You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here Just like how Eternal was a huge shift from DOOM 2016, DOOM: The Dark Ages is a drastically different shooter experience compared to its predecessor. The upcoming prequel has massively increased enemy counts, more open environments and a focus on more Bullet Hell-style gameplay. More pressingly, it’s removing the series’ now-iconic Glory Kill system. In 2016 and Eternal, Glory Kills were a very satisying way of dispatching a stunned enemy with a gnarly pre-canned animation. For the previous two games, this system was core to the experience with players able to receive a cool health boost for taking out foes with a quick press of the melee key. For The Dark Ages, they’ve been removed. Why DOOM: The Dark Ages removed Glory Kills In a recent explanation, game director Hugo Martin explained why the new prequel doesn’t have the expected Glory Kills system. In short, with increased enemy counts and wider arenas, the act of systematically taking out enemies with the melee system was becoming too tedious for players. “It’s all about player freedom,” Martin told players in a recent developer talk. “There’s more enemies on screen than we’ve ever had before, and If we’re asking the player to stop and play a synced animation for every one of those, it was getting very, very tedious.” DOOM: The Dark Ages’ new system allows for “multi-glory kills” which turns the system into a more player-focused one. Now, your weapons can stagger multiple enemies and it’s up to the player what melee weapon they want to use to take out a horde of whimpering foes. “We wanted, for this game, to allow you to do multi-glory kills,” Martin explained. “You know that scene in the… Hot Gates of 300, the Zack Snyder Film, when Leonidas breaks the phalanx and it’s that beautiful side shot… that was a major touch point for us. We wanted to make you feel like that in this game.” Martin explained that the studio has tried for the “past 10 years” to find a way to make multiple glory kills satisfying. In DOOM Eternal, there was even an option for faster Glory Kills to make chaining them together more satisfying, but it never quite clicked. “It didn’t really fit in the other games. A lot of times you’d have two characters staggered right next to each other and you’d perform the one glory kill in 2016 or Eternal and by the time you turned to the other guy he’s already out of the stagger and it felt kinda disjointed,” Martin said. “In this game, by unsyncing them, they’re more like executions, you’re able to move from one guy to the next,” he continued. “So, it is a system… there’s a bucket of melee animations that we’re pulling from. The ragdolls aren’t just ragdolls… and then depending on the melee weapon you have selected, sometimes it’ll play a Glory Kill animation using that melee weapon. And it’s also sensitive to the enemies there.” Martin explained that the point of the system is to “avoid repetition”. While the past two games had a tonne of animations depending on what direction an enemy was being Glory Killed from, Id found that 90% of the time players attacked from the front which resulted in the same animations being seen over and over again. “Put it this way, if it didn’t feel good it wouldn’t be in the game,” Martin continued. “But, really, it’s about creating a new experience for you guys. That’s what’s really important, right? We don’t want to just do the same thing again.” Subscribe to our newsletters! By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime. Share

LA-based designer Jenni Kayne certainly knows how to relax. Her namesake label evokes all aspects of a covetable lifestyle—one with splashes of linen, leather, and cashmere in a desert-poached palette of neutrals. Now, she’s opening up her Hudson Valley farmhouse for guests to immerse themselves in her idyllic West Coast aesthetics.Outside the Tivoli farmhouse, chaise lounges line the pool, and selections from the Jenni Kayne outdoor collection decorate the patio. “Bringing our look and feel to the East Coast felt like a natural progression in our design story,” says Kayne. “Even more so, we were thrilled at the thought of touching down in a town where we could create our own hospitality experience that inspires everyone to slow down.” The property—located in Tivoli, just east of Woodstock along the Hudson River—is remarkably, distinctly Jenni Kayne: A pebbled walkway leads to a modern ranch-style home made from distressed black wood, with a series of windows lining each side. Sea grass stands tall outside the property, and there’s a 40-foot pool out back, surrounded by chaises. Just beyond the pool, wellness aficionados can delight in the on-site sauna, cold plunge, wood-fired hot tub, and greenhouse—the Oak Wellness Club—for an all-encompassing spa experience.Inside the home, four serene bedrooms and three spa-like bathrooms can comfortably host up to seven. An open-concept kitchen leads into “the great room,” as Kayne calls it—a wide living room surrounded by windows and subsequent views of the Hudson Valley. “It’s the perfect encapsulation of how this space is meant to function,” says Kayne, “an effortless place for gathering.”The Nell Boucle pillow sits atop the Cove bed, and the Brentwood chair sits in the corner of one of four bedrooms. The window treatments are by WOVN Home. Jenni Kayne Dusk Linen Duvet CoverJenni Kayne Bristol RugUnsurprisingly, the interiors are also fully furnished in Kayne’s Farmhouse collection: Guests sleep on a Charcoal Linen Cove Bed, store their overnight essentials in the modern minimalist Palm Nightstand, kick back in the shearling Brentwood Chair with matching ottoman. The six-top table is surrounded by slipcovered Sunset Dining Chairs, and Hampton Counter Chairs line the kitchen island. Burlwood details appear throughout the farmhouse, between the great room’s coffee table to grand armoires and consoles in the bedrooms. “I was very inspired by the Hudson Valley during the design process,” says Kayne. “I wanted to bring a moodier touch to the modern build, all while adding classic farmhouse elements within our California-inspired view.”

