Technology is at the forefront of everything we do. It amazes me how much I rely on it. If I have a question about anything, I simply type it into Google. I can’t believe that I can get the answer to almost everything instantaneously. Someone reminded me, recently, about the early days of the internet when you couldn’t make a phone call and be online at the same time. I had forgotten about that. As a society, we are continuously pushing the boundaries of technology and I am eager to see what the next advancements will be and the influence these developments will have on artistic production.

This issue joins together a range of creative makers who use materials to construct outstanding works from clothes to buildings and photographs to objects; innovation is the key word. David Adjaye has set the bar for construction across the world, and a mid-career survey at Arts Institute Chicago explores one of architecture’s youngest and most prolific innovators with over 50 projects completed to date. Ode to Dutch Fashion opens this September in The Hague with a historical survey of 100 years of fashion in the Netherlands. With the recent success of Viktor & Rolf and Iris van Herpen on a global scale, Dutch fashion is firmly on the map. New Museum, New York, presents an overview of the late photographer Sarah Charlesworth, who questioned the central role that images play in our culture.

Photographer Ellen Kooi captivates us with cinematic images which depict inward retrospection. Laurent Chehere, inspired by the films of Wim Wenders and Federico Fellini, uses the concrete jungle as a starting point and documents the banlieues of Paris through surrealism, while Ryan Schude creates large-format works that are theatrical in nature and seem to capture a moment frozen in time. Matthieu Venot’s sun-bleached buildings celebrate joy in the everyday. We also highlight the Next Generation, which is our annual showcase of 10 rising stars from London College of Communication. Finally, Lee Bul discusses her work in the last words; it oversteps the boundaries between genres and disciplines.