Description:

Pan was founded as a venue for new writing and artwork to exist and be shared in a way otherwise impossible given the restrictions put in place in response to COVID-19. From this starting point, the project has grown into an experiment in forms of distribution. Each issue of Pan consists of approximately 5 text or image-based contributions from writers, artists and designers. Each issue is released via multiple channels; on pan-publication.org, as a downloadable, print-optimised PDF from the website, and then finally as a limited edition, physical printed publication in an edition of 250. As a result, the project looks to examine the dynamic at play between content readily available digitally, and the more concrete, scarce form it might take in print. The digital capabilities of the project also allow for each issue of the publication to build slowly online, as contributions are ready. This responsive aspect of how the website has been developed opens up interesting editorial and design possibilities, as contributions within a single issue of the publication can respond to each other, and develop organically.

Based in Aotearoa, each issue of Pan includes a selection of content from both local and international contributors. The aim of the publication is to explore multiple critical perspectives on life under quarantine, and how life has been altered through the pandemic experience.

Through both its digital and physical forms, Pan is be a telegraph, document and archive of the time we are living through. As we step further out of the shadow of pandemic, it will act as a map of a moment in time, and a group of practitioners.