Hollow Knight: Silksong continues to do things none of us would have predicted ahead of its release at some point this year. To be fair, at least it's consitent in its skonging strangeness. The latest twist in the tale? We've suddenly learned that you'll be able to play the game at an Australian museum in September. Read more

Oh boycott.The death of physical media has been looming for decades now, essentially since the internet made digital downloads a viable option for purchasing games - or purchasing your licences to play games. While Nintendo got involved relatively quickly (for Nintendo, at least) with WiiWare and Virtual Console digital downloads, there's still always been a strong link between this particular platform holder and the physical article.And it's not just the need to provide stocking-fillers for parents and grandparents of a younger-skewing demographic; perhaps Nintendo's general preference for carts is also a factor. Cartridges have a more substantial, chunky physicality compared to discs - and even when the company went for optical media, the GameCube's cute 8cm discs and the curved edges of Wii U games injected some personality. Carts, with their unique forms and chip-filled innards, somehow feel more than just a blank medium with some data burned in. Just me?Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Bench, the accounting and tax startup that was bought in a fire sale last December, has conducted a round of significant layoffs, it confirmed to TechCrunch. Bench didn’t specify how many people were affected, but one person who works there estimated that Bench was eliminating dozens of positions – that’s a big chunk of the around 300 people who work for the company. Departments like client success and tax services were directly impacted, with one person directly familiar with the matter telling TechCrunch that most of Bench’s U.S.-based tax advisory team was eliminated.  Employer.com, the San Francisco HR tech company that bought Bench last year, told TechCrunch the decision to make the cuts “was not made lightly.” “We deeply appreciate the contributions of our employees who have worked diligently to maintain these accounts,” Employer.com CMO Matt Charney said.  Under previous ownership, Bench raised over $110 million in VC funding and over $50 million in debt, but never reached profitability. The company burned through its cash and abruptly shut down, laying off its entire staff and leaving thousands of customers without access to their books. Employer.com then swooped in, buying Bench for $9 million, re-hiring most of the startup’s workforce, and pledging to revive the startup. The move saved Bench from total collapse.  Techcrunch event Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 BOOK NOW But two current Bench workers and a former one told TechCrunch that Bench has kept most of its workforce on as independent contractors, renewing their 30 day contracts every month instead of hiring them as full-time employees. At the time of the sale, Employer.com said this was a temporary measure. These people also told TechCrunch that Bench has said internally that a majority of its workforce would be based outside of North America. However, CMO Charney said the recent cuts reflect “the realities of turning around the business and addressing legacy issues, rather than being part of any strategic outsourcing initiative.” Charney told TechCrunch that Bench is continuing to explore longer-term solutions for employees, which the company calls “Benchmates,” but that this structure was the most viable option to get people onboarded quickly post-close.  Beyond structuring its workforce, Bench has faced other challenges, the current and former Benchmates told TechCrunch. For example, a large number of Bench customers churned after tax season ended on April 15, they said. Bench also wasn’t able to finish many customers’ taxes on time, one person directly familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. Some frustrated customers also alleged that Bench charged people for services they already paid for under prior ownership. (Bench told TechCrunch at the time that it honors all pre-paid services.) Charney told TechCrunch that while some customers have left, this was partly an intentional move to let go of unprofitable customers. “While we’ve seen an uptick in customer churn, a significant portion of it has been intentional and necessary,” Charney said. “Over time, legacy pricing and servicing decisions made before our acquisition of Bench led to a subset of customers being supported at a loss.” Charney added that going forward, Bench has plans to grow both features and headcount. For more, read Employer.com’s full statement on the Bench layoffs here. You can send tips securely to this reporter on Signal at +1 628-282-2811.

