LUBBOCK — Every winter, after the sea of cotton has been harvested in the South Plains and the ground looks barren, technicians with the High Plains Underground Water Conservation District check the water levels in nearly 75,000 wells across 16 counties. For years, their measurements have shown what farmers and water conservationists fear most—the Ogallala Aquifer, an underground water source that’s the lifeblood of the South Plains agriculture industry, is running dry. That’s because of a century-old law called the rule of capture. The rule is simple: If you own the land above an aquifer in Texas, the water underneath is yours. You can use as much as you want, as long as it’s not wasted or taken maliciously. The same applies to your neighbor. If they happen to use more water than you, then that’s just bad luck. To put it another way, landowners can mostly pump as much water as they choose without facing liability to surrounding landowners whose wells might be depleted as a result. Following the Dust Bowl—and to stave off catastrophe—state lawmakers created groundwater conservation districts in 1949 to protect what water is left. But their power to restrict landowners is limited. “The mission is to save as much water possible for as long as possible, with as little impact on private property rights as possible,” said Jason Coleman, manager for the High Plains Underground Water Conservation District. “How do you do that? It’s a difficult task.” A 1953 map of the wells in Lubbock County hangs in the office of the groundwater district. [Photo: Annie Rice for The Texas Tribune] Rapid population growth, climate change, and aging water infrastructure all threaten the state’s water supply. Texas does not have enough water to meet demand if the state is stricken with a historic drought, according to the Texas Water Development Board, the state agency that manages Texas’ water supply. Lawmakers want to invest in every corner to save the state’s water. This week, they reached a historic $20 billion deal on water projects. High Plains Underground Water District General Manager Jason Coleman stands in the district’s meeting room on May 21 in Lubbock. [Photo: Annie Rice for The Texas Tribune] But no one wants to touch the rule of capture. In a state known for rugged individualism, politically speaking, reforming the law is tantamount to stripping away freedoms. “There probably are opportunities to vest groundwater districts with additional authority,” said Amy Hardberger, director for the Texas Tech University Center for Water Law and Policy. “I don’t think the political climate is going to do that.” State Sen. Charles Perry, a Lubbock Republican, and Rep. Cody Harris, a Palestine Republican, led the effort on water in Austin this year. Neither responded to requests for comment. Carlos Rubinstein, a water expert with consulting firm RSAH2O and a former chairman of the water development board, said the rule has been relied upon so long that it would be near impossible to undo the law. “I think it’s better to spend time working within the rules,” Rubinstein said. “And respect the rule of capture, yet also recognize that, in and of itself, it causes problems.” Even though groundwater districts were created to regulate groundwater, the law effectively stops them from doing so, or they risk major lawsuits. The state water plan, which spells out how the state’s water is to be used, acknowledges the shortfall. Groundwater availability is expected to decline by 25% by 2070, mostly due to reduced supply in the Ogallala and Edwards-Trinity aquifers. Together, the aquifers stretch across West Texas and up through the Panhandle. By itself, the Ogallala has an estimated three trillion gallons of water. Though the overwhelming majority in Texas is used by farmers. It’s expected to face a 50% decline by 2070. Groundwater is 54% of the state’s total water supply and is the state’s most vulnerable natural resource. It’s created by rainfall and other precipitation, and seeps into the ground. Like surface water, groundwater is heavily affected by ongoing droughts and prolonged heat waves. However, the state has more say in regulating surface water than it does groundwater. Surface water laws have provisions that cut supply to newer users in a drought and prohibit transferring surface water outside of basins. Historically, groundwater has been used by agriculture in the High Plains. However, as surface water evaporates at a quicker clip, cities and businesses are increasingly interested in tapping the underground resource. As Texas’ population continues to grow and surface water declines, groundwater will be the prize in future fights for water. In many ways, the damage is done in the High Plains, a region that spans from the top of the Panhandle down past Lubbock. The Ogallala Aquifer runs beneath the region, and it’s faced depletion to the point of no return, according to experts. Simply put: The Ogallala is not refilling to keep up with demand. “It’s a creeping disaster,” said Robert Mace, executive director of the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment. “It isn’t like you wake up tomorrow and nobody can pump anymore. It’s just happening slowly, every year.” [Image: Yuriko Schumacher/The Texas Tribune] Groundwater districts and the law The High Plains Water District was the first groundwater district created in Texas. Over a protracted multi-year fight, the Legislature created these new local government bodies in 1949, with voter approval, enshrining the new stewards of groundwater into the state Constitution. If the lawmakers hoped to embolden local officials to manage the troves of water under the soil, they failed. There are areas with groundwater that don’t have conservation districts. Each groundwater districts has different powers. In practice, most water districts permit wells and make decisions on spacing and location to meet the needs of the property owner. The one thing all groundwater districts have in common: They stop short of telling landowners they can’t pump water. In the seven decades since groundwater districts were created, a series of lawsuits have effectively strangled groundwater districts. Even as water levels decline from use and drought, districts still get regular requests for new wells. They won’t say no out of fear of litigation. The field technician coverage area is seen in Nathaniel Bibbs’ office at the High Plains Underground Water District. Bibbs is a permit assistant for the district. [Photo: Annie Rice for The Texas Tribune] “You have a host of different decisions to make as it pertains to management of groundwater,” Coleman said. “That list has grown over the years.” The possibility of lawsuits makes groundwater districts hesitant to regulate usage or put limitations on new well permits. Groundwater districts have to defend themselves in lawsuits, and most lack the resources to do so. A well spacing guide is seen in Nathaniel Bibbs’ office. [Photo: Annie Rice for The Texas Tribune] “The law works against us in that way,” Hardberger, with Texas Tech University, said. “It means one large tool in our toolbox, regulation, is limited.” The most recent example is a lawsuit between the Braggs Farm and the Edwards Aquifer Authority. The farm requested permits for two pecan orchards in Medina County, outside San Antonio. The authority granted only one and limited how much water could be used based on state law. It wasn’t an arbitrary decision. The authority said it followed the statute set by the Legislature to determine the permit. “That’s all they were guaranteed,” said Gregory Ellis, the first general manager of the authority, referring to the water available to the farm. The Braggs family filed a takings lawsuit against the authority. This kind of claim can be filed when any level of government—including groundwater districts—takes private property for public use without paying for the owner’s losses. Braggs won. It is the only successful water-related takings claim in Texas, and it made groundwater laws murkier. It cost the authority $4.5 million. “I think it should have been paid by the state Legislature,” Ellis said. “They’re the ones who designed that permitting system. But that didn’t happen.” An appeals court upheld the ruling in 2013, and the Texas Supreme Court denied petitions to consider appeals. However, the state’s supreme court has previously suggested the Legislature could enhance the powers of the groundwater districts and regulate groundwater like surface water, just as many other states have done. While the laws are complicated, Ellis said the fundamental rule of capture has benefits. It has saved Texas’ legal system from a flurry of lawsuits between well owners. “If they had said ‘Yes, you can sue your neighbor for damaging your well,’ where does it stop?” Ellis asked. “Everybody sues everybody.” Coleman, the High Plains district’s manager, said some people want groundwater districts to have more power, while others think they have too much. Well owners want restrictions for others, but not on them, he said. “You’re charged as a district with trying to apply things uniformly and fairly,” Coleman said. Can’t reverse the past Two tractors were dropping seeds around Walt Hagood’s farm as he turned on his irrigation system for the first time this year. He didn’t plan on using much water. It’s too precious. The cotton farm stretches across 2,350 acres on the outskirts of Wolfforth, a town 12 miles southwest of Lubbock. Hagood irrigates about 80 acres of land, and prays that rain takes care of the rest. Walt Hagood drives across his farm on May 12, in Wolfforth. Hagood utilizes “dry farming,” a technique that relies on natural rainfall. [Photo: Annie Rice for The Texas Tribune] “We used to have a lot of irrigated land with adequate water to make a crop,” Hagood said. “We don’t have that anymore.” The High Plains is home to cotton and cattle, multi-billion-dollar agricultural industries. The success is in large part due to the Ogallala. Since its discovery, the aquifer has helped farms around the region spring up through irrigation, a way for farmers to water their crops instead of waiting for rain that may not come. But as water in the aquifer declines, there are growing concerns that there won’t be enough water to support agriculture in the future. At the peak of irrigation development, more than 8.5 million acres were irrigated in Texas. About 65% of that was in the High Plains. In the decades since the irrigation boom, High Plains farmers have resorted to methods that might save water and keep their livelihoods afloat. They’ve changed their irrigation systems so water is used more efficiently. They grow cover crops so their soil is more likely to soak up rainwater. Some use apps to see where water is needed so it’s not wasted. A furrow irrigation is seen at Walt Hagood’s cotton farm. [Photo: Annie Rice for The Texas Tribune] Farmers who have not changed their irrigation systems might not have a choice in the near future. It can take a week to pump an inch of water in some areas from the aquifer because of how little water is left. As conditions change underground, they are forced to drill deeper for water. That causes additional problems. Calcium can build up, and the water is of poorer quality. And when the water is used to spray crops through a pivot irrigation system, it’s more of a humidifier as water quickly evaporates in the heat. According to the groundwater district’s most recent management plan, 2 million acres in the district use groundwater for irrigation. About 95% of water from the Ogallala