Andrew Schroeder

Montreal in 2009 – I’m still fascinated by the idea of airports as heterotopias of waiting and transience.

An oldie but goodie from the days when George W Bush was still president. Somewhere in central Minneapolis, there was an enormous sculpture/installation of sorts depicting all of the evils of the administration. Nothing says political protest piece like baby heads and astroturf.

Powerful people often act at will, even if the resulting behavior is inappropriate—hence the famous proverb ‘‘power corrupts.’’ Here, we introduce the reverse phenomenon—violating norms signals power. Violating a norm implies that one has the power to act according to one’s own volition in spite of situational constraints, which fuels perceptions of power. Four studies support this hypothesis. Individuals who took coffee from another person’s can (Study 1), violated rules of bookkeeping (Study 2), dropped cigarette ashes on the floor (Study 3), or put their feet on the table (Study 4) were perceived as more powerful than individuals who did not show such behaviors. The effect was mediated by inferences of volitional capacity, and it replicated across different methods (scenario, film clip, face-to-face interaction), different norm violations, and different indices of power (explicit measures, expected emotions, and approach/inhibition tendencies). Implications for power, morality, and social hierarchy are discussed.

Breaking the Rules to Rise to Power: How Norm Violators Gain Power in the Eyes of Others
Gerben A. Van Kleef, Astrid C. Homan, Catrin Finkenauer, Seval Gu ̈ndemir, and Eftychia http://spp.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/01/20/1948550611398416.full.pdf+html

Something really amazing happened to me today. I was headed to the Northern Lights Tea Shop (link) when I was stopped by three people attending a conference about using technology to organize information, notes, etc… I couldn’t resist when they inquired if they could ask me a couple of questions about the ways that I organize information and make lists in my life. Really, how could I? This is something I obsess about; something that kicks into high gear all the archivist tendencies I try to suppress throughout the day. I am obsessive-compulsive when it comes to organizing data and it often takes all my strength not to completely reorganize the database I manage at work. (more…)

"October 18, 1977", Gerhard Richter, 1988 from the series of 15 paintings.

It has been two weeks since Osama bin Laden was killed by US marines in Pakistan. There has been an enormous amount of healthy discussion on blogs and news sites about the importance of seeing images of his body. I’m going to refrain from joining in on this discussion of “seeing is believing” and instead look for a way to analyze the images that have emerged in broader art context. (more…)