Introduction

November began as a finite experiment: ten longform conversations published between July and November 2020, deliberately structured to unfold alongside the 2020 presidential election. It was rooted in a specific moment—defined by overlapping conditions that were still coming into focus: what became a global pandemic, and a set of political, economic, and cultural transformations that continue to shape the conditions of everyday life. Rather than respond through commentary, the project turned to conversation as its method, working from the belief that thinking had to take place within these circumstances as they were actively unfolding.

Across aesthetics, architecture, race, political economy, protest, and education, these exchanges were shaped by time, rigor, and process, and by a commitment to being both critical and skeptical—treating skepticism not as refusal, but as a productive means of testing ideas, clarifying positions, and sustaining inquiry. Contributors came from across disciplines, bringing distinct practices and vocabularies into contact with one another. The resulting volume included figures such as Adrian Piper, Frank Wilderson III, Hal Foster, Mark Wigley, Nell Painter, and Mimi Thi Nguyen—not as subjects of coverage, but as participants in a shared inquiry, each articulating a different way of understanding the structures that organize contemporary life.

The title “Volume 0” reflected how the project understood itself at that moment: not as a launch or a provisional exercise, but as a first articulation of a framework. It established the terms of engagement—longform conversation, editorial rigor, and a commitment to sustained inquiry—that would continue to define the work as it developed. At its core was a belief in the promise of sustained inquiry: that theory is not separate from lived experience, but essential to how we understand ourselves as a body of people living within environments that are constantly being remade.

From this foundation, the project continued. Its expansion was not a matter of scale for its own sake, but a response to the persistence and evolution of the realities that gave rise to it. As political, economic, and cultural life continued to shift, the work developed new forms—essays, roundtables, and public programming—while maintaining its commitment to rigorous, process-driven thinking.

The work is grounded in a simple premise: conversations with and among ourselves and each other are the only way we solve problems and constitute change in real and tangible ways. We can only get to the future together, collectively. From this position, conversation is not treated as a format, but as a way of working—one that allows culture to be made, contested, and transformed in real time.