Universal has just dropped its “Bringing Berk to Life” featurette for its upcoming adventure, How to Train Your Dragon, the live-action reimagining of the first film in the hugely successful animated franchise launched by DreamWorks Animation back in 2010. It’s set to fly into theaters June 13, 2025.  Go behind-the-scenes with director Dean DeBlois and stars Gerard Butler, Mason Thames, and Nico Parker and see how the key village sets in the live-action reimagining were designed, built, and shot. Includes film footage not yet shared in trailers. See Gerard Butler with full Scottish brogue… just stellar! Written, produced and directed by three-time Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner Dean DeBlois, who along with The Wild Robot director Chris Sanders, wrote and directed the original, the film is produced by three-time Oscar nominee Marc Platt (Wicked, La La Land) and Emmy winner Adam Siegel (Drive, 2 Guns). Christian Manz is serving as production VFX supervisor; VFX studios on the film include DNEG, Framestore and Clear Angle Studios. The film is set on the rugged isle of Berk, where Vikings and dragons have been bitter enemies for generations, Hiccup (Mason Thames; The Black Phone, For All Mankind) stands apart. The inventive yet overlooked son of Chief Stoick the Vast (Butler, reprising his voice role from the animated franchise), Hiccup defies centuries of tradition when he befriends Toothless, a feared Night Fury dragon. Their unlikely bond reveals the true nature of dragons, challenging the very foundations of Viking society. With the fierce and ambitious Astrid (BAFTA nominee Nico Parker; Dumbo, The Last of Us) and the village’s quirky blacksmith Gobber (Nick Frost; Snow White and the Huntsman, Shaun of the Dead) by his side, Hiccup confronts a world torn by fear and misunderstanding. As an ancient threat emerges, endangering both Vikings and dragons, Hiccup’s friendship with Toothless becomes the key to forging a new future. Together, they must navigate the delicate path toward peace, soaring beyond the boundaries of their worlds and redefining what it means to be a hero and a leader. The film also stars Julian Dennison (Deadpool 2), Gabriel Howell (Bodies), Bronwyn James (Wicked), Harry Trevaldwyn (Smothered), Ruth Codd (The Midnight Club), BAFTA nominee Peter Serafinowicz (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Murray McArthur (Game of Thrones). Inspired by Cressida Cowell’s New York Times bestselling book series, DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon franchise earned four Academy Award nominations and grossed more than $1.6 billion at the global box-office. How To Train Your Dragon is part of the Filmed For IMAX Program, which offers filmmakers IMAX technology to help them deliver high-quality immersive movie experience to audiences around the world.  Source: NBC Universal Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.

Im generating a location even from spawned particles that i want to attach other emitters onto. For some reason its spawning a trail of meshes/sprites. Anyone know a fix? Also are there better ways to approach this? I want to make an effect that resembles a minigun, shooting knives. 1 post - 1 participant Read full topic

Eva Fedderly writes about architecture and culture for Architectural Digest and was previously on staff at Courthouse News, where she covered high-profile lawsuits. Her narrative nonfiction book These Walls, published in 2023 by Simon and Schuster, combines her two beats: architecture and the legal system. Claudia Yoon, a recent AN intern, spoke with her about justice architecture and the role architects play in designing equitable incarceration and rehabilitation spaces. Claudia Yoon (CY): What drove you to be interested in the field of justice architecture? Eva Fedderly (EF): I come from a family of architects and attorneys. As a child, my family frequented downtown Manhattan, and driving in to the city, my attorney father often pointed out the men’s prison in Newark. He’d tell us about the architecture, noting the window slits allowing little sunlight into the small cells where people were caged. I had a nascent understanding of how architecture can be designed to oppress and to punish. As a journalist at Courthouse News, my time was spent inside courthouses around the American South, where I got to know the daily rhythm of the legal system. I also freelance for Architectural Digest, where I write about culture, design, and established my beat on justice architecture. When I learned of New York City’s Borough-Based Jails plan, I was fascinated by the question: Can we really use new design to help solve America’s mass incarceration problem? This was the germ of These Walls. These Walls in part engages with the history of Rikers Island jail complex. (Courtesy Eva Fedderly) CY: What are your thoughts on recent efforts to reframe jails and prisons as rehabilitation facilities? Do you see these efforts as genuinely transformative, or are they falling short? EF: There’s a big trend in justice architecture—the industry dedicated to designing prisons, jails, courthouses, and police stations—to redesign prisons and jails as “more humane.” Over the last 50 years, the United States experienced what the Los Angeles Times’s former architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne in 2013 posed as “the most carefully hidden building boom in American architectural history”: Since 1973, the number of prisons increased from 600 to about 2,000, not including today’s 3,116 local jails. During this time, as justice architect Frank Greene told me, “There was a whole type of architect and company, including private companies, who wanted to bang this stuff out like sausage, where no one cared about the impact on people who were being incarcerated.” Over roughly