is used for irrigated agriculture. The plan states that the irrigated farms “afford economic stability to the area and support a number of other industries.” The state water plan shows groundwater supply is expected to decline, and drought won’t be the only factor causing a shortage. Demand for municipal use outweighs irrigation use, reflecting the state’s future growth. In Region O, which is the South Plains, water for irrigation declines by 2070 while demand for municipal use rises because of population growth in the region. Coleman, with the High Plains groundwater district, often thinks about how the aquifer will hold up with future growth. There are some factors at play with water planning that are nearly impossible to predict and account for, Coleman said. Declining surface water could make groundwater a source for municipalities that didn’t depend on it before. Regions known for having big, open patches of land, like the High Plains, could be attractive to incoming businesses. People could move to the country and want to drill a well, with no understanding of water availability. The state will continue to grow, Coleman said, and all the incoming businesses and industries will undoubtedly need water. “We could say ‘Well, it’s no one’s fault. We didn’t know that factory would need 20,000 acre-feet of water a year,” Coleman said. “It’s not happening right now, but what’s around the corner?” Coleman said this puts agriculture in a tenuous position. The region is full of small towns that depend on agriculture and have supporting businesses, like cotton gins, equipment and feed stores, and pesticide and fertilizer sprayers. This puts pressure on the High Plains water district, along with the two regional water planning groups in the region, to keep agriculture alive. “Districts are not trying to reduce pumping down to a sustainable level,” said Mace with the Meadows Foundation. “And I don’t fault them for that, because doing that is economic devastation in a region with farmers.” Hagood, the cotton farmer, doesn’t think reforming groundwater rights is the way to solve it. What’s done is done, he said. “Our U.S. Constitution protects our private property rights, and that’s what this is all about,” Hagood said. “Any time we have a regulation and people are given more authority, it doesn’t work out right for everybody.” Rapid population growth, climate change, and aging water infrastructure all threaten the state’s water supply. [Photo: Annie Rice for The Texas Tribune] What can be done The state water plan recommends irrigation conservation as a strategy. It’s also the least costly water management method. But that strategy is fraught. Farmers need to irrigate in times of drought, and telling them to stop can draw criticism. In Eastern New Mexico, the Ogallala Land and Water Conservancy, a nonprofit organization, has been retiring irrigation wells. Landowners keep their water rights, and the organization pays them to stop irrigating their farms. Landowners get paid every year as part of the voluntary agreement, and they can end it at any point. Ladona Clayton, executive director of the organization, said they have been criticized, with their efforts being called a “war” and “land grab.” They also get pushback on why the responsibility falls on farmers. She said it’s because of how much water is used for irrigation. They have to be aggressive in their approach, she said. The aquifer supplies water to the Cannon Air Force Base. “We don’t want them to stop agricultural production,” Clayton said. “But for me to say it will be the same level that irrigation can support would be untrue.” There is another possible lifeline that people in the High Plains are eyeing as a solution: the Dockum Aquifer. It’s a minor aquifer that underlies part of the Ogallala, so it would be accessible to farmers and ranchers in the region. The High Plains Water District also oversees this aquifer. If it seems too good to be true—that the most irrigated part of Texas would just so happen to have another abundant supply of water flowing underneath—it’s because there’s a catch. The Dockum is full of extremely salty brackish water. Some counties can use the water for irrigation and drinking water without treatment, but it’s unusable in others. According to the groundwater district, a test well in Lubbock County pulled up water that was as salty as seawater. Rubinstein, the former water development board chairman, said there are pockets of brackish groundwater in Texas that haven’t been tapped yet. It would be enough to meet the needs on the horizon, but it would also be very expensive to obtain and use. A landowner would have to go deeper to get it, then pump the water over a longer distance. “That costs money, and then you have to treat it on top of that,” Rubinstein said. “But, it is water.” Landowners have expressed interest in using desalination, a treatment method to lower dissolved salt levels. Desalination of produced and brackish water is one of the ideas that was being floated around at the Legislature this year, along with building a pipeline to move water across the state. Hagood, the farmer, is skeptical. He thinks whatever water they move could get used up before it makes it all the way to West Texas. There is always brackish groundwater. Another aquifer brings the chance of history repeating—if the Dockum aquifer is treated so its water is usable, will people drain it, too? Hagood said there would have to be limits. Disclosure: Edwards Aquifer Authority and Texas Tech University have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here. This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune, a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

Why big tech B2B research doesn’t work for your startup.Startups are nothing like big companies. Their approach to UX research is, and should be, very different from what at big companies do.Startups live in the zero-to-one phase. Peter Thiel coined the term in his airport blockbuster book called —you guessed it— Zero-to-One. It defines the first phase in the life of a startup: from idea to live.While the terminology varies, most UX research can be classified into two groups:Generative researchEvaluative research“Generative research (sometimes called foundational, exploratory, or (as in this Field Guide) discovery research) helps researchers gain a deep and highly detailed understanding of the target audience, the market, and even internal project goals. […] Evaluative research is used to evaluate people’s responses to a product or solution.” — User InterviewsGenerative research is great at the start, to dive deep into user problems. Evaluative research is useful at getting feedback on existing prototypes or live products.Big companies separate them and mostly focus on evaluative research. While that works for them, it’s not useful during the zero-to-one phase. I’ll tell you why.Different size, different concernsYou see, big companies get big, not because they dupe investors, but because they find a market and a way to make the stuff it wants, at a profit. They have product-market fit, and now that they’re big, their goal is to improve their existing products.“Markets that do not exist cannot be analyzed: Suppliers and customers must discover them together.” ― Clayton M. Christensen, The Innovator’s DilemmaB2B startups, on the other hand, live in the zero-to-one zone. They have no market nor customer base. They haven’t found product-market fit. Once they do, their main concern becomes growth. Until then, their UX research should focus on deeply understanding user problems.What works for “Big Co.” won’t work for your startupThere’s a fallacy in the startup world of thinking that “oh, if it works for {insert big co. name} it’ll work for me!” — it might, but most likely it won’t. And it won’t work for a number of reasons.One reason is that Big Co. already has a user base that’s familiar with their product. Incremental changes can be compared against a control group and improvements or degradations can be measured. Startups don’t usually have that baseline and, if they do, it’s hard to determine whether a change in some number is statistically significant or random.Another reason is that Big Co. can deploy a team of researchers to carry out many customer conversations in parallel. A startup, however, usually has a single designer who has to book, conduct, summarize and share findings alone. Moreover, any time spent doing that is time away from other areas of design work.Thirdly, and like I mentioned before, Big Co. is not worried about disruptive innovation. They care about dominating their space by ever increasing their market share. They do this by gradually tackling adjacent problems to their core product, not by moving into different markets.What’s a startup to do?Startups are small and scrappy. That’s a double-edge sword. While it’s true they don’t have the resources of larger companies, their tiny size makes them nimble and allows them to pivot really fast in the light of new knowledge.Rather than building a convoluted infrastructure with many moving parts, I’m a big proponent of being practical. You probably already have all the tools you need to implement an effective strategic UX research process.A practical approach to strategic UX researchRather than splitting generative and evaluative research, or focusing primarily on the evaluative part, it’s helpful to organically combine both types and to do it continuously.By holding frequent check-ins with your customers, you build relationships that encourage them to share their challenges beyond mere product feedback. Identifying these challenges is key to strengthen your product’s value proposition.Sharing your findings with the rest of the team can spark conversations on framing user challenges as opportunities. Even if you’re a solo designer, you shouldn’t work alone.Simple goes a long wayInstead of investing in specialized tools that cost money and take time to learn, use Notion or Google Docs.Once you figure out what works and what doesn’t, you’ll be in a better position to choose a specific tool to improve your workflow.The approach I’ve been following for the past few years is simple:Make a list and reach out to existing customers (Notion, email)Have casual conversations, not interviews (generative + evaluative research)Have recurring check-insMaintain a simple database with insights (Notion)Share the knowledge with your team (Slack and team meetings)Use the tools you already have.Keep things simple and iterateA lot of guides focus on what so and so big company does to leverage research across a 2,000+ people product department. But like I mentioned, those processes don’t apply to the large majority of B2B startups.Rather than getting paralyzed thinking you need some perfect process, start simple, with the tools you already have and tweak things as you go.SourcesInformation, inspiration and co-creation — Elizabeth B.-N. Sanders, Ph.D, 2005Continuous discovery habits — Teresa TorresThe Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail — Clayton M. ChristensenScaling your B2B growth engine — Lenny’s newsletterWhich UX research methods — NN Group.Types of user research methods — User TestingThe zero-to-one research was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

