And we’re back.

Now & Again began as a platform for us — a group of art and design graduates — to share our artistic ventures and to collaborate with other creators. What resulted from this has opened up opportunities to speak to some of the most passionate individuals in their respective fields. The community of indie print publications across the world has never felt more tight-knit. 

The theme of ‘Sound’ came into being around the launch of our first edition, ‘Disappearances’. This was a range of personal works that reflected on unsettling past experiences and discussed concepts of transience and loss. It concluded with questions regarding our attempts to manifest elusive memories in material form, and about never quite being able to hold on to fleeting experiences and emotions lurking just beneath the surface of our consciousness. This time, we look at a medium of a similarly inescapable nature — sound.

We can never avoid the sounds that surround us and characterise the spaces we inhabit. Yet, because it is so ubiquitous, we also tend to neglect sound, and it may only come to our attention once it’s absent from our environment. How can we make sense of something so intangibly ordinary? How can we allow sound to take shape and be physically recorded outside the form of audio? There are also more subtle aspects of sound — such as the voice in your head as you read these words.

To an extent, as common as sound is, it can never really be fully grasped. In this issue of Now & Again, contributors have pricked up their ears and attempted to comprehend sound from their own perspectives and through individual explorations. 

We welcome you to join us on this journey, and to listen a little differently.