Spurred by his participation in the UK exhibitions “More than Human” and “Sea Inside,” CNN’s Francesca Perry dives into Japanese artist Shimabuku’s long-running interspecies collaboration with octopuses—from touring Tokyo with a live cephalopod to gifting octopuses bespoke glass sculptures underwater, probing non-human agency. “They have curiosity,” the artist enthuses about his tentacled muses, and “time for hobbies.”

The London Design Museum flagship exhibition “More than Human” explores how design can help the planet thrive by considering ecological needs. Highlights include Julia Lohmann’s tent-like seaweed pavilion, Shimabuku’s glass sculptures designed as gifts for octopuses, and Superflux articulating the River Thames’ consciousness. “The world doesn’t revolve around us,” write curators Rebecca Lewin and Justin McGuirk of obsolete anthropocentrism.

In her review of Oceans (2023), a new Whitechapel Gallery anthology of sea-centric artworks and texts gathered by Pandora Syperek and Sarah Wade, critic Régine Debatty highlights favourites. Picks include Shimabuku’s octopus diaries, Saskia Olde Wolbers’ 2017 film Pfui – Pish, Pshaw/Prr, and an interview with Brian Jungen, whose “large sculptures of whale skeletons, made of mass-produced plastic garden furniture, allude to the threat of uncontrollable pollution.” (image: Cetology, 2002)