For the ‘Subject’ of this issue of Electra we chose a topic that is, by definition, always current: ‘the new’. To develop it in several directions we have counted on the valuable contributions of authors from various fields of knowledge: Boris Groys (in an interview), critic, art and media scholar, and philosopher; François Hartog, historian; Iwan Rhys Morus, historian of science; Lionel Ruffel, critic and essayist on literary theory and studies; Nuno Nabais, philosopher.