The wrinkle etched where thought finds expression, the buried stratum born of ancient forests, the subtle stitching that binds worlds together. A seam is more than a line of joining: it is a junction, a place where edges meet and myriad meanings gather. It is both a threshold and a bridge. Often invisible, akin to the architectures of the universe, our intersections are bound to reveal the interdependencies that cause and affect our many ways of knowing, being and doing.

In the creative realm, attention is increasingly shifting along and across many disciplinary, cognitive, geographical and political borders. Here, tensions become generative—binaries unsettled, ideas entwined, energies shared. This dispatch carries words and works of creatives operating at and emerging from the seams. The photobook 'Not Here Not There' by Charbel AlKhoury captures Lebanese cities in liminality, conflict and political unrest;

the show 'Wohnkomplex: Art and Life in Plattenbau' unpacks the socialist housing structure as a prism to explore the unfinished stories of a divided and later reunified Germany; the 36th edition of Bienal de São Paulo reveals the horizontal relationships between times, practices and geographies exploring what it means to "be human"; and a conversation from ADFF:STIR Mumbai 2025's ~log(ue) programme, 'Occupy', gathers marginalised voices at the centre of arts discourse.

Having recently concluded the curation of Global Design Forum in partnership with London Design Festival, titled 'Design At/From The Seams', from our position of interest and enquiry, STIR sees boundary work and boundary-shifting endeavours bursting at the seams. What remains is to ask: how might we make them the very zeitgeist of our times?