There are conferences, and then there are spectacular conferences. "Naturalizing Architecture" at The Turbulences-FRAC Centre, Orleans, France is clearly in the latter category. One can only marvel at the designs and manufacturing capabilities of these architectural forms. Dezeen Magazine shows us some of the leading exhibitors.

If you are sensitive or easily offended, don't look at these images. But if you want to see some powerfully eerie sculptures then take a look at the work of Choi Xoo Ang, a Korean master of the world of dark imagination. Even without any thoughts of human rights or dignity, these works speak volumes about the human condition.

In a somewhat similar but not as disturbing vein are the sculptures by Bart Hess at an exhibition called "Dutch Invertuals". Unlike the Korean work above, Hess's bodies evince some sense of humor and enjoyment of the ridiculosities that they have been exposed to.

The Vitra Design Museum shows us new architecture derived from traditional forms of habitation. They call it "Learning from the vernacular", and it succeeds in bringing the dwellings of other cultures and earlier years into the current vocabulary of housing.

Paul Friedlander's kinetic sculptures combine sceience and art in the field of light sculptures. Friendlander says he is able to combine his "knowledge of physics" with his "love of light". These moving beams of light are quite fascinating to observe and endlessly varying.

A new book by Gered Mankowitz offers fifty years of his photographic experience taking images of rock stars. Particularly striking are the photos of Annie Lennox and of Donovan with his young daughter.

If you can't quite make it to Miami or Gwangju, you can at least have a peek at some of the entries in their respective Design Festivals. From the 5th Gwangju Design Biennale, to the Design Miami 2013 show, here are examples of some of the more intriguing pieces and installations offered.

Designboom brings us the permanent suspended spiral installation by ball nogues studio, recently put in place at the new music center in Nashville, Tennessee. Created with delicately beaded pieces, the installation is a masterpiece of motion and fragility. Fascinating online, I can only imagine how effective it must be in the physical location. This website shows you the beads used, and a view of the factory workshop. You can see more of the inspired creations by ball nogues at their own web site. Be sure to look at "Cloud" and "Cradle", not to mention the "World's Largest Pulled Candy Sculpture".

Now here's one that I admit I never thought of. Photographer Martin Klimas placed a can of paint on top of a speaker and then played music at full volume. He proceeded to photograph the resultant explosions of paint. I'll admit that the method is a bit unusual, but the results are anything but dull.

Those of us who have long worked in CAD/CAM know what it looks like when an image becomes overtreated and turns into sharp geometrics. Now an artist named Mike Pelletier has captured that process as it occurs and turned it into an animated film. He calls it an exploration of human emotions. I suspect it is rather, and equally valid, an exploration of digital manipulation of 3D forms, restated in a post-modern vocabulary, but either way the results are interesting. In fact a visit to his website reveals that he has been exerimenting with how CAD/CAM interacts with the human body in a number of installation projects.

Three years ago I created a solid sculpture called the Gungulus. It was designed in a CAD program and then hand-carved in China of a granite found in the mountains there. Visitors to my studio were shown that the granite turned dark red when it got wet, and then returned to its pale shade after drying.

Recently I came across a photograph of the granite-laden mountains in China in spectacular color, showing the color change over a broad swath of landscape.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is currently showing an exhibition of work by Ken Price, with a show originally organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and designed by Price's close friend Frank Gehry. Price's sculptures and ceramics are exquisite. Perhaps the best way to see them is at his own website. Price died in 2012. Be sure to spend some time looking through these sinuous curvaceous pieces.

If you can't get to Philadelphia, the next best thing is to view these photographs of ten stunning street murals. Selected by the founder of the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, they add a vibrant note to the urban landscape.

On a similar note, if you can't quite swing it for a Porsche but would like one, take a look a model that uses plastic tubing and gold-painted aluminum foil. Created as a fine art project by artist Hannes Langeder, this model is powered by pedals and eco-friendly.

A site called "Mental Floss" takes you inside of some of the world's most elegant libraries. Photographer Jill Harness guides us through them, from the baroque to the contemporary. This is armchair traveling at its best.