Epiphenomenon is a secondary effect: real, present, observable, yet perceived to be causally insignificant. But to name something a byproduct is a political act. It decides what counts. This week, we read against that decision.

Designer Max Milà Serra's light instruments are built from the wire, the cable, the structural necessity; the byproduct is the language. Pooja Saxena's book 'India Street Lettering' recovers signs looked at daily but never seen; to one signmaker, lettering is an epiphenomenon

of woodwork. Sohrab Hura photographs Kashmir's winter and Madhya Pradesh's summer; the season, a deliberate doorway; against a codified image culture that demands the spectacle, he offers the atmospheric residue. At Venice Biennale, queer and migrant bodies are the epiphenomena of the nation state, but central to the artists.

What becomes visible when we read against that decision?