"The times we are living in seem all too real and, against all expectations, the best evidence seems to lie in a few dozen grainy digital photographs e-mailed from the other side of the world."

"As we finalized preparations for publication of this installment of Vectors, the relevance of the issue's theme - mobility - was cast into surreal relief by the events leading up to and following Hurricane Katrina."

"The images and sounds that pervade our world, indeed the excited electrons that illuminate this screen are, by definition, evanescent — we perceive and make meaning from them in fractions of a second before they flicker, fade or are replaced."

"Some pieces in this issue -- including those by Eric Faden, Perry Hoberman, and Donald Hoffman -- blur past and present, real and make believe, theory and art, playfully tweaking the borders of the user's perception."

"Projects by David Goldberg and Christian Sandvig also tease out the oft-repressed connections that structure diverse aspects of daily life, in times of both crisis and normalcy."

"In the mean time, history has continued to move forward, with new historical narratives and new firsts yet to be recorded; memories will continue to be conjured, contested, scripted and contained."