A stool made from coffee chaff, and four more October things to look at

QORE: Circularity at the Core takes over Alchemist Arab Street's shophouse and turns all three floors into a free look at what coffee waste can become. Running daily from 9am to 6pm until Sat 31 Oct 2026, the showcase is panels and furniture made from coffee chaff and recycled plastic, including a stool produced in just 119 numbered pieces. There's no slot to book and nothing to pay — walk up, go floor by floor, and you'll get the whole material story in about the time it takes to finish a flat white downstairs.

VECTOR#7: Past The Breaking Point is the one to clear a whole afternoon for. On Thu 15 Oct 2026, the Esplanade Annexe Studio opens a seven-hour exhibition of performance art and installations from 3.30pm — free, and for those 18 and up. That running time is not a typo. This is work that unfolds in front of you rather than objects on a wall, so plan to stay a while instead of ducking in for twenty minutes on your way past.

Garden Rhapsody is the free one you can do on any night that suits you. The light and sound show takes over Supertree Grove at Gardens by the Bay at 7.45pm and 8.45pm daily, including Tue 13 Oct 2026, and the themed editions change — waltzes one night, opera the next, disco after that. Take the 7.45pm slot if you want to be home at a sensible hour, and drift towards the trees rather than stopping where the crowd thins out.

Beans is straightforward theatre in the most intimate kind of room. It plays Centre 42's Black Box on Fri 30 Oct 2026 at 8pm, and the setup is as tight as it sounds: they're stuck in the old office they've been clearing out, with one can of beans left between them. A black box means no distance at all between you and the stage — which is either the whole appeal or the reason to skip it, depending on how you feel about being that close.

TPCC Presents: Transcription is a choral night for the curious rather than the already-converted. On Thu 15 Oct 2026 at 7.30pm in the Esplanade Recital Studio, the programme explores 19th-century transcription with works by Vaughan Williams and Barber, at S$30 a seat. The theme is music reshaped for different voices and instruments, so expect material you half-recognise in clothing you don't — sung in a hall small enough that you catch every consonant.

One scheduling note worth knowing: VECTOR#7: Past The Breaking Point and TPCC Presents: Transcription both land on Thu 15 Oct, both at Esplanade — one free, one S$30 — so if that's your night out, you'll be choosing. Otherwise this is a nicely spread-out month, and every one of these is indoors. Jio the friend who insists there's never anything to look at in October.

All five are within walking distance of an MRT and none of them need you to know anything about art beforehand.