the last decade, there’s been a shift in rhetoric to emphasize “more humane” correctional design. The AIA’s members-only justice architecture group, the Academy of Architecture for Justice, featured such conference themes as Architecture for Social Justice and Designing for Change: How Architects are Transforming the Justice System. Now we’re seeing places like New York City, Atlanta, and San Francisco investing in new, “more humanely” designed correctional facilities. While these buildings may offer more sunlight, softer materials, larger sleeping cells, and more programming space, they do not address the fundamental issues rooted in America’s criminal justice system. America has one of the world’s highest incarceration rates and one of the highest recidivism rates. It can be said that the system is a business in which keeping bodies inside these walls generates profits for multiple industries. Racism is baked into the justice system: At Rikers, for example, nine out of every 10 people incarcerated are Black or Hispanic. I conducted over 100 interviews with people affected by the system in some way. Many agreed that erecting new jails will not fix the problems. A collective understanding emerged: Creating new jails is putting lipstick on the pig. We need a new system of justice that is less costly, less harmful, and more effective at keeping society safe and helping those who are locked up to not break the law again. CY: These Walls highlights lessons the U.S. can learn from other countries, such as Portugal’s approach to the drug epidemic and Norway’s lack of stigma around people who are locked up. Do you think this is feasible in the U.S.? EF: There is not a one-size-fits-all approach that can be applied. Other nations, such as Norway and Portugal, are not the same as the United States: They have different populations, demographics, politics, resources, social services, systems, stigmas, laws, leadership, and histories. Certainly, we can learn from other countries and gain ideas and inspiration. These two countries embrace the concept of a welfare state, where citizens have free access to healthcare, education, and other essential services, prioritizing the overall well-being of society. In these nations, reducing the number of people in prisons is in society’s best interest. As a result, these countries are motivated to develop effective strategies to minimize incarceration, recognizing that high incarcerated populations are neither beneficial nor sustainable. The U.S. is one of the only two countries in the world who uses a cash bail system (Philippines is the other), where people who can’t afford bail are forced to serve as human collateral as they wait for their court dates in a legal system rife with delays and bureaucracy. It is extremely costly to incarcerate people. The cost of holding a person for one year in a New York City jail costs $556,539. America is vast. Each town, each neighborhood, even each block has its own challenges, threats, and motivations. We need to address issues of violence and harm on a local level: Where one area may need a job-training facility, library, a community center, and after school care, another neighborhood may need an addiction center, affordable housing, and more teachers and jobs. There is a phenomenon called “million-dollar blocks.” Columbia University’s Center for Spatial Research and its Justice Mapping Center found that areas with high arrest rates tend to be neighborhoods of concentrated poverty. But by another measure, they can be some of the more costly neighborhoods. These areas can have so many arrests that taxpayers end up spending over a million dollars per year to incarcerate multiple people from these blocks. The dollars could be better invested in these areas to help prevent crime, violence, and incarceration in the first place. And to create spaces that help people address why they committed violence and correct it so that it does not happen again. CY: In These Walls, you critique individual justice architecture firms. What pressing challenges or ideological shifts do you believe these firms must confront? EF: Today, the firms that typically design prisons and jails are large corporate entities owned by outside interests and investors. This structure can diminish individual accountability, as a goal is often to prioritize the interests of investors over broader societal or ethical considerations. Many professions, such as the legal, medical, and psychology fields, have ethical codes. So too does architecture. Architects have a duty to ask themselves: Where do I draw the line? Would I design solitary confinement cells? execution chambers? cells the length of coffins? Should I use hard and nonabsorbent materials that cause irreversible hearing loss to those inside? The AIA’s largest and oldest chapter in its local New York chapter. Its members took a strong stance in a 2020 statement: “We are calling on architects no longer to design unjust, cruel or harmful spaces of incarceration within the current United States justice system, such as prisons, jails, detention centers, and police stations. We instead urge our members to shift their efforts towards supporting the creation of new systems, processes, and typologies based on prison reform, alternatives to imprisonment, and restorative justice.” That same year, after years of pressure, the AIA updated its Code of Ethics to prohibit members from designing spaces intended for torture, execution, and solitary confinement. CY: Are there any rehabilitation projects in the U.S. that you might be able to cite as examples for how to engage with this topic in a positive way? EF: Architects like Deanna Van Buren and her firm Designing Justice + Designing Spaces do not design jails; instead, they design restorative justice facilities, such as Restore Oakland