When How&How was commissioned to rebrand e-commerce platform Big Cartel, one thing was made crystal clear – the logo had to stay the same. “The idea of changing the logo was categorically vetoed in the original scope,” co-founder Cat How explains. “It’s a designer’s nightmare,” How&How creative director Chris Clayton says. “It makes you question the client’s appetite for change. And how will a new brand system fit with the old logo? But I think we also see it a massive challenge.” That’s because the team has learned – through many rebrands with different clients – that the logo probably is up for grabs. “In the past we would take it as gospel,” Cat How says. “Now we nod our heads, and smile. Because in our experience, that’s never really going to be it.” The previous Big Cartel logo The main reason clients warn designers off changing the logo is that they believe it has brand equity which they don’t want to lose. But, as Rog How explains, this is often overstated. “For a very mature brand that everyone knows, where they do genuinely have that equity, change has to be more incremental. You’d probably struggle to get Tiffany to change their turquoise. “But most of the companies we work with are either in a scrappy scale-up phase, or they’ve hit a bit of a plateau and need to unlock that next bit of growth.” There can also be personal issues in the mix – logos designed by the founder, or a family member, which come with emotional baggage. “We once had to tell a client that their logo – which had been designed by his wife – was really ugly and didn’t suit the brand at all.” In this scenario, the agency commissioned research to point out where the current logo was falling short. The point is that any brand asset – a logo, typeface, brand colours – needs to work within the broader whole. “The logo always seems like the biggest deal, but in all honesty it is just one part of the bigger brand system,” Clayton explains. https://d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net/uploads/2025/05/BC-Reel-how-agency.mp4 Any good brand positioning work will interrogate who that company is and what it stands for. It all begins with that strategic work, and most of the time, an old logo won’t work as part of a new strategy. “The logo has to represent the character of the company and if you have refined the positioning, it will usually have a knock-on effect on the logo,” Rog How explains. For its work for Big Cartel, the strategy was designed to give the company, which has been around since 2005,  a “new lease of life.” The new positioning was built around the idea “Goodbye caution” to highlight the platform as “the go-to for entrepreneurs taking the leap.” The How&How team presented the client with various routes, some of which included the old logo, some of which didn’t. The idea was to start a conversation about whether the new direction needed a new logo too. The designers were convinced it did, but they needed the client to get there themselves. “When you show people the brand evolution with the old logo, and then a new logo, nine times out of ten they agree that the new one is way better,” Rog How says. “They can see it’s been considered as part of the whole system.” How&How’s new identity for Big Cartel The new visual direction is deliberately scrappy, from its use of illustration to risograph textures and a punchy tone of voice. “The new logo needed to preserve the independent spirit that made the original so meaningful to the team,” Clayton says. “Our goal was to evolve it – not replace it – capturing the same attitude and scrappy energy that of the new brand.” Once they showed the client the hand-drawn new logo in the context of the rest of the design work, it was a no-brainer. “It was impossible to argue with,” Clayton says. “The brand felt so distinctive but all the elements lived in perfect harmony with each other.” In fact, when How&How sent the client their case study and press materials one main request came back – they wanted to make more of the logo redesign. https://d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net/uploads/2025/05/BigCartel-7-Website-how-agency.mp4 The key to all of this, Cat How says, is trust. If you build the right relationship with a client, you gain the permission to push and challenge them, however adamantly they rule out certain things at the start. “It’s a very gradual dance,” she explains. “I think clients, and it’s not their fault, come to us thinking they know what they want. It’s our responsibility to show them what they could have, and what they don’t know they need yet. “It’s not about getting smaller and self-referencing – it’s about showing them how to take a creative leap based on emotion, and strategy, and language. How&How’s new identity for Big Cartel How&How’s new identity for Big Cartel

When How&How was commissioned to rebrand e-commerce platform Big Cartel, one thing was made crystal clear – the logo had to stay the same. “The idea of changing the logo was categorically vetoed in the original scope,” co-founder Cat How explains. “It’s a designer’s nightmare,” How&How creative director Chris Clayton says. “It makes you question the client’s appetite for change. And how will a new brand system fit with the old logo? But I think we also see it a massive challenge.” That’s because the team has learned – through many rebrands with different clients – that the logo probably is up for grabs. “In the past we would take it as gospel,” Cat How says. “Now we nod our heads, and smile. Because in our experience, it’s never really going to be it.” The previous Big Cartel logo The main reason clients warn designers off changing the logo is that they believe it has brand equity which they don’t want to lose. But, as Rog How explains, this is often overstated. “For a very mature brand that everyone knows, where they do genuinely have that equity, change has to be more incremental. You’d probably struggle to get Tiffany to change their turquoise. “But most of the companies we work with are either in a scrappy scale-up phase, or they’ve hit a bit of a plateau and need to unlock that next bit of growth.” There can also be personal issues in the mix – logos designed by the founder, or a family member, which come with emotional baggage. “We once had to tell a client that their logo – which had been designed by his wife – was really ugly and didn’t suit the brand at all.” In this scenario, the agency commissioned research to point out where the current logo was falling short. The point is that any brand asset – a logo, typeface, brand colours – needs to work within the broader whole. “The logo always seems like the biggest deal, but in all honesty it is just one part of the bigger brand system,” Clayton explains. https://d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net/uploads/2025/05/BC-Reel-how-agency.mp4 Any good brand positioning work will interrogate who that company is and what it stands for. It all begins with that strategic work, and most of the time, an old logo won’t work as part of a new strategy. “The logo has to represent the character of the company and if you have refined the positioning, it will usually have a knock-on effect on the logo,” Rog How explains. For its work for Big Cartel, the strategy was designed to give the company, which has been around since 2005,  a “new lease of life.” The new positioning was built around the idea “Goodbye caution” to highlight the platform as “the go-to for entrepreneurs taking the leap.” The How&How team presented the client with various routes, some of which included the old logo, some of which didn’t. The idea was to start a conversation about whether the new direction needed a new logo too. The designers were convinced it did, but they needed the client to get there themselves. “When you show people the brand evolution with the old logo, and then a new logo, nine times out of ten they agree that the new one is way better,” Rog How says. “They can see it’s been considered as part of the whole system.” How&How’s new identity for Big Cartel The new visual direction is deliberately scrappy, from its use of illustration to risograph textures and a punchy tone of voice. “The new logo needed to preserve the independent spirit that made the original so meaningful to the team,” Clayton says. “Our goal was to evolve it – not replace it – capturing the same attitude and scrappy energy that of the new brand.” Once they showed the client the hand-drawn new logo in the context of the rest of the design work, it was a no-brainer. “It was impossible to argue with,” Clayton says. “The brand felt so distinctive but all the elements lived in perfect harmony with each other.” In fact, when How&How sent the client their case study and press materials one main request came back – they wanted to make more of the logo redesign. https://d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net/uploads/2025/05/BigCartel-7-Website-how-agency.mp4 The key to all of this, Cat How says, is trust. If you build the right relationship with a client, you gain the permission to push and challenge them, however adamantly they rule out certain things at the start. “It’s a very gradual dance,” she explains. “I think clients, and it’s not their fault, come to us thinking they know what they want. It’s our responsibility to show them what they could have, and what they don’t know they need yet. “It’s not about getting smaller and self-referencing – it’s about showing them how to take a creative leap based on emotion, and strategy, and language. How&How’s new identity for Big Cartel How&How’s new identity for Big Cartel

PC Builds $8000* Disaster Prebuilt PC - Corsair & Origin Fail AgainMay 19, 2025Last Updated: 2025-05-19We test Origin's expensive PC’s thermals, acoustics, power, frequency, and perform a tear-downThe HighlightsOur Origin Genesis PC comes with an RTX 5090, 9800X3D, and 32GB of system memoryDue to poor system thermals, the memory on the GPU fails our testingThe fans in the system don’t ramp up until the liquid-cooled CPU gets warm, which means the air-cooled GPU temperature suffersOriginal MSRP: $6,050+Release Date: January 2025Table of ContentsAutoTOC Our fully custom 3D Emblem Glasses celebrate our 15th Anniversary! We hand-assemble these on the East Coast in the US with a metal badge, strong adhesive, and high-quality pint glass. They pair excellently with our 3D 'Debug' Drink Coasters. Purchases keep us ad-free and directly support our consumer-focused reviews!IntroWe paid $6,050 for Origin PC’s 5090-powered Genesis when it launched, or $6,500 after taxes. Today, a similar build has a list price of $8,396. Markup is $1,700 to $2,500 over DIY. This computer costs as much as an RTX Pro 6000, or a used car, or a brand new Kia Rio with a lifetime warranty in 2008 with passenger doors that fall off…The point is, this is expensive, and it also sucks.Editor's note: This was originally published on May 16, 2025 as a video. This content has been adapted to written format for this article and is unchanged from the original publication.CreditsTest Lead, Host, WritingSteve BurkeVideo Editing, CameraMike GaglioneTesting, WritingJeremy ClaytonCameraTim PhetdaraWriting, Web EditingJimmy ThangThe RTX 5090 is the most valuable thing in this for its 32GB of VRAM, and to show you how much they care about the only reason you’d buy this prebuilt, Origin incinerates the memory at 100 degrees Celsius by choosing to not spin the fans for 8 minutes while under load. The so-called “premium” water cooling includes tubes made out of discolored McDonald’s toy plastic that was left in the sun too long, making it look old, degraded, and dirty.But there are some upsides for this expensive computer. For example, it’s quiet, to its credit, mostly because the fans don’t spin…for 8 minutes.OverviewOriginally, this Origin Genesis pre-built cost $6,488 – and that’s after taxes and a $672 discount off the initial sticker price of $6,722. We ordered it immediately after the RTX 5090 launch, which turned out to be one of the only reliable ways to actually get a 5090 with supply as bad as it was (and continues to be). It took a while to come in, but it did arrive in the usual Origin crate.We reviewed one of these a couple years ago that was a total disaster of a combo. The system had a severely underclocked CPU, ridiculously aggressive fan behavior (which is the opposite of the system we’re reviewing today), chipped paint, and a nearly unserviceable hardline custom liquid cooling loop. Hopefully this one has improved. And hopefully isn’t 1GHz below spec.Parts and PriceOrigin PC RTX 5090 + 9800X3D "Genesis" Part Prices | GamersNexusPart NameRetail Price 4/25MotherboardMSI PRO B650-P WIFI$190CPURyzen 7 9800X3D$480Graphics CardNVIDIA RTX 5090 Founders Edition$2,000RAMCorsair Vengeance DDR5-6000 (2x16GB)$93SSD 1Corsair MP600 CORE XT 1TB PCIe 4 M.2 SSD$70Custom Loop"Hydro X iCUE LINK Cooling" / Pump, Rad, Block, Fittings$712Fans12x Corsair iCUE LINK RX120 120mm Fan$360CaseCorsair 7000D Airflow$240PSUCorsair RM1200x SHIFT 80+ Gold PSU$230RGB/Fan Controller2x Corsair iCUE Link System Hub$118Operating SystemWindows 11N/AT-ShirtORIGIN PC T-ShirtN/AMousepadORIGIN PC Mouse PadN/AShipping"ORIGIN Maximum Protection Shipping Process: ORIGIN Wooden Crate Armor"N/A???"The ORIGIN Difference: Unrivaled Quality & Performance"PricelessTotal retail cost of all parts as of April 2025$4,493We’ll price it out based on the original, pre-tariff $6,050 build before taxes and with a 10% off promo. Keep in mind that the new price is $7,500 to $8,400, depending on when you buy.The good news is that nothing is proprietary – all of its parts are standard. The bad news is that this means we can directly compare it to retail parts which, at the time we wrote this piece, would cost $4,493, making for a $1,557 markup compared to the pre-tax subtotal. That’s a huge amount to pay for someone to screw the parts together. Given the price of the system, the MSI PRO B650-P WIFI motherboard and 1TB SSD are stingy and the 7000D Airflow case is old at this point. The parts don’t match the price.Just two months after we ordered and around when it finally arrived, Origin now offers a totally different case and board with the Gigabyte X870E Aorus Elite. The base SSD is still just 1TB though – only good enough for roughly two or three full Call of Duty installs. The detailed packing sheet lists 22 various water cooling fittings, but, curiously, the build itself only has 15, plus one more in the accessory kit, making it 16 by our count. We don’t know how Origin got 22 here, but it isn’t 22. Hopefully we weren’t charged for 22. Oh, and it apparently comes with “1 Integrated High-Definition.” Good. That’s good. We wouldn’t want 0 integrated high definitions.Similar to last time, you also get “The ORIGIN Difference: Unrivaled Quality & Performance” as a line item. Putting intangible, unachievable promises on the literal receipt is the Origin way: Origin’s quality is certainly rivaled.Against DIY, pricing is extreme and insane as an absolute dollar amount when the other SIs are around $500-$800 markup at the high end. In order for this system to be “worth” $1,500 more than DIY, it would need to be immaculate and it’s not. The only real value the PC offers is the 5090. Finding a 5090 Founders Edition now for $2,000 is an increasingly unlikely scenario. Lately, price increases with scarcity and tariffs have resulted in 5090s closer to $2,800 or more, so the markup with that instead would be $777 if we assume a 5090 costs $2,800. That’s still a big markup, and the motherboard is still disappointing, the tubes are still discolored, the SSD is too small, and it still has problems with the fans not properly spinning, but it’s less insane.Build QualityGetting into the parts choices:This new Genesis has a loop that’s technically set up better than the last one, but it only cools the CPU. That means we have a $6,500 computer with water cooling, but only on the coolest of the two silicon parts -- the one that pulls under 150W. That leaves the 575W RTX 5090 FE to fend for itself, and that doesn’t always go well.Originally, Origin didn’t have the option to water cool the 5090. It’s just a shame that Origin isn’t owned by a gigantic PC hardware company that manufactures its own water cooling components and even has its own factories and is publicly traded and transacts billions of dollars a year to the point that it might have had enough access to make a block... A damn shame. Maybe we’ll buy from a bigger company next time.At least now, with the new sticker price of $8,400, you can spend another $200 and add a water block to the GPU. Problem solved -- turns out, we just needed to spend even more money. Here’s a closer look at Origin’s “premium” cooling solution, complete with saggy routing that looks deflated and discolored tubing that has that well-hydrated catheter tube coloring to it.The fluid is clean and the contents of the block are fine, but the tubing is the problem. In fact, the included drain tube is the correct coloring, making it even more obvious how discolored the loop is.Corsair says its XT Softline tubing is “UV-resistant tubing made to withstand the test of time without any discoloration or deforming.”So clearly something is wrong. Or not “clearly,” actually, seeing as it’s not clear. The tubing looks gross. It shouldn’t look gross. The spare piece in the accessory kit doesn’t look gross. The coolant is even Corsair’s own XL8 clear fluid, making it even more inexcusable.We’re not the only ones to have this problem, though – we found several posts online with the same issue and very little in the way of an official response from Corsair or Origin. We only saw one reply asking the user to contact support.Even without the discoloration, it comes off as looking amateurish from the way it just hangs around the inside of the case. There’s not a lot you can do about long runs of flexible tubing, unless maybe you’re the one building it and have complete control of everything in the pipeline... There is one thing we can compliment about the loop: Origin actually added a ball valve at the bottom underneath the pump for draining and maintenance, which is something that we directly complained about on the previous Origin pre-built. We’re glad to see that get addressed.The fans in the build are part of Corsair’s relatively new LINK family, so they’re all daisy chained together with a single USB-C-esque cable and controlled together in tandem by two of Corsair’s hubs. It’s an interesting (if expensive) system that extends to include the pump and CPU block – both of which have liquid temperature sensors.Tear-down Grab a GN15 Large Anti-Static Modmat to celebrate our 15th Anniversary and for a high-quality PC building work surface. The Modmat features useful PC building diagrams and is anti-static conductive. Purchases directly fund our work! (or consider a direct donation or a Patreon contribution!)We’re starting the tear-down by looking at the cable management side. Opening up the swinging side panel, we noticed masking tape on the dust filter, which we’re actually okay with as it’s to keep it in place during shipping and is removable.  Internally, they’ve included all of the unused PSU cables in the system’s accessories box, which we’ll talk more about down below. The cable routing makes sense and is generally well managed. While they tied the cables together, not all of the ties were tied down to the chassis. The system uses the cable management channel for the 24-pin connector. Overall, it’s clean and they’ve done well here. Looking at the other side of the system, we can see that the power cable leading into the 5090 is mostly seated, and isn’t a concern to us. Removing the water block’s cable, it had a little piece of plastic which acted as a pull tab. That’s actually kind of nice.Removing the screws on the water block reveal that they are captive, which is nice. Looking at the pattern, we can see that they used pre-applied paste via a silk screen. That allowed contact for all 8 legs of the IHS, which looked good with overall even pressure. The block application was also good. Looking at how well all of the cables were seated, everything was fine from the CPU fan header down to the front panel connectors. Removing the heat sync off the NVMe SSD, we didn’t see any plastic on the thermal pad, which is good. Look at the 16GB DDR 6000 RAM modules, they are in the correct slots and Origin outfitted them with Corsair 36-44-44-96 sticks, which are not the greatest timings. Examining the tightness of all the screws on the motherboard, we didn’t encounter any loose screws. Removing the motherboard from the case, everything looked fine. Looking at the motherboard out of the case, it’s a lower-end board than we’d like to see out of a premium system. Looking at the fans, they are immaculately installed, which is partially due to how they’re connected together. This results in a very clean setup.  The back side of the PC has a massive radiator. And overall, the system has very clean cable management and the assembly was mostly good. This relegates the system’s biggest issues being the value and its water-cooling setup. We didn’t drain the loop so we’re going to keep running it and see what it looks like down the road. Thermal BenchmarksSystem Thermals at Steady StateGetting into the benchmarking, we’ll start with thermals.Right away, the 96-degree result on the memory junction is a problem -- especially because this is an average, which means we have spikes periodically to 100 degrees. The technical rating on this memory is 105 degrees for maximum safety spec. This is getting way too close and is hotter than what we saw in our 5090 FE review. This is also when all of the thermal pads are brand new. The Origin pre-built uses a large case with 12 fans, so it should be impossible for the GPU to be this hot. The Ryzen 9800X3D hit 87C at steady-state – which is also not great for how much cooling is in this box. All of the various motherboard and general system temperature sensors fell well within acceptable ranges.Finally, the watercooling parts provide a couple of liquid temperatures. The pump is on the “cool” side of the loop and read 36.7C at steady state, while the coolant in the block on the “hot” side of the loop got up to 41.3C. You typically want liquid temperature to stay under 55C (at the most) to not violate spec on the pump and tubing, so this is fine.We need to plot these over time to uncover some very strange behavior.CPU Temperature vs. Fan Speeds Over TimeCPU temperature during the test starts out on a slow ramp upwards during the idle period. When the CPU load first starts, we see an immediate jump to about 72C, a brief drop, then a long and steady rise from roughly 250 seconds to 750 seconds into the test where it levels off at the 87C mark. The VRM temperature follows the same general curve, but takes longer to reach steady-state. Adding the liquid temperatures to the chart shows the same breakpoints.Finally, adding pump and fan speeds gives us the big reveal for why the curves look like this. The pump stair steps up in speed while the temperatures rise, but the fans don’t even turn on for over 8 minutes into the load’s runtime. Once they’re actually running, they average out to just 530RPM, which is so slow that they might as well be off.This is an awful configuration. Response to liquid temperature isn’t new, but this is done without any