The Japanese term 'kankyō' (環境) echoes one's milieu: our environment as well as the circumstances that animate it. Our context stretches far beyond the physical, the visible, the tangible; it is a tapestry of what was, what is, and what can be—with a simmering tension between the present, the absent and the silently fading.

Our surroundings or kankyō, in many ways, are extensions of our beings, and we, in turn, are fragments of them. Akin to tiny mirrors, we reflect the all-encompassing nature of our kankyō: responding to it, internalising it, sometimes resisting it, but never detaching from it. One can only wonder who holds sway in this cryptic, incessant dialogue; how much do (or should) we exchange with what surrounds us? This week's issue is as much a deciphering as it is an acknowledgement of deep human-habitat ties and the singular forms they assume in

creative practices. An exhibition at the Simose Art Museum presents artistic practices that speak of and with their settings; In a conversation, artist and designer Henrietta Waal gets behind bioregional and social design, choosing integration over imposition; Founder and art director of Turkish brand Kutnia, Jülide Konukoğlu, retraces her journey of rescuing the culturally-unique Kutnu fabric from extinction; 'Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power' looks back at artist Emma Amos' radical and political art.

One's perception of and relationship with one's context is inimitable. While some seek to preserve it, others pursue its subversion, and the rest live its muted reality. What do you make of your kankyō—what does it make of you?