in California. As Van Buren told me, “You can’t reform a system based on racism.” Other restorative justice programs, such as Common Justice in Brooklyn, cites a 6 percent recidivism rate, compared to the national recidivism rate of 76.6 percent.There are opportunities to design spaces for restorative justice practices. The cost to use restorative justice is significantly less than locking someone up, and more effective than incarceration. Megafirms can offer pro-bono design work in communities, to help local areas thrive. Individually, architects can design larger libraries, more adequate housing, green spaces, mental health care facilities, addiction treatment facilities, and safe spaces for communities to have access to therapy, job training, and free programs for kids and teenagers. The Tombs is a jail facility located in Lower Manhattan. (Eva Fedderly) CY: What do you think about New York City’s Borough-Based Jail Project? EF: At least 38 people have died on Rikers Island since Mayor Eric Adams took office. Since I began writing These Walls, the population there has doubled. Though New York City is mandated by law to close all jails on Rikers Island by 2027, the city’s budget director revealed in March that this date would not be possible. Mayor Adams says he will create an executive order to allow U.S. Immigrations and Enforcement agency to operate on Rikers Island. Meanwhile, the cost of the new jails in the boroughs skyrocketed from $8.6 billion to $16 billion. Pouring billions of dollars into new jails ­continues this broken system and cycle of harmful and costly incarceration. We need other forms of justice, more structural and societal improvements outside these walls to help communities thrive and prevent violence and arrests in the first place. Some say the Borough-Based Jails program will build the new jails in the boroughs, while also not closing Rikers, which will create more space to incarcerate people, particularly those who have not been convicted. CY: Some argue that architects have limited influence compared to legal professionals or policymakers in reshaping the justice system. How would you respond to this, and what power do architects hold in this conversation? EF: Architecture plays a powerful role in society. It reveals a society’s values. For instance, when I reported for Courthouse News, the courthouses tended to be the most preeminent, costly structures in small southern towns, revealing where budgets and priorities lie. But social mores shift, and architecture reflects that change. It’s crucial that architects understand the repercussions of what they choose to design—or not design. As the late architect and critic Michael Sorkin wrote in The Nation in 2013: “Because buildings have uses and frame and enable particular activities, their ethical aspect is inevitable by simple association.” Over the last 20 years or so, thousands of architects signed pledges that they would not design prisons or jails. When architects engage with those who will interact with their buildings, the exchange can have profound effects on design. Involving the local community to weigh-in can create a sense of shared responsibility. Architects can choose to take on projects like restorative justice centers, libraries, nonprofits, and spaces for free programming, addiction counseling, anger management, and job training, places that prevent people from committing violence in the first place. CY: Are you optimistic about the future of justice architecture? If so, what trends or projects give you the most hope for transformative change? EF: I am optimistic because, as history reveals, architectural trends and social traditions change. Styles of punishment and ways of dealing with crime and violence change. Even the definitions of crime and what is qualified as a crime changes. The second chapter of These Walls focuses on this change. Only 200 years ago, America saw the first full-blown penitentiary open its doors. Architect John Haviland designed this neo-Gothic structure for incarcerated people to live in solitude, pray, and find penance; thus the penitentiary was born. After the Civil War, the 13th amendment allowed slavery to be legalized inside prisons, and America experienced a boom in prisons and jails. Today, cities are designing “more humane” jails. I hope more advocacy and awareness will reveal a justice system that is broken and ineffective and that people will establish new ways to deal with violence and harm, such as effective reentry programs, housing, and prevention programs that stop violence before it occurs. More architects can prioritize designing libraries, schools, restorative justice facilities, addiction treatment programs, and other services outside of jails, that shift our priorities toward recovery, rather than punishment. When I first started These Walls, there seemed to be many conflicting opinions on how to move forward with justice. I listened to incarcerated people, formerly incarcerated people, abolitionists, architects, jail and prison volunteers, family members, law enforcement officers, and members of the community. I soon realized that these voices were singing in harmony; it just required a more attuned ear. In a nation that can feel divided, justice reform is bipartisan: People with diverse experiences and different political beliefs agree that the justice system needs to change. Many feel that incarceration doesn’t work as crime prevention. If it did, the United States—for what it spends and the amount of people it locks up—would be one of the safest countries in the world. We need structural and societal improvements outside these walls, to help communities thrive, to prevent violence and arrests in the first place. And we need places where people can go when violence does occur, instead of using jails as the solution.