thought whatsoever. If you tie all fans to liquid temperature, and if you have parts not cooled by liquid like VRAM on the video card, then you’re going to have a bad time. And that’s the next chart. But before that one, this is an overcorrection from how Origin handled the last custom loop PC we reviewed from the company, which immediately ramped the fans up high as it could as soon as the CPU started doing anything. Maybe now they can find a middle ground since we’ve found the two extremes of thoughtless cooling.GPU Temperature vs. Fan Speeds Over TimeThis chart shows GPU temperatures versus GPU fan speed.The GPU temperature under load rises to around 83C before coming back down when the case fans finally kick on. As a reminder, 83-84 degrees is when NVIDIA starts hard throttling the clocks more than just from GPU Boost, so they’re dropping clocks as a result of this configuration.The 5090’s VRAM already runs hot on an open bench – 89 to 90 degrees Celsius – and that gets pushed up to peak at 100C in the Origin pre-built. This is unacceptable. Adding the GPU fan speed to the chart shows us how the Founders Edition cooler attempts to compensate by temporarily boosting fan speed to 56% during this time, which also means that Origin isn’t even benefiting as much from the noise levels as it should from the slower fans. Balancing them better would benefit noise more.As neat of a party trick as it is to have the case fans stay off unless they’re needed in the loop, Origin should have kept at least one or two running at all times, like rear exhaust, to give the GPU some help. Besides, letting the hot air linger could potentially encourage local hot spots to form on subcomponents that aren’t directly monitored, which can lead to problems.Power At The WallNow we’ll look at full system load power consumption by logging it at the wall – so everything, even efficiency losses from the PSU, is taken into account.Idle, it pulled a relatively high 125W. At the 180 second mark, the CPU load kicks in. There’s a jump at 235 seconds when the GPU load kicks in.We see a slight ramp upwards in power consumption after that, which tracks with increasing leakage as the parts heat up, before settling in at an average of 884W at steady state. AcousticsNext we’ll cover dBA over time as measured in our hemi-anechoic chamber.At idle, the fans are off, which makes for a functionally silent system at the noise floor. The first fans to come on in the system are on the GPU, bringing noise levels up to a still-quiet range of 25-28dBA at 1 meter. The loudest point is 30.5 dBA when the GPU fans briefly ramp and before system fans kick in. CPU Frequency vs. Original ReviewFor CPU frequency, fortunately for Origin, it didn’t randomly throttle it by 1GHz this time. The 9800X3D managed to stay at 5225MHz during the CPU-only load portion of torture test – the same frequency that we recorded in our original review for the CPU so that’ good. At steady state with the GPU dumping over 500W of heat into the case, the average core frequency dropped by 50MHz. If Origin made better use of its dozen or so fans, it should hold onto more of that frequency. BIOS ConfigurationBIOS for the Origin pre-built is set up sensibly, at least. The build date is January 23, which was the latest available in the time between when we ordered the system at the 50 series launch and when the system was actually assembled.Scrutinizing the chosen settings revealed nothing out of line. The DDR5-6000 memory profile was enabled and the rest of the core settings were properly set to Auto. This was all fine.Setup and SoftwareThe Windows install was normal with no bloatware. That’s also good.The desktop had a few things on it. A “Link Windows 10 Key to Microsoft Account” PDF is helpful for people who don’t know what to do if their system shows the Activate Windows watermark. Confusingly, it hasn’t been updated to say “11” instead of “10.” It also shepherds the user towards using a Microsoft account. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but we don’t like how it makes it seem necessary because it’s not and you shouldn’t. There’s also an “Origin PC ReadMe” PDF that doesn’t offer much except coverage for Origin’s ass with disclaimers and points of contact for support. One useful thing is that it points the user to “C:\\ORIGIN PC” to find “important items.”That folder has Origin branded gifs, logos, and wallpapers, as well as CPU-Z, Teamviewer, and a Results folder. Teamviewer is almost certainly for Origin’s support teams to be able to remotely inspect the PC during support calls. It makes sense to have that stuff on there. The results folder contains an OCCT test report that shows a total of 1 hour and 52 minutes of testing. A CPU test for 12 minutes, CPU + RAM, memory, and 3D adaptive tests for 30 minutes each, then finishing with 10 minutes of OCCT’s “power” test, which is a combined full system load. It’s great that Origin actually does testing and provides this log as a baseline for future issues, and just for base expectations. This is good and gives you something to work from. Not having OCCT pre-installed to actually run again for comparison is a support oversight. It’s free for personal use at least, so the user could go download it easily.There weren’t any missing drivers in Device Manager and NVIDIA’s 572.47 driver from February 20 was the latest at the time of the build – both good things. There wasn’t any bundled bloatware installed, so points to Origin for that.iCUE itself isn’t as bad as it used to be, but it’s still clunky, like the preloaded fan profiles not showing their set points. PackagingOn to packaging.The Origin Genesis pre-built came in a massive wooden crate that was big enough for two people to move around. Considering this PC was $6,500 after taxes (at the time), we’re definitely OK with the wooden crate and its QR code opening instructions.Origin uses foam, a fabric cover, a cardboard box within a crate, and the crate for the PC. The case had two packs of expanding foam inside it, allowing the GPU to arrive undamaged and installed. The sticker on the side panel also had clear instructions. These are good things. Unfortunately, there’s a small chip in the paint on top of the case, but not as bad as the last Origin paint issues we had and we think it’s unrelated to the packaging itself.AccessoriesThe accessory kit is basic, and came inside of a box with the overused cringey adage “EAT SLEEP GAME REPEAT” printed on it. Inside are the spare PSU cables (that we’re happy to see included), an AC power cable, stock 5090 FE power adapter, standard motherboard and case accessories, a G1/4 plug tool and extra plugs, and a piece of soft tubing with a fitting on one end that can be used to help drain the cooling loop. All of this is good.Conclusion Visit our Patreon page to contribute a few dollars toward this website's operation (or consider a direct donation or buying something from our GN Store!) Additionally, when you purchase through links to retailers on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission.During this review process, the price went even higher. You already shouldn’t buy this, but just to drive it home:Now, for the same configuration, the Genesis now costs $7,557 after the discount, off the new sticker price of $8,396. That’s an increase of over $1,000, making the premium over current DIY pricing roughly $1,700-$2,500.Now, there are good reasons for the price to go up. Tariffs have a real impact on pricing and we’re going to see it everywhere, and tariffs are also outside of Corsair’s control. We don’t fault them for that. But that doesn’t change the fact that the cost over DIY is so insanely elevated. Even Corsair’s own competitors offer better value than this, like Maingear.At $8,400 sticker price, you’d have to be drunk on whatever is discoloring Origin’s loop to buy it. Nobody should buy this, especially not for gaming. If you’re doing productivity or creative work that would seriously benefit from the 5090’s 32GB of VRAM, then look elsewhere for a better deal. This costs nearly as much as an RTX Pro 6000, which has 96GB of VRAM and is better.It would actually be cheaper to get scalped for a 5090 on Ebay and then buy the whole rest of the computer than to buy this Origin system. That’s how crazy this is.The upcharge, even assuming a 5090 price of $2,800, is just way too high versus other system integrators. Seriously, Alienware is cheaper at this point – by thousands of dollars. Alienware.We can’t recommend this PC. Ignoring the price, the memory on the video card is hitting 100 degrees C in workloads when the fans aren’t turning on because the fans are set to turn on based on the liquid temperature and the liquid doesn’t touch the GPU. For that reason alone, it gets a failing grade. For our thermal testing, pre-builts have to pass the torture test. If they don’t, they instantly fail. That’s how it always works for our pre-built reviews. This system has, unfortunately, instantly failed.

The second, and final, part of an extensive look behind the scenes of the visual effects production for Lucasfilm’s pirate-themed Star Wars adventure series. By Clayton Sandell (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm) The Observatory Moon Still searching for At Attin’s coordinates, Jod (Jude Law) and the kids land the Onyx Cinder on the Observatory Moon, seeking help from an alien, owl-like astronomer named Kh’ymm (voiced by Alia Shawkat). The group treks from the ship to the observatory, a striking sequence that includes visuals of the characters silhouetted against a night sky dominated by a nearby planet. The scenes were all captured in camera on the StageCraft volume, with the actors walking across a practically built dirt mound and the background displayed on the LED screens. “That was another one of our more successful volume shoots,” ILM visual effects supervisor Eddie Pasquarello says. “Perfect use of that, in my opinion.” The volume also helped create the illusion of the observatory center rotating within the outer walls. “That one was the most technically challenging,” says ILM virtual production supervisor Chris Balog. “We had to figure out multiple ways of tracking the camera to make sure that the wall was moving in conjunction with it. For some shots they had a circular dolly moving around the set. So we had to make sure that the wall was moving correctly too.” The volume was used in 1,565 shots in all, Balog says, and 900 of those shots were in-camera finals. Like Neel (Robert Timothy Smith), Kh’ymm was also realized using a combination of digital and practical techniques, depending on the scene. In some shots, a practical puppet created by Legacy Effects captured her performance entirely in camera. In other scenes, ILM collaborator Important Looking Pirates created a full computer graphics head composited on top of the puppeteered body or utilized a fully digital replica carefully animated to closely match the movements of the puppet. The episode concludes with the arrival of a pair of familiar New Republic ships summoned by Kh’ymm. “Of course, we see our first X-wings,” Pasquarello smiles. “That was right in our wheelhouse and fun for everyone to do.” (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm) Can’t Say I Remember No At Attin The Onyx Cinder arrives at a world that initially looks a lot like At Attin but is actually the conflict-battered sister planet At Achrann, a place where children are trained as soldiers in a war between the Troik and Hattan clans. The kids hike through the decayed remains of a neighborhood and city that