Boom Saloon issue 5 explores the theme of ‘resolve’ with input from an extraordinary global network of talents. Across four chapters – the places, the people, the thoughts and the tangents – we explore topics which are challenging, complex, thought provoking and diverse.

In our meatiest feature, renowned photographers and climate change researchers Lena Dobrowolska and Teo Ormond-Skeaping join forces for a deep dive into scenarios thinking which presents us with a pressing ultimatum for humanity. Nonkululeko Sibande’s Umqhele unpacks the representation of Black hair within culture, whilst Ryan Filchak’s interview with The Design Museum’s Priya Khanchandani questions our cultural institutions’ moral imperatives. Is there really room at the top for us all? Adding food for thought is an extracted conversation between Jessica Elliott Dennison and Phillippa Henley – a chef and sculptor duo seeking to rebrand Scotland and all it has to offer. This paves the way for a number of features collated closer to home, at a time when many of us are forced to look inward. Recognising the potential this creates, this issue is in support of a very special boom saloon project: with our first international endeavour on hold, all profits raised from the sale of our fifth issue will support project 002.5, which will seek to rewrite the story of dementia in collaboration with a number of local Scottish dementia groups.