Image courtesy of Alisa Lariushkina May 2025 Opportunities: Open Calls, Residencies, and Grants for Artists May 1, 2025 Opportunities Colossal Every month, we share opportunities for artists and designers, including open calls, grants, fellowships, and residencies. Make sure you never miss out by joining our monthly Opportunities Newsletter. The Hopper PrizeFeatured The Hopper Prize is accepting submissions for $3,500 and $1,000 artist grants. They will be providing six grants totaling $11,000 USD. Two artists will each receive $3,500, and four artists will each receive $1,000. All media are eligible, with additional exposure available via a 30-artist shortlist, online journal, and Instagram posts currently reaching over 150,000 people.Deadline: May 13, 2025.Tulsa Artist FellowshipFeatured Tulsa Artist Fellowship is a place-based, durational award that aims to support visionary arts practitioners. Realizing George Kaiser Family Foundation’s vision grounded in social change, Tulsa Artist Fellowship is committed to fostering an environment where a visionary community of artists and arts workers have the opportunity to thrive. For the 2026-2028 term, awardees will each receive a total stipend of $150,000 paid over three-years for awarded project deliverables and general artistic practice costs, along with a $12,000 yearly housing stipend, $1,200 yearly health and wellness stipend, $1,200 yearly studio assistant stipend, $1,500 one-time studio move-in stipend, fully-subsidized studio spaces, and access to shared art-making facilities, and more.Deadline: May 29, 2025. The Vilcek Foundation will award six $50,000 prizes to young immigrants working in fashion curation, material innovation, makeup, hair, writing, curation, styling, design, and photography. Read more on Colossal.Deadline: June 9, 2025.Open Calls All About Photo Magazine Open Call (International) For its 48th issue, AAP Magazine is accepting submissions of portfolios or bodies of work around the theme of portraits. Winners receive $1,000 cash, their work published in the magazine, and press coverage. There is a $35 entry fee.Deadline: April 15, 2025.Timeless Bodies Open Call (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin) Timeless Bodies is a juried exhibition at Oliva Gallery in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood dedicated to ceramic interpretations of the human form. The show invites works that explore the body as vessel, symbol, and story through realism, abstraction, and sculptural construction.Deadline: May 22, 2025.Denver Public Art Open Call (International) Artists interested in creating a new project in Verbena Park in Denver are invited to apply. Proposals should reflect the area’s family-friendly culture, along with its international history and conversations about equity, access, and inclusion. Shade and seating are strongly encouraged. There’s a $54,000 budget.Deadline: 11:59 p.m. PST on May 12, 2025.Artadia Awards (San Francisco Bay area) Artists receive unrestricted funds of $15,000, and honoraria will also be provided to finalists.Deadline: June 1, 2025.16th Epson International Pano Awards (International) This panoramic photography contest is open for entries and offering more than $50,000 in cash and prizes. There is an $18 entry fee.Deadline: July 21, 2025.Grants Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant (U.S.)Deadline: 11:59 p.m. ET on May 7, 2025. This $20,000 grant will be awarded to a sculptor who demonstrates an exceptional commitment to the medium and an imaginative engagement with its materials and histories. It is designed to support a new body of work.Deadline: May 31, 2025.The Adolf and Esther Gottlieb Emergency Grant (International) This program provides one-time financial assistance to qualified painters, printmakers, and sculptors whose needs resulted from an unforeseen catastrophic incident and who lack the resources to meet that situation. Awardees typically receive $5,000, up to $15,000.Deadline: Rolling.This fund commissions visual artists to create company projects on a rolling basis. Awardees will receive between $500 and $5,000.Deadline: Rolling.Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (International) The foundation welcomes applications from painters, sculptors, and artists working on paper, including printmakers. Grants are intended for one year and range up to $50,000. The artist’s circumstances determine the size of the grant, and professional exhibition history will be considered.Deadline: Rolling.Residencies, Fellowships, & More Banff Centre Aknumustiǂis: Ecological Engagement Through the Seasons (International)Deadline: May 7, 2025. