The cadence of what makes adulthood sane, bearable, purposeful, and even enjoyable can be found in rituals. These are a series of actions threaded into our days, subtly structuring them: kneeling in worship each week, getting our daily steps in, preparing elaborate feasts on festivals, or reaching out to hold a loved one, half-asleep—habitual gestures, intentional and practised, working their way into meaning-making.

To create something and bestow meaning upon it—a drawing, a relationship, a piece of writing—is to imbue it with ritual, like persistent incantations. What begins as light affirmations eventually becomes confident sermons on the tongue. Enact and cast them enough, and an idea or routine dares to materialise and manifest—at it, at it. A ritual. A becoming.

An enquiry into creativity as ritual is undertaken this week: we delve into 'Homo Urbanus', an ongoing film series capturing the minutiae of living in urban scapes, the rituals people have with cities, and how these condition them. Choreographer Akram Khan shares how he was approached to collaborate with Manal AlDowayan, discovering common themes in their art around ritual and memory. Hosted in Jeddah, the Islamic Arts Biennale emphasises faith, with the KAIA as a modern gateway for pilgrims journeying to Mecca and Medina.

Are the practices that feed our creative appetites informed and inclusive? Study it, question it. There is a canon here.