It appears our whole environment tends towards duality. As if nature were searching for balance through opposites. That when we think of a state, concept or gender, we inevitably encounter its inverse. Order and chaos, birth and death, woman and man… A countless number of elements have another face to balance them. These opposites mutually define each other. They explain and justify. Together they give meaning to their unity. If there were no shadow, we wouldn't comprehend light, if we didn't understand endings, we could not grasp the idea of a beginning.

Ours is a dual universe of day and night, noise and silence, black and white. Yet it is also a world of nuance, of shadings, of chiaroscuro. Because things evolve towards their opposites: 'The cold become hot, the hot becomes cold, the moist becomes dry, the dry becomes moist' (Heraclitus). Therefore, there is implicit illusion in reality and reality in illusion, passion in reason and reason in passion, truth in lies and lies in truth.

All these concepts surrounding the idea of duality have developed into nine content pieces in the printed edition, which we reproduce fully in the Flash clip at the beginning of this editorial. From them, we selected two for the web version: 'Man/Machine' by Power Graphixx and 'Angel/Demon', where José Carlos Suárez analyses the work of Mark Ryden, Marion Peck and Ray Caesar. This is work that aims to answer the questions that dualities place before us. Perhaps the answers will raise fresh questions. Ironies of duality.