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House is the site of this two- to four-week residency that offers two tracks: the artist program supports the development of a new work, while the researcher program is geared toward projects that will result in published writing. Residents deliver a public program and are offered a $5,000 stipend and up to $1,000 in travel expenses. Deadline: May 9, 2025.LA FABRIQUE DES ARTS (International) This program is open to applicants working in visual arts, arts and crafts, dance, music, design, cinema, and literature. Residencies last between three and ten months and are held in Romainville, Greater Paris (Seine-Saint-Denis).Deadline: May 11, 2025.2025 Thirdspace: Emerging Artist Summer Intensive Program (International) This month-long residency at OCAD University brings together interdisciplinary emerging artists to develop a new body of work with mentorship from artist Van Maltese. There is a $4,600 CAD program fee.Deadline: May 13, 2025.Josephine Sculpture Park’s Artist-in-Residence (International) Two artists will receive 10-week residencies to create a new large-scale, outdoor work. Stipends include $1,000 for a site visit, $2,000 per week for the residency, $500 per week for lodging, and up to $2,500 for materials. Residents also receive studio space, mentorship, and an exhibition.Deadline: 11:59 p.m. MT on May 14, 2025.The Studios of Key West Residencies (International) Approximately 40 visual artists, writers, composers, musicians, media artists, performers, and interdisciplinary artists are accepted each year for these month-long residencies. Chosen applicants receive lodging. Deadline: May 15, 2025.Applications are open for year-long residencies in ceramics, printmaking, and woodworking at Sawtooth’s Winston-Salem location. Residents are offered studio space, access to the facilities, and funding opportunities.Deadline: May 15, 2025.Exploratorium’s Artist-in-Residence Program (International) Having supported hundreds of artists and performers since 1974, the Exploratorium’s AIR program is hosting its first-ever open call. Residents receive a $15,000 annual stipend, travel support, project management, and financial support for residency projects.Deadline: May 30, 2025.Eliza Moore Fellowship for Artistic Excellence (International) This annual award offers one early-career artist developing new works addressing plants, gardens, or landscapes $10,000 and a two- to five-week stay at Oak Spring. Visual artists, writers, dancers, and musicians are eligible.Deadline: May 31, 2025.The Farm Margaret River Residency (International) This five- to eight-week residency is geared toward site-responsive projects and engagement with the land. Residents receive a $7,500 stipend, studio space, accommodations, and travel assistance.Deadline: 5 p.m. AWST on June 2, 2025.Headlands Center for the Art Artist-in-Residence (International) Residencies of four to ten weeks include studio space, chef-prepared meals, housing, travel, and living expenses. Artists selected for this program are at all career stages and work in all media, including drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, film, video, new media, installation, fiction and nonfiction writing, poetry, dance, music, interdisciplinary, social practice, arts professions, and architecture. There is a $45 application fee.Deadline: June 2, 2025.Artists, ecological scientists, and scholars wanting to explore connections to nature, land conservation, historic preservation, agriculture, and community building are invited to apply for this program. Studio space, accommodations, a $200 per week stipend, and more are provided.Deadline: 5 p.m. PST on June 20, 2025.Prairie Ronde Artist Residency (International) These five- to six-week residencies offer a $2,000 stipend, $500 travel grant, and housing to artists interested in interacting with the former Lee Paper Company mill in Vicksburg, Michigan. There is a $25 application fee.Deadline: June 15, 2025.Stove Works Residency (International) This program invites eight residents for one to three months. Six studios are designed for artists who require significant space in their practice, while the other two are for writers, curators, and academics. There is a $30 application fee. Deadline: June 15, 2025.The Kyoto Retreat (International) Artists, curators, and writers are eligible for this four-week retreat in Kyoto for research, exploration, and inspiration. Chosen applicants receive a round-trip flight, a private bedroom, and $800 to supplement meals and local transportation.Deadline: July 15, 2025.If you’d like to list an opportunity, please contact [email protected]. Previous articleNext article

