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BALLAD
This Week From The Editor

A ballad is never in a hurry. It celebrates time in its unfolding, teasing out every detail of a story, occasionally repeating itself for emphasis. Both a musical form and a structural logic, the ballad is as dramatic as it is meandering. This week, the sinuous contradictions of the ballad lend themselves to our consideration of practices that 'take time', in simple but powerful ways.

Keeping Time | Taking Time

Roh Soh-yeong, director of an international electronic arts symposium, reflects on the inevitable intersections between art and technology, and the need to learn from the past in how we interpret a new future. At Clerkenwell Design Week 2025, a 900-year-old church became a setting for functional contemporary design.

The Venice Biennale 2026 will honour the curatorial framework sketched out by late curator

Koyo Kouoh, attuning its international exhibition 'In Minor Keys' to the frequencies of slower gears and marginal notes. In Newcastle, British artist Delaine Le Bas, of Romani descent, turns large-scale installations into sets, inviting audiences to enter them and even leave traces behind. 'Five Architecture Fables', a book by Edgar Demello dreams up ecosymbiotic connections that are simultaneously utopian and dystopian in phenomenological readings from the present.

Everyone loves a good story. But you just never know how it might end, do you? In narrative uncertainty, time becomes a steady constant. And the ballad understands that, functioning within the scaffolding of rhythm. Keeping time feels predictable, but also cathartic.

Ranjana Dave

STIR at the 24th International Exhibition of Triennale Milano, Inequalities
STIR at the 24th International Exhibition of Triennale Milano, Inequalities
See See

In Minor Keys: Venice Biennale 2026 reveals its curatorial theme

07 MIN READ    Read More

Think

Edgar Demello's 'Five Architecture Fables' as a manifesto for oneness

14 MIN READ    Read More

Think
Inspire Inspire

Delaine Le Bas on language and power, and making interactive art

08 MIN READ    Read More

Reflect

London Festival of Architecture 2025

Date

1 - 30 June, 2025

LOCATION

London, United Kingdom

London Festival of Architecture 2025

The 2025 edition of the London Festival of Architecture builds on the momentum of its 20th anniversary last year, with a bold and expansive line-up of over 450 events, including exhibitions, workshops and installations, under its theme, 'Voices'. Rooted in a mission to platform underrepresented voices and champion diverse perspectives, the festival offers a rich and varied programme that celebrates architecture as a space for dialogue, action and transformation.

Learn More
STIRpad

NEWS

STIR spots diverse sustainable design approaches at Clerkenwell Design Week 2025

STIR spots diverse sustainable design approaches at Clerkenwell Design Week 2025

10 MIN READ     Read More

Separator

Discovery and collaboration guide the craft-forward Hundō collection by Emily Thurman

Discovery and collaboration guide the craft-forward Hundō collection by Emily Thurman

04 MIN READ     Read More

Not a spectacle, but a welcome

Roh Soh-yeong on technology and attunement

09 MIN READ

Lee Daehyung

Not a spectacle, but a welcome

The director of the International Symposium on Electronic Art 2025 reflects on art and technology and their ever-evolving meeting points.

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