Now in its 10th year, London Design Festival will again turn the capital into a hive of installations, exhibitions, parties and events – the best of which will be included in the Icon Design Trail. Nendo, Rolf Sachs and Keiichi Matsuda will create installations for the V&A museum, and there’s also the revamped 100% Design at Earl’s Court, where creative agency Shaw + Skerm will design an immersive entrance tunnel.
www.londondesignfestival.com

Regarding Warhol is the first major exhibition to examine the American artist’s influence on contemporary art across multiple generations. Iconic “Warhols” will be shown alongside the work of 60 other artists, including Ai Weiwei and Jeff Koons. The exhibition examines themes such as portraiture, sexuality, artistic partnership and the proliferation of images, showing the wealth of responses and reinterpretations his work has inspired.
www.metmuseum.org

Simple, everyday objects such as utensils and chairs are often taken for granted, but the development of their basic forms actually has a long and fascinating history. MAK’s exhibition traces the “plain and simple” aesthetic in Asian and European art history, from 11th-century China through to Jasper Morrison, exploring the principle of simplicity in the context of social and political changes. You may never look at spoons the same way again.
www.mak.at

Artists have long struggled with the relationship between humans and machines, questioning technology’s value and its potential to transform subjective experiences. Taking a chronological approach to examining the artist’s fascination with technology, Ghosts in the Machine features experiments, artwork, and objects that span over 50 years of curiosity. See both contemporary and historical works by artists including Hans Haacke, Mark Leckey and Henrik Olesen.
www.newmuseum.org

Field Conditions seeks to blur the boundaries between “paper architecture” and conceptual art. Taking its title from the influential Stan Allen essay that marked a shift away from traditional architectural forms towards systems and networks, the exhibition uses the notion of the “field” to explore the representation and experience of space without buildings. The show features works by a variety of artists and architects, including Daniel Libeskind, Lebbeus Woods and Sol LeWitt.
www.sfmoma.org

When Florence Tillon made the documentary Detroit Wild City (2011), it left a powerful and lasting image of the ravaged post-industrial city in our minds. This month, the non-profit organisation Metropolitan Observatory for Digital Culture and Representation, is asking the public for their depictions of Detroit in a 48-hour screening of film, photography and performance. The event is focused on reinterpreting the accepted image of the city, which MODCaR says has come to precede the experience of Detroit itself.
www.modcar.org

Brazilian artist Maria Nepomuceno’s bright sculptures make use of rope, straw, beads, ceramics and found furniture – allowing the logic of the materials involved to inform their coiled or draped forms. Her organic installations, said to reference the nature of far-flung galaxies and the structure of DNA, are meticulously made from her knowledge of indigenous craft techniques. See Tempo para Respirar (Breathing Time), a commission for the Turner Contemporary this month.
www.turnercontemporary.org

RCA graduates Attua Aparicio and Oscar Wanless base their experimental design studio in a plastics factory by the Thames. Silo Studio is inspired by industrial processes and materials, but say they take a craft approach, developing an aesthetic they call “handmade hi-tech”. Best known for their range of bulging, knotted furniture made from expanded polystyrene (nominated for a Designs of the Year award), there’s now a chance to see more work at this one-off solo show.
www.marsdenwoo.com

Jeanne Gang’s Aqua Tower, an 82-storey sculptural skyscraper in downtown Chicago, is the tallest building in the world to be designed by a woman. Since establishing her research-led practice in 1997 Gang has added many important projects to the portfolio, addressing issues of urbanism and regeneration with her architecture. This month Chicago’s Art Institute has an interactive exhibition on the studio, featuring a high-rise community in Hyderabad and a concert venue and park in Taipei.
www.artic.edu