Landmark London department store Harrods has become the latest UK retailer to fall victim to a cyber attack in the past 10 days, joining a list that already includes Marks and Spencer and Co-op. The still in-progress incident was initially reported by Sky News and has supposedly left customers unable to pay for their purchases. A Harrods spokesperson confirmed the accuracy of this report to Computer Weekly. “We recently experienced attempts to gain unauthorised access to some of our systems,” they said. “Our seasoned IT security team immediately took proactive steps to keep systems safe and as a result we have restricted internet access at our sites today.” The spokesperson added: “Currently all sites including our Knightsbridge store, H beauty stores and airport stores remain open to welcome customers. Customers can also continue to shop via harrods.com.  “We are not asking our customers to do anything differently at this point and we will continue to provide updates as necessary.” Further details on the incident affecting Harrods are yet to be made public. However, the incident comes barely 48 hours after Co-op first disclosed it was experiencing a similar cyber attack that it also took proactive steps to mitigate, and less than a fortnight after M&S was forced to suspend multiple online services following an incident. This has lent weight to growing speculation that all three attacks may share a common link. The most plausible scenario would suggest that the three attacks originated through an unidentified third-party retail services partner in a supply chain attack. Earlier this week, it emerged that the M&S attack may have been the work of the cyber criminal collective Scattered Spider, which allegedly deployed a white-label ransomware called DragonForce on its VMware servers. A compromise orchestrated through a third-party supplier would align with Scattered Spider’s modus operandi – the gang famously extorted multiple victims, including two high-profile Las Vegas casino operators, having exploited Okta identity services. Tim Grieveson, CSO at ThingsRecon, an attack surface discovery specialist, said: “There must be a common thread across these retailers that has put them firmly in the crosshairs of cyber criminals. These aren't isolated events, they are a wake-up call. The action and initiative we have seen from the Co-Op and Harrods should be a blueprint for others, not just in retail, but across all sectors.” Toby Lewis, head of threat analysis at Darktrace, said: “With the information publicly available we can see two other likely scenarios: either a common supplier or technology used by all three retailers has been breached and used as an entry point to big name retailers; or the scale of the M&S incident has prompted security teams to relook at their logs and act on activity they wouldn’t have previously judged a risk. It’s a lesson again in the growing difficulty large organisations have in securing against threats in their supply chain, particularly as those threats grow in volume and sophistication.” Jake Moore, global cyber security advisor at ESET, highlighted a third possibility, saying that even if the same threat actor was not responsible for all three incidents, it was not uncommon for related targets in similar sectors to fall victim to attacks in quick succession. Moore said that in the case of ransomwares like DragonForce, which is openly sold on the cyber criminal underground via a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) model, can be easily deployed by other threat actors motivated by the first attack to seek out similar vulnerabilities. “Other hacking groups are also able to attempt their luck on similar businesses and start demanding ransoms where possible,” said Moore. “Attacks involving the DragonForce ransomware most commonly start by targeting known vulnerabilities such as attacking systems that have not been kept up to date with the latest security patches so businesses need to be extra vigilant and improve how quickly they update their networks,” he said. Timeline: 2025 UK retail cyber attacks 22 April 2025: A cyber attack at Marks & Spencer has caused significant disruption to customers, leaving them unable to make contactless payments or use click-and-collect services. 24 April: M&S is still unable to provide contactless payment or click-and-collect services amid a cyber attack that it says has forced it to move a number of processes offline to safeguard its customers, staff and business. 25 April: M&S shuts down online sales as it works to contain and mitigate a severe cyber attack on its systems. 29 April: The infamous Scattered Spider hacking collective may have been behind the ongoing cyber attack on Marks and Spencer that has crippled systems at the retailer and left its ecommerce operation in disarray. 30 April: A developing cyber incident at Co-op has forced the retailer to pull the plug on some of its IT systems as it works to contain the attack. 1 May: Co-op tells staff to stop using their VPNs and be wary that their communications channels may be being monitored, as a cyber attack on the organisation continues to develop.