For the last couple of years Marina Peterson and Gretchen Bakke have been putting together Errant Elements, a beautiful project to create a chapbook series organized around the Periodic Table of the Elements.
In their words:
Dmitri Mendeleev left gaps in his model of the periodic table for the not-yet-known — elements that the prior century sought to standardize and classify by atomic weight and chemical properties — to allow history to fill in, but not to leave open to speculation, or to leave alone. What can be made from what is that isn’t yet? How might the elements be constitutive of something different? What is missing or lacking? How can those absences be incorporated or invented into the base materials? What needs to change from what we have to make what we don’t have?
The form – 118 folded chapbooks designed to be combined in various ways – supports a collective exploration of the combinatory affordances and stories of the elements. The format is a trifold brochure that folds into a 5×5” square. This allows readers to connect pieces in different ways, constructing official or imagined elements and reading across diverse entries in ways that open new imaginaries.
Thanks to their gracious invitation, I took the chance to propose a submission on the element Pa (Protractinium) or, rather, in my attempt: “Pavements” – but also “Panot”, something of a particular obsession of mine since I started doing fieldwork on urban accessibility.
My errant element starts like this:
Poor pavements, nobody seems to be thinking of them.
Unless they are broken, that is. This invisibility is telling…
You could check it out below. But, FYI, the whole set of chapbooks will be for sale. Contact the editors for more info!
How to quote: Criado, T.S. (2025.) Pa – “Pavement” but also “Panot”. In M. Peterson & G. Bakke (Eds.) Errant Elements, issue 2: 91. | PDF