2012, Allen, Jamie, Boshears, Paul, Jenkins, Nico

For this, our sixth issue, we offer firn as our constellating theme. From the Old High German firni, meaning “old” and related to the Swedish forn connoting “former,” firn is the term used to indicate snow that has survived the summer months. Firn is rounded, well­bonded snow that, like continent., has existed for more than one year and has a density greater than one would expect from snow pack. Firn snow is a moment between glacial ice and the wet snow that packs. The material recrystallizes, and affirms its surface tensions and as it becomes impermeable to moisture, the transition to glacial ice is consummated. We again have elected to emphasize a term that translates the passage of time into the spatialization of time.

2011, Allen, Jamie, Boshears, Paul, Jenkins, Nico

continent. seeks to map a topology of unstable confluences and ranges across new thinking, while traversing interstices and alternate directions in culture, theory, biopolitics and art. We seek to engage the paradigm of academic journals, informing---as well as criticizing---the existing standards through active engagement with art, politics and philosophy, while also remaining "media agnostic" and cross-pollinated. To this end we have gathered a number of contributing editors and distinguished advisors from around the world and plan to produce a quarterly publication of significance and meaning.

2012, Allen, Jamie, Boshears, Paul, Jenkins, Nico

Since we last checked-in with you, dear readers, there has been a tremendous amount of activity among the continent. crew. In September, we joined the Editors of Speculations at the University of Basel to discuss the aesthetics of para- academic publishing during the Aesthetics in the 21st Century conference. Just the following weekend, we were on the campus of Northeastern University in Boston, to discuss similar matters during the Biennial Meeting of the Babel Working Group. An inspiring set of discussions, and some meetings with friends we'd only theretofore encountered through somewhat less fleshy networks and communiques.

2011, Allen, Jamie, Boshears, Paul, Jenkins, Nico

In this issue of continent., which takes as its theme the idea of the moraine, or that which is left behind, we attempt to think, and look beyond that horizon of the possible cataclysm, not in naive ways of hope and gleeful sounds, but in an attempt to present different directions in thought and looking and hearing. Beyond the cataclysm, or within it—or even, precisely anterior to it (anterior to an event not yet happened)—there are new ways of thinking “beyond” already becoming apparent. These ideas are speculative, in a sense irresponsible: Graham Harman writes about Quentin Meillassoux’s God who does not exist now, but may do so in the future while Paul Ennis describes the speculative line backwards to Kant’s distinction between phenomena and noumena. Michael O'Rourke assesses the future of Queer Theory and we are compelled to ask if queer theory is a theory of everything. Karen Spaceinvaders “maps” the brain through sound leaving us to wonder where is the mind, while Phillip Stearns, as though echoing Spaceinvaders’ work, remaps digital photography, creating images from the stray electrical currents in the apparatus. In fiction, Ben Segal gathers the blurbs of the books yet possible. And there is more.

2011, Allen, Jamie, Jenkins, Nico, Boshears, Paul

We here at continent. gratefully share with you the fourth issue of our first volume. As 2011 draws to a close, we've finished up our first of what promises to be many years building and collecting manifestations of thought in its many forms. Guiding our thinking in this issue is the term arête. A thin sharp line, a lateral peak which separates valleys, ribs of sifted rock made mounds. With one stutter, the term becomes areté, a form of virtue, of goodness. Another stuttering, and we hear the French arreter—to stop. All of our stuttering is perhaps a form of nervous anticipation; a call for rest as well as an echo for change. For this December issue, we've drawn out these stutters: the solid fluidity of geology; the virtuous skill of craft; the possibility of a repose. Among many other givings in continent.1.4, we bring you Alain Badiou's hopes for neg through his interview with John Van Houdt, and John A. Sweeney's veiling and unveiling of politics in the pit-stop urban space.