Writing from a climate emergency in Delhi, we are driven to ask: how do our actions shape the world? Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear. You may recognise the banal warning from car mirrors and truck bumpers. To live differently, we need to look closer at life as we know it.

"We never look just at one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves," art critic John Berger reminds us in 'Ways of Seeing'. This week, we consider the scope of the world and the scope of our work in it. As a term, 'scope' signifies both a possibility and its purview. It is the idea, the object of one's contemplation, the burning question, and it is also the distance one can travel and the gaps one is yet to bridge.

How we look at things always matters. 'A Nocturnal History of Architecture' casts light on darkness, making fundamental connections between the human experience and the night. We remember pioneering artist Faith Ringgold, who died at 93, best known for her narrative works that depicted African-American experiences. Art and life draw from the same wellsprings and the same frustrations—now more than ever, those connections aren't easily invisibilised, the Venice Biennale reminds us.

How do we make and unmake the world in our 'doing' and 'being'? The scope of the world is shaped by the scope of our work in it.