a. natasha joukovsky
journal
FIRING COMEY AND THE METAMORPHOSIS OF DECISION DESIGN
The recent fallout from Trump's decision to fire FBI Director Comey illustrates a fundamental shift to the executive decision-making paradigm away from the established cultural standards of mature, stable, democratic republics.
Trump's decision-making heuristic erodes logic and norms, often governing by transient whims even when it threatens his own longer-term self-interest.
The recent fallout from Trump's decision to fire FBI Director Comey illustrates a fundamental shift to the executive decision-making paradigm away from the established cultural standards of mature, stable, democratic republics.
The above framework depicts the starting point for decision analysis based on historical precedent and formal constraints to the decision-maker's authority. It does not suggest that these starting points always prevail; individual decisions may ultimately violate laws, logic, norms, and personal interest for any number of reasons. The shift I'm trying to illustrate with Trump, rather, is to the baseline, to the going-in assumption. Whims are the foundational element to Trump's decisions, with homage to logic and norms factoring in only when they support said whims. Indeed, Trump's repudiation of norms is one of the stated reasons his supporters elected him (swamp draining &etc.).
This is an innovation made possible, I think, by Trump's personal mythology and near-infallibility with his base. Oh, and it's terrifying. Formal constraints are subject to deep strain when in contradiction to informally-established normative behavioral parameters. Just think of the variations between, say, your corporate handbook and how things actually work day to day in the office. What has a greater impact on behavior? Similarly, logic, like its cousin reality, is often less-believable than fiction. How our formally-codified precedents hold up to direct pressure on norms and logic is, perhaps, the next big question.
YAYOI KUSAMA: INFINITY MIRRORS
Kusama's work is innovative and visually stunning, creating illusions of vast magical landscapes inside spaces often the size of a bathroom or closet.
Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Mirrored Room – The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away, 2013
My husband scored timed tickets to the blockbuster exhibition Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington last week, and for someone who loves recursion, it did not disappoint.
Kusama's work is innovative and visually stunning, the immersive rooms in particular creating illusions of vast magical landscapes inside spaces often the size of a bathroom or closet.
Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Mirrored Room - Love Forever, 1966/1994
Exterior shot of Infinity Mirrored Room - Love Forever at the Hirshhorn Museum
The individual tableaux range from intergalactic to Alice-in-Wonderland-style weird. My personal favorite, All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins, which is also Kusama's most recent and on view for the first time at the Hirshhorn, fell somewhere in the middle of this spectrum. This room is a total fusion of recursion, innovation, mythology, and glamour; it felt like stepping into an infinite futuristic fairytale dreamscape.
Yayoi Kusama, All the Eternal Love I have for the Pumpkins, 2016
I'm not surprised Infinity Mirrors has become crushingly popular--popular to the point that one of my friends teased I was "so basic" for going.
For such a photogenic exhibit, photographs don't do it justice. It's interactive and mass-customizable, selfie-friendly, and endlessly Instagrammable. It snuggles perfectly into the sociocultural mores of the moment.
I was fortunate to go on a Wednesday morning when the crowds weren't too bad, but the overall buzz surrounding this exhibition reminds me a lot of the 2011 Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty mania I experienced intimately when I worked at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The glamour of the Kusama show has likewise transcended its inherent glamour. The more people wait in line, the more people are willing to wait in line. The line has become part of the attraction, not just a means of getting inside to see.
Here are all of my photos from Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors:
