DAVID ARMSTRONG, 1954-2014

The Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival, taking place across nine venues on November 7 and 8 in Williamsburg, has always been kissed with happy chaos. First held in 2008, BEMF, as it’s nicknamed, has been an important platform for new electronic artists and a kind of after-hours block party for the Brooklyn music scene that feeds it.

It’s six PM in London and Elisa Sednaoui has just passed through customs. She was in Italy only three days ago, and now she’s off to Dubai for a Vogue Italia event. Over the phone, her deep voice seems all-knowing, exuding wisdom and grace while expertly injecting humor to downplay her world travels. She is only twenty-six, yet speaks five languages, has lived in three countries, and has grown up a fashion darling, working for Chanel and Giorgio Armani, among countless others.

At the Philadelphia-based blog YVYNYL’s showcase at Union Pool last week, Lydia Ainsworth took the stage for the first of her eight CMJ shows. Typically staging her live performances like pieces of orchestrated theater, with dancers, an orchestra section, and, on one occasion, a live snake, Ainsworth’s set was noticeably toned down as she stood by her computer and played the keys with the support of only a cellist, violinist, and drummer. Settling into her groove, Ainsworth opened with the ghostly “Malachite,” her voice bellowing through the small venue, fittingly decorated with Halloween décor.

The gnarled and pocked contours of an unearthed animal bone, carefully catalogued shards of attic pottery, the viscosity of a new batch of bone-china slip or heated wax: these are the things that make the artist Melissa Gamwell’s heart beat a little faster. Gamwell uses a sophisticated technical process involving bone china, phosphate dyes, water, and semiprecious metals to create sculptural objects that seductively straddle the line between the fine and applied arts. The result is beautifully disconcerting: fine china and flatware firmly reimagined through the chaotic logic of the natural world.

When “OctaHate” was first released this summer, the Internet exploded with speculation about the origins of the “brand-new” artist who, on her first spout of work, collaborated with Charli XCX, Passion Pit’s Michael Angelakos, Benny Blanco, and Cashmere Cat, all on one song. Ryn Weaver, whose real name is Aryn Wüthrich, however, wasn’t new. The talented vocalist has worked with Blanco for the past two years, and as Aryn, released a song with Cashmere Cat in 2013, all while working restaurant jobs and couch surfing in Los Angeles. In short, she had paid her dues.

Frieze Art Fair has become more than just a fair—it is now the center from which spirals a plethora of activity as London institutions and galleries launch their biggest exhibitions of the year. Alongside these are some of the biggest auction sales, designed to catch the attention of the international art community that descends to purchase and absorb the city’s latest offerings.

Le Corbusier swore by the golden ratio. Much like venerated early mathematicians Euclid and Fibonacci, the Swiss architect and urban planner was confident that by recreating this geometric relationship—shortened to the decimal 1.61—the most gratifying, harmonious proportions could be arrived at. This clarity of vision, this dogged certainty that disciplined thinking is key to effective design, is one shared by New York label 1.61.

In just one year, the rising theater actor Jay Armstrong Johnson has gone from supporting role to star billing, with a lead performance in the revival of Leonard Bernstein’s classic On the Town, which opens tonight. Today, we revisit our Spring 2013 feature on the young Texan, who discusses his early start as a dancer, his NYU dreams, and his path to Broadway.

Our fashion director Alastair McKimm picks the ten best Spring 2015 collections from Paris Fashion Week, including Alexander McQueen, Anthony Vaccarello, Balenciaga, Céline, Christian Dior, Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci, Lanvin, Loewe, Louis Vuitton, and Rick Owens.