once looked like their own. Live-action scenes were shot with minimal sets against blue screen backgrounds and completed with extensive environments created by ILM partner DNEG, including dilapidated buildings and streets, a fully-digital armored assault tank, and a small herd of horned eopie creatures. The heroes are challenged by a Troik warlord named General Strix (Mathieu Kassovitz) to prove their strength in battle. In exchange, Strix’s daughter Hayna (Hala Finley) takes them to an abandoned tower that may have the coordinates they need to get home. Inside the tower – another set that utilized the StageCraft volume – SM-33 (voiced by Nick Frost) reveals that his previous captain ordered him to destroy the coordinates to At Attin. Fern attempts to override his memory, triggering a hostile response and transformation sequence that required significant digital work by ILM’s Sydney studio. “Whenever SM-33 goes into attack mode, he’s more CG versus the puppeteered, less-docile version of him,” Pasquarello explains. “When he has those armored plates on, or whenever he grows, that’s all CG.” The abandoned tower set utilized a mix of 3D elements and backgrounds in the volume along with practical columns, floor, and set dressing. “I thought it had a really amazing photographic feel to it,” says Balog. “Some of the biggest challenges are blending the volume with the real set. And that’s why the virtual art department is such a key factor, because they have to work hand-in-hand with the set department and the 3D content to make sure the textures on everything look the same.” “ILM had a really great content team led by [visual effects associate supervisor] Dan Lobl, creating content that is believable and looks real,” Balog says. “We’re not successful unless they’re successful.” The setting also provides subtle foreshadowing to events that unfold inside the At Attin Supervisor’s Tower in episode eight,” says Pasquarello. “The environment was unique and custom,” he explains. “There’s a deliberate tilt up to the ceiling, and you can see some cables hanging. Those are the remnants of their Supervisor, who’s been totally gutted and ripped out. I think it’ll be fun for people to watch the series again, and they’ll understand.” (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm) Lanupa’s Luxury and Peril Next stop is a mountain on the planet Lanupa, the site of an old pirate lair that SM-33 believes contains At Attin’s coordinates. It’s also the site of a lavish hotel and spa occupied by high-end patrons, including a Hutt who swallows a Troglof mud bath attendant and a massive, tentacled creature called Cthallops, both achieved digitally with the help of Important Looking Pirates. Jod is captured by the pirate horde and sentenced to death. He’s allowed a few remaining minutes for a final appeal, measured by an hourglass filled with churning blue plasma. “It wasn’t a fully fleshed-out idea on set. We knew we needed an hourglass, and we would be doing it, but it was just kind of a fun adventure to figure out,” Pasquarello says. “We were trying to do some fun ideas with how the plasma would show the passage of time.” Successfully navigating a series of booby traps, the children, Jod, and SM-33 enter the subterranean treasure lair of pirate captain Tak Rennod, another set that relied heavily on the StageCraft volume. “They built the big skull throne that the pirate king sat on,” says Balog. “They had all the treasure in the room, four big columns, and the stairs and the rock when they walked in. Everything else in the cave was created with the volume.” After finally discovering At Attin’s secret, as well as its location, Jod betrays the children, who escape the lair by sliding down a series of tunnels to the base of the mountain. As Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers), Neel, Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), and KB (Kyriana Kratter) figure out how to get back to the Onyx Cinder, they encounter a cast of curious trash crabs. “They’re not droids,” explains Pasquarello. “They’re literally crabs with garbage on their backs. And that was a lot of work to make that understandable. They’re not synthetic. It’s one of those sequences that is very rich in detail, and there’s a lot going on.” While the baby crabs are digital, a massive mama crab was created as a detailed stop-motion puppet by Tippett Studio, the production company founded by original Star Wars animator and creature designer Phil Tippett. The beast’s jagged, rusty, junk-laden look prompted the Tippett crew to nickname it “Tet’niss.” (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm) “We generally did the rough blocking of the shots at ILM first,” production visual effects supervisor John Knoll explains. “We figured out what the shots wanted to be, the pace, and how big the creature was going to be. Once we got all those layouts approved, it went to Tippett’s, including all the camera info so they could figure out where the camera was positioned relative to the set and the puppet.” A low-resolution, untextured 3D model of the mama crab also helped animators work out the creature’s speed and movement in advance of shooting on the stop-motion stage. “Since stop-motion is very labor intensive, you don’t want to have to go back and reshoot things,” Knoll says. “So we got approval on their preliminary animation, and then they would go in and do the detailed stop-motion. And that was a particularly complicated character because there are so many moving parts on it. Obviously, there are the eight legs, but then there are all kinds of little pieces on it that bounce and move when it starts to walk. I’m impressed that they were able to keep that all straight in their heads.” The mama crab puppet weighed in at about 15 pounds, requiring support from a mechanical harness that was digitally erased in post-production. (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm) Onyx Cinder Metamorphosis The kids reach the Onyx Cinder just as an enormous scrapper barge closes in, threatening to pulverize the ship and ingest the remains into its fiery maw. “There’s sort of a tug-of-war between the ship and this garbage muncher,” Knoll explains. When the ship is snagged by one of the muncher’s claw-like arms, Fern decides their only hope for an escape is by triggering the emergency hull demolition sequencer. A series of rapid explosions ripple down the hull, causing the Onyx Cinder to shed its worn outer shell. A smaller, silver-colored version of the ship is freed and rises out of the debris. “Our code was the ‘ironclad’ and the ‘sleek ship,’” Pasquarello says of the two Onyx Cinder variants. “We went around a lot with the shedding of the hull. We didn’t want it to all blow off and just be conveniently revealed. It had to come off like a snake’s skin. “And the effects are just dialed up to 11,” continues Pasquarello, who hopes that fans notice a key storytelling detail of the ship’s metamorphosis. “One cool thing that I don’t think everybody knows is that when you transition between the ships, we don’t share all the same engines, but the engines that we do share between the ships change from a warm color to blue. “One of our challenges was that the sleek Onyx Cinder is a cleaner-burning ship,” Pasquarello says. “The whole conceit was that the engines were that orange color because they were dirty and running bad oil. We kept debating: ‘When would it turn blue?’ The sequence is a very elegant transition shot where you see it sputtering away all of that oil and dirt to the cleaner burning blue that we got.” Knoll says the transformation was one of the more “complicated” scenes to pull off. “There are a lot of simulation layers that are in there, and the sleek ship doesn’t actually fit inside the armored hull, so there was some sleight of hand that had to happen to make that appear to work,” he explains. The end result is one of Pasquarello’s favorite sequences. “Every time I watch it, I still get chills,” he says. “It just speaks to the detail that the creators had about this show. They thought of everything. [Jon] Watts was very clear with us that this is why this is happening. And we just had to figure out how to execute that.” (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm) The Return to At At Attin’s coordinates in hand, Wim, Fern, KB, and Neel arrive at their home planet aboard the transformed Onyx Cinder. A horde of pirates led by Captain Brutus (portrayed by Fred Tatasciore and performance artist Stephen Oyoung) are not far behind. But the pirates are stopped by the planet’s protective, nebula-like barrier. “Going through the barrier for us was a really big endeavor,” says Pasquarello. “It’s something that started early because it’s so effects-driven and heavy and large scale, and there’s a lot of story to be told in there.” An array of satellites protect At Attin, blasting deadly arcs of lightning toward unauthorized ships. SM-33 reveals the Onyx Cinder is an At Attin vessel, which allows it to pass safely. The design and function of the satellites – crafted by ILM’s digital modeling department – evolved over time, says Pasquarello. “At one point, the satellites were actually emitting atmosphere. There were versions where you could literally see atmosphere coming out of them to create that cloudy environment,” he explains. Pirate ships pursue the Onyx Cinder through a toxic swirl of greenish-blue gasses but are destroyed by the satellites. “There’s a lot of heavy, heavy sims [simulations] and work that went into that sequence, and then the landing on At Attin,” Pasquarello says, giving credit to ILM’s compositing and effects teams. One element featured in the return to At Attin came along late in the production process. With shot delivery deadlines approaching faster than a ship in hyperspace, John Knoll got an email from Jon Watts. “He said, ‘We’ve done animatronic creatures, we’ve done rubber monsters, we’ve done stop-motion creatures. We did miniature and motion control. The only thing we haven’t really done from the old days is a traditionally-painted matte painting. Is it too late to do one?’” Knoll recalls. With only two months to make it happen, Knoll reached out to former ILM artist Jett Green at her home in Hawaii and asked if she’d like to put her brushes to work creating a traditional oil matte painting of At Attin. Using paint instead of pixels to compose a matte image is something ILM hadn’t done in about 30 years, according to Knoll. Green – with a long list of credits as a traditional matte painter on films including Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Labyrinth (1986), and Willow (1988) – says she was honored to be asked. “I love being part of this history,” Green tells ILM.com. “John and I had this conversation about it being a planet. He had the references already, and he told me what he needed. I even built the Masonite panel for it, and it just felt really good.” Knoll now has the roughly six-by-two-foot painting displayed in his ILM office. At Attin matte painting created by Jett Green (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm) Posing as an emissary from the New Republic, Jod gains access to At Attin’s bountiful treasure: 1,139 subterranean, credit-filled vaults. The vault is an entirely digital environment that DNEG populated with security droids, industrial robotic arms, and a seemingly endless supply of golden computer graphics credits that line the walls and spill into Jod’s rapacious hands. Jod, Fern, and her mother, Fara (Kerry Condon), ascend the Supervisor’s Tower. The Supervisor is revealed to be a large, domed droid with a red eye. Only a small part of the Supervisor droid was constructed physically, with the StageCraft volume completing the illusion. “Virtual production is the future of visual effects,” says Chris Balog, a 20-year ILM veteran with a background as a digital compositing artist. “It’s where the next evolution is going. And if you can do it successfully, it’s an amazing tool.” Jod destroys the Supervisor with a lightsaber, triggering a citywide power outage and disabling the barrier satellites, clearing the way for the massive pirate frigate to reach the planet’s surface.  