Cabinet 12: The Enemy

The Enemy may be another country, another person, a virus, or a social phenomenon. On the theme of The Enemy: an interview with Harvard science historian Peter Galison on cybernetics pioneer Norbert Weiner and his WWII-era research into anti-aircraft weaponry, which led directly to his theories of cybernetics; an interview with Wolfgang Schivelbusch, author of The Culture of Defeat, on the effects of crushing military loss on the collective imagination; Justine Kurland's photographs of the women combatants among the Tamil resistance fighters; John Peffer interviews a military expert in the use of propaganda; and Gianni Motti exhibits AP war photographs that were deemed too beautiful to sell. Also in this issue, Marina Warner on photographing ectoplasm, Lynne Tillman on the color "chartreuse," Jonathan Ames on presidential doodles, Anne Carson on "totality and eclipse," an artist's project by the Archive for Speculative History, and more.