e-flux Journal #149

In January, Donald Trump will begin his second term as the president of the United States. His first term and his campaigns have been defined by the extreme and effective loosening of the constraints of “reality” on previously unimaginable levels of power. His critics are often hampered by confusion over whether his policies are guided by any intentionality or foresight. His actions mix transactional plays with intoxicating chaos, to an extent that last month multiple former high-ranking US military officials from his previous administration agreed that Trump is “fascist”—a sentiment likely circulating within the world’s most powerful military that he will soon lead again, at least nominally. But Trump’s radicality and pathological intensity in courting chaos threatens more than just military structure or policy, and is not only about the already fragile concepts of “truth” and “facts,” but about a much higher order where reality itself is structured. Developing literacy in this domain will be essential for geopolitics in the difficult years ahead. Editorial Editors Genealogies of Autonomy Sven Lütticken and Marina Vishmidt in conversation Society of the Psyop, Part 3: Cognition and Chaos Trevor Paglen The Sun of the Colored Peoples: Edival Ramosa in the Diaspora André Pitol Unsettled Ghosts in Ex-Africa: Okwui Enwezor’s Second International Biennial of Contemporary Art Seville Jason Waite Without Claims to Purity: The Great Atomic Bombreflector and Its Designers Anna Gorskaya Disperse the Nation: Don Mee Choi’s Poetry Trilogy Alan Gilbert The Snag in the Voice Sophie Rose

Editors: Julieta Aranda, Brian Kuan Wood, Anton Vidokle

Contributors: Julieta Aranda, Brian Kuan Wood, Anton Vidokle, Sven Lütticken, Marina Vishmidt, Trevor Paglen, André Pitol, Jason Waite, Anna Gorskaya, Alan Gilbert, Sophie Rose