The enormous frigate survives the barrier and floats ominously over the city. “The great effects work done with the frigate coming through the clouds was Travis Harkleroad, our effects supervisor,” Pasquarello says. “Those explosions all come from him and his people.” The all-computer graphics frigate’s arrival is meant to evoke the alien-arrival feeling of films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and Independence Day (1996). “There was no practical frigate,” Pasquarello says. “It’s a gorgeous ship. It’s a very complex-looking ship, and there’s a lower and upper deck that was built inside, and ships and skiffs that come out of that.” Wim, Neel, and KB devise a two-part plan to rescue Fern and call Kh’ymm for help. Jumping on speeder bikes and pursued by skiffs loaded with angry pirates, the kids – along with Wim’s dad, Wendel (Tunde Adebimpe), make their way across the city. For close-up shots, the actors were shot on a blue screen stage, with the more dangerous action – like a perilous jump across a canyon – requiring the use of digital doubles. “The speeder bikes on this show were a real challenge in the sense that we can’t put kids into a lot of heavy stunt work,” says Pasquarello. “So there was a lot of work done to help the dynamics and the physics of that chase.” The action continues through an all-computer graphics forest, through the city, to the school. Pasquarello praises ILM’s animation, layout, simulation, and environments teams for the extensive 3D build. “They’re going through an entirely CG environment, created by the environments team that you just don’t question,” he says. “Not one thing that they fly over or go through is real.” Summoned by Kh’ymm, New Republic forces arrive at At Attin, attacking the pirate frigate and saving the day. The squadron of X-wings is backed up by B-wings, another fan-favorite fighter that first appeared in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983) and later in Star Wars: Rebels (2014-2018). “The B-wings were a favorite of mine as a kid, so I did my best to try to get them featured in some big, heroic moments,” says ILM animation supervisor Shawn Kelly. “Initially, we had them dropping bombs on the pirate ship, but [Lucasfilm chief creative officer] Dave Filoni had the great suggestion to try the ‘composite laser’ weapon. Honestly, I had no idea what that was at first. As soon as the meeting was over, I looked it up and realized it’s the ridiculously cool quadruple-beam attack seen in Rebels. I got so excited by the idea that I stayed up late and designed a new shot that could really show off that attack. I felt like I was 10 years old again, playing with my B-wing toy in the backyard!” Balog would composite the B-wing shot himself, working in collaboration with the FX team to evoke the feeling of the laser as seen in Rebels, but with a more realistic style appropriate for live-action. The battle-wounded pirate frigate makes a spectacular crash landing, a completely computer graphics sequence that Pasquarello says was carefully designed to depict minimal casualties. “The conceit is that everyone’s been rounded up to a specific space, so we know that everybody evacuated,” he explains. “You notice it doesn’t really tear into buildings as the frigate crashes; it’s just pulling up the street and abandoned cars. It crashes gently into the waterway.” (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm) Galactic Global Effort Bringing Skeleton Crew to life with its creative mix of old and new took a tremendous amount of effort from artists around the globe. “I worked with a team of 50 animators that were in San Francisco, Vancouver, Singapore, Sydney, and Mumbai,” says Pasquarello. “A big team. We’re one big happy family; we’re all working together to bring these characters to life.” Knoll and veteran ILM modelmaker John Goodson say they feel lucky to still be bringing old-school ILM effects expertise to new productions. “You know, there’s only a few of us that still know how to do this stuff,” says Knoll. “And part of this for me was, I want to bring some younger people who are exposed to what we’re doing, who are trained up to use the gear so that when I’m not available to do this stuff there are people who know how to do it.” “We both came here because we wanted to shoot spaceship models,” Goodson adds. “And we’re still getting this opportunity. It’s a phenomenal experience to be able to do this, to take advantage of some of the newer technologies, and revisit this stuff from our past, which is the reason we got in the business to begin with.” For Shawn Kelly, a 28-year ILM veteran, working on Skeleton Crew was a career highlight. “Our review sessions on this project were by far the most enjoyable, fun, collaborative,” he says. “Watts and Ford are awesome. They have tons of great ideas. They’re really collaborative and open to ideas. It felt like a family just trying to make the best thing we can make all together.” (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm) – Clayton Sandell is a Star Wars author and enthusiast, TV storyteller, and a longtime fan of the creative people who keep Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound on the leading edge of visual effects and sound design. Follow him on Instagram (@claytonsandell) Bluesky (@claytonsandell.com) or X (@Clayton_Sandell).

Canada has opened its national exhibition at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale with Picoplanktonics, an exploration of architecture’s potential role in planetary remediation. Image courtesy: Canada Council for the ArtsImage courtesy: Canada Council for the ArtsPresented by the Canada Council for the Arts and developed by the Living Room Collective, the exhibition features large-scale 3D printed structures embedded with live cyanobacteria; microorganisms capable of sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Housed within the Canada Pavilion, the structures represent a convergence of biology, technology, and architecture, demonstrating how buildings might one day function as living systems. Image credit: Clayton LeeImage credit: Girts ApskalnsPicoplanktonics is the outcome of four years of research led by Andrea Shin Ling in collaboration with interdisciplinary partners. The project draws on principles from both living systems and cutting-edge fabrication technologies, inclu...

FX has announced the release dates for three of its most anticipated shows of 2025: The Bear season 4, Alien: Earth, and The Lowdown. Chaos returns to the kitchen in The Bear season 4, which premieres on Wednesday, June 25. All 10 episodes will stream on Hulu at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. The series streams on Disney+ internationally. Recommended Videos The Bear stars Jeremy Allen White as Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto, Ayo Edebiri as Sydney Adamu, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Richard “Richie” Jerimovich, Abby Elliott as Natalie “Sugar” Berzatto, Lionel Boyce as Marcus Brooks, Liza Colón-Zayas as Tina Marrero, and Matty Matheson as Neil Fak. Oliver Platt (“Cicero”) and Molly Gordon (“Claire”) will appear in recurring roles. Related Created by Christopher Storer, The Bear season 4 finds the chefs ready to take the Bear to the next level. “With new challenges around every corner, the team must adapt, adjust, and overcome,” the season four synopsis reads. FX/Hulu The xenomorph heads to our planet in Alien: Earth, Noah Hawley’s sci-fi TV show set in the Alien universe. Alien: Earth‘s two-episode premiere airs on Hulu at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT and on FX at 8 p.m. ET/PT on August 12. The series will also stream on Disney+ internationally. One new episode will premiere each of the following Tuesdays. Set in the year 2120, Alien: Earth follows the aftermath of the USCSS Maginot crash-landing on Earth. Wendy (Sydney Chandler), a robot with human consciousness, and a group of soldiers make a discovery that puts them face-to-face with “the planet’s greatest threat.” Besides Chandler, Alien: Earth stars Timothy Olyphant as Kirsh, Alex Lawther as Hermit, Samuel Blenkin as Boy Kavalier, Babou Ceesay as Morrow, Adrian Edmondson as Atom Eins, David Rysdahl as Arthur Sylvia, Essie Davis as Dame Sylvia, Lily Newmark as Nibs, Erana James as Curly, Adarsh Gourav as Slightly, Jonathan Ajayi as Smee, Kit Young as Tootles, Diêm Camille as Siberian, Moe Bar-El as Rashidi, and Sandra Yi Sencindiver as Yutani. Hawley executive produces alongside Alien maestro Ridley Scott, David W. Zucker, Joseph Iberti, Dana Gonzales, and Clayton Krueger. Finally, Reservation Dogs co-creator Sterlin Harjo returns to FX with a noir series, The Lowdown. The series stars Ethan Hawke as journalist Lee Raybon, “a self-proclaimed Tulsa ‘truthstorian’ whose obsession with the truth is always getting him into trouble.” The Lowdown‘s two-episode premiere airs on FX at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Tuesday, September 23. The rest of the eight episodes will premiere weekly over the next six Tuesdays. Episodes will stream on Hulu the following day. The Lowdown will eventually stream on Disney+ internationally.

If you loved watching '90s heartthrob Josh Hartnett go wild as a girl dad/serial killer in Trap, you won't want to miss the murderous mayhem he brings to Fight or Flight. Directed by James Madigan, Fight or Flight stars Hartnett as disgraced former American operative Lucas Reyes, who's given one last chance to redeem his name. On an international flight peopled by demanding tourists, annoyed flight attendants — including the whip-smart Isha (Bridgerton's Charithra Chandran) — and an array of contract killers, Lucas must not only identify the mysterious black hat terrorist known as the Ghost, but also turn them into the American secret intelligence agency alive. With a big fat bounty on the Ghost's head, that's not easy work. And neither was making Fight or Flight. Shot on location on a real plane, the film demanded the actors get very comfortable with fight choreography in cramped quarters, like aisles, bathrooms, and the galleys of a plane. In an virtual interview with Mashable Entertainment Editor Kristy Puchko, Hartnett and Chandran spoke to the challenges demanded by this very action-packed movie. Hartnett was quick to commend the stunt team, including his stunt double, Clayton Grover. For her part, Chandran shared how her experience on Fight or Flight — where she has some stunt scenes — helped prepare her for her role as Miss Wednesday in an upcoming episode of the live-action anime adaptation One Piece. Fight or Flight is now in theaters. Topics Film Kristy Puchko Kristy Puchko is the Entertainment Editor at Mashable. Based in New York City, she's an established film critic and entertainment reporter who has traveled the world on assignment, covered a variety of film festivals, co-hosted movie-focused podcasts, and interviewed a wide array of performers and filmmakers.

