“WIND”

Volume Two, Issue Three, Summer 2023

Cover illustration by Charlotte Bravin Lee

VOLUME #2, ISSUE #3 “Wind” Overview

The wind is something that can and cannot be grasped, something that has been economically, spiritually, and ecologically exploited by human hands. Thus the wind, as an unforeseen and impenetrable aspect of the natural world, leads us to consider depictions of the atmosphere’s ephemeral qualities. In many ways, it is the wind that allows us to grapple with air because it is an active force in daily life, weather, and atmosphere, while at other times, wind acts as a force of destruction. If the wind becomes the means by which we see, feel, smell, and hear the air, we are made aware of air due to wind’s effects. If awareness of air is predicated on the effects of winds, how might we characterize the importance of movement, animation, and force to the consideration of the invisible?

Dedication

2020 has been host to multiple crises in the air. They are all too familiar by now: amidst global climate catastrophe, a virus that targets our lungs has affected lives, economies, and sharply refigured our social and political atmospheres. Simultaneously, the death of a Black man at the hands of the police has laid bare the conditions of austerity and violence that the United States’ racialized poor must endure.

Though having inspired many who believe in a future where people might one day be allowed to breathe easy, these tragedies continue to stifle the air of thousands across the globe. We take this moment to thank medical workers for their tireless efforts to heal us from a devastating pandemic; we thank those who continue to do the work and speak out, holding us all in bated breath for the change we know is yet to come. We also take a moment of silence to recognize and remember all those who have lost their breath in 2020.

It is to these people, and to those who love and continue to fight for them — for all of us — that Venti is humbly dedicated.

We recognize these events could neither be fully spoken to nor accounted for by a dedication. At its best, intellectual dialogue supplements and informs action. Venti, in its simple bid to think about the air, might be just one tool among many for weathering this tragic, tempestuous, yet hopeful moment.

As we continue to move through the topic of air, we believe it is our duty not only to mourn but to also derive inspiration.

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“WIND”

table of contents

Dedication