In the second issue of * as a Journal, the asterisk is replaced by the word ‘cosmos’. The guest editor Julijonas Urbonas, whose Lithuanian Space Agency represented Lithuania at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, invites readers to leave the ground and delve into the space above our heads. How does it read, feel, taste, and sound? Catapulted up there, our reach and imagination are confronted with the hostility of outer space – otherworldliness at its most acute. The Cosmos issue looks into how we can attune imagination to such a departure from our terrestrial origins.

The third issue is dedicated to sound: as art; as vibrations in space; and as a constituent component of our experience of the world around us. Guest edited by Damian Lentini, the edition probes sound’s ability to shape and generate effects. Soundscapes as a Journal invites leading artists, writers and scholars to investigate sound’s ability to shift back and forth across times and spaces; incorporating traditional and contemporary positions, digital and analogue technologies, as well as that which emanates from both organic and inanimate bodies.