The International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia,  has returned, with its grand opening held in early May. The exhibition runs until November 23, 2025 The Canada Council for the Arts, Commissioner of Canada’s official participation in the International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, administers the selection process and oversees the exhibition at the Canada Pavilion. But in addition to the Canada Pavilion, Canadian architects and designers have a presence in several other exhibitions that are part of this year’s festival. Here’s a round-up of the Canadian work in Venice. Picoplanktonics. Photo credit: Valentina Mori Picoplanktonics led by Living Room Collective Canada’s official entry to the Biennale is Picoplanktonics, a 3D-printed living artwork incorporating cyanobacteria—a global first at the intersection of architecture, biotechnology, and art. The exhibition, developed by the Living Room Collective, showcases the potential for collaboration between humans and nature. Picoplanktonics is an exploration of the potential to co-operate with living systems by co-constructing spaces that “remediate the planet rather than exploit it.” The installation transforms the Canada Pavilion into an aquatic micro-ecosystem, where architectural structures grow, evolve, and naturally degrade alongside their living components. It was designed according to regenerative architecture principles, and is not only a built object, but also a breathing organism interacting with its environment, which prompts reflection on potential futures of the built environment. The creative team is led by bio-designer Andrea Shin Ling, alongside core team members Nicholas Hoban, Vincent Hui and Clayton Lee. Etude Ile Verte by Atelier Pierre Thibault. Photo credit Alex Lesage Les boucaneries de l’île Verte by Atelier Pierre Thibault Atelier Pierre Thibault has been invited to participate in this year’s Venice Biennale as the only team from Québec. His project is inspired by the old fish smokehouses, or boucaneries, of Île Verte. With the support of the fifty permanent residents of Île Verte, Atelier Pierre Thibault has designed a participatory architectural project that aims to reinterpret the boucaneries as creative canvases to imagine new uses to strengthen Île Verte’s autonomy. This includes community greenhouses, artist studios, and gathering places. The exhibition aims to highlight, as Thibault puts it, “the strength of a sensitive and collective gesture in response to the erosion of traditional buildings and the major climate challenges faced by inhabitants living year-round in an isolated island environment.” The construction of the installations, along with the exchanges sparked with the community, was documented through photography and video, and captures both the process and the spirit of collaboration that defined the project. Celebrating the Verdoyants’ collective intelligence and inviting reflection on the future of the boucaneries, this participatory project highlights the exemplary and internationally resonant nature of this approach. The Atelier Pierre Thibault project will be on view at the Corderie dell’Arsenale. The pavilion itself will take the form of a temporary, lightweight structure constructed from reused materials, situated on the grounds of the French Pavilion, which is currently undergoing renovation. The curators have selected 50 projects to be featured across six thematic sections: Living With the Existing, the Immediate, the Broken, Vulnerabilities, Nature, and Combined Intelligences. Image courtesy of WZMH Architects Speedstac by WZMH Architects as part of Living With…Combined Intelligences  As part of the exhibition “Living With… Combined Intelligences,” WZMH Architects presents Speedstac, a prefabricated modular precast solution that aims to reimagine how urban areas devastated by war can be rebuilt. Originally designed to accelerate housing construction in Canada, Speedstac took on urgent new relevance following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. With more than 170,000 buildings damaged or destroyed and millions displaced, WZMH’s innovation, developed through its R&D lab, sparkbird, aims to offer a scalable solution: self-contained, plug-and-play building modules with integrated electrical and plumbing systems that can be seamlessly inserted into existing structures. The use of modern materials such as high-performance concrete can reduce the weight of the modules, making them easier to lift and move using conventional crane equipment. Using a robust locking mechanism, several modules can be securely fastened and unfastened as needed, to produce an adaptive modular housing solution. The Speedstac system aims to offer a solution to the challenges of traditional construction methods, enabling faster, more flexible, and more sustainable building projects. The Vivre Avec / Living With exhibition is hosted in the French Pavilion. Presentation, Northern Horizons. Photo credit: Blouin Orzes architectes Northern Horizons by Blouin Orzes architectes as part of Time Space Existence  Through a wide selection of projects—ranging from conceptual works, models and photographs to videos, sculptures and site-specific installations—the exhibition Time Space Existence, hosted by the European Cultural Centre, aims to provoke participants to question their relationship with space and time, re-envisioning new ways of living and rethinking architecture through a larger lens. Quebec firm Blouin Orzes’ participation revolves around their first-hand understanding of Inuit territories, where they have been working since 2000. Their contribution is based on their  recent publication, Northern Journeys. Blouin Orzes’ contribution in on display at the Palazzo Mora, and additional contributions to Time Space Existence are on view at the Palazzo Bembo and Marinaressa Gardens. View of Commercial and Residential Towers from Seymour and West Georgia Streets. Image credit: Henriquez Partners Studio BC Glass Sea Sponge Another contribution to Time Space Existence is the work of Henriquez Partners Studio. The transformative mixed-use development which they are presenting merges architectural innovation, social responsibility and urban revitalization, and has recently been submitted to the City of Vancouver. The project is about ambitious city-building, and aims to unlock public benefits on currently underutilized land in a way that supports some of the city’s most urgent needs, while contributing bold architecture to the city skyline. Four towers, designed by Henriquez, draw inspiration from rare and ancient glass sea sponge reefs, whose ecological strength and resilience have shaped both form and structure. These living marine organisms, which are unique to the Pacific Northwest, aim to serve as a metaphor for regeneration and adaptation. This concept is translated through the architectural language of the towers: silhouettes, sculptural forms, and sustainable performance. The tallest tower, a stand-alone hotel, proposed at 1,033 feet, is shaped by a structural diagrid exoskeleton that allows for column-free interiors while maximizing strength and minimizing material use. Developed in collaboration with Arup, the structural system references the skeletal lattice of sea sponges; a concept researched at Harvard for its groundbreaking structural efficiency. Henriquez Partners’  contribution is on display at Palazzo Bembo. Renewal Development Shishalh Project Duplex Renderings – Image credit: Renewal Development Shíshálh Nation: Ten Home Rescue Project as part of theLiving With / Vivre avec exhibition Vancouver-based company Renewal Development has been selected to appear as part of the French Pavilion’s exhibition on housing innovation. In 2024, Renewal Development partnered with developer Wesgroup and the shíshálh Nation to relocate ten high value Port Moody homes set for demolition to the shíshálh Nation on the Sunshine Coast. The Nation has been experiencing an acute housing shortage with 900 Nation members currently on a waitlist for housing. Renewal Development says that this initiative reflects its “deeply held values of sustainability, and reconciliation” and its “work to offer real-world solutions to waste and housing shortages by reimagining what already exists.” The project will be on display in the French Pavilion. The following is a list of other Canadian groups and individuals contributing to this year’s Venice Biennale: On Storage Brendan Cormier is a Canadian writer, curator, and urban designer based in London. He is currently the lead curator of 20th and 21st Century Design for the Shekou Partnership at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Prior to this he served as the managing editor of Volume Magazine. La Biennale di Venezia and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London present for the ninth consecutive year the Applied Arts Pavilion Special Project titled On Storage, curated by Brendan Cormier, in collaboration with Diller, Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R). It explores the global architecture of storage in service of the circulation of things, and features a newly commissioned six-channel film directed by DS+R. From Liquid to Stone: A Reconfigurable Concrete Tectonic Against Obsolescence Inge Donovan, based in Boston, achieved her Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Design and Architectural History, Theory and Criticism from the Daniels Faculty of Architecture at the University of Toronto in 2019 after growing up in Nova Scotia, Canada. The Curse of Dimensionality Adeline Chum is currently a Graduate Research Assistant at the Center for Spatial Research and third-year student in the MArch Program at GSAPP. She has received her Bachelor of Architectural Studies from the University of Waterloo, Canada and has worked in small and medium-sized architecture firms in Toronto, New York, and London. Oceanic Refractions Elise Misao Hunchuck, born in Toronto and currently based Berlin and Milan, is a transdisciplinary researcher, editor, writer, and educator. Her practice brings together architecture, landscape architecture, and media studies to research sites in Canada, Japan, China, and Ukraine, employing text, images, and cartographies to document, explore, and archive the co-constitutive relationships between plants, animals, and minerals—in all of their forms. SpaceSuits.Us: A Case for Ultra Thin Adjustments Charles Kim is a designer currently based in Boston. Stemming from his background in architecture, he is interested in materials, DIY, and the aesthetics of affordability. Since graduating from Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2022, he has been working as an architectural designer at Utile. Uncommon Knowledge: Plants as Sensors Sonia Sobrino Ralston is a designer, researcher, and educator, and is currently an Assistant Teaching Professor in Landscape Architecture and Art + Design at Northeastern University in the College of Arts, Media, and Design. She is interested in the intersections between landscape, architecture, and the history of technology. Doxiadis’ Informational Modernism Mark Wasiuta is Senior Lecturer in Architecture at Columbia GSAPP and Co-Director of the Critical, Curatorial and Conceptual Practices in Architecture program. Wasiuta is recipient of recent grants from the Onassis Foundation, the Asian Cultural Council, NYSCA, and the Graham Foundation, where he was an inaugural Graham Foundation Fellow. Blue Garden: The Architecture of Emergence Tanvi Khurmi, based in London, UK, is a multidisciplinary designer and artist. Her practice is focused on addressing and combatting issues surrounding the climate crisis. After receiving a Bachelor’s in Architecture with a minor in Environmental Studies from the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture at the University of Toronto, she earned a Masters of Architecture in Bio-Integrated Design at the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London. Design as an Astronaut Dr. Cody Paige is the Director of the Space Exploration Initiative at the MIT Media Lab, a team of 50+ students, faculty, and staff building and flying advanced technology for space exploration. The Initiative focuses on helping students take their research into space. The pipeline developed to achieve this works with students from across the Media Lab and the MIT community to prototype space-related research in the lab, fly and test them in microgravity on parabolic and suborbital flights, and finally to take them to the International Space Station or on to the Moon. Cody also has a background in geology, specifically quaternary geochronology, and completed her Master of Applied Science at the University of Toronto in Aerospace Engineering and her Bachelor of Applied Science from Queen’s University in Engineering Physics.   The post Round-up: Canadian-led exhibitions at the 2025 Venice Biennale appeared first on Canadian Architect.