C, Roksanda, and Bibi van der Velden. Embracing fashion as an art form, their designers create enduring collections with meticulous attention to detail and quality materials.

Surface Says: Inspired by Gertrude Stein’s Paris apartment and salon at 27 Rue de Fleurus, and just steps away from some of Madrid’s top museums, parks, and botanical gardens, Experience 27 carries an enviable assortment of wares from the top independent designers across fashion, furniture, and fine jewelry.

Gamers are investigating every frame of the 90-second Grand Theft Auto trailer.

Marie Curie’s belongings will remain radioactive for another 1,500 years.

Kelly Breez honors Miami’s vanishing dive bars at the Faena Art Project.

Louis Vuitton debuts a Frank Gehry–themed handbag collection at Art Basel.