Serious Games. The Asymmetry of Images in Harun Farocki

Abstract

The works of Harun Farocki (1944-2014) confronted in many ways with all the transformations of image production devices and also with AR and VR. In particular, in the installation Serious Games (2009-2010) Farocki confronts some of the issues that most characterized his artistic activity: the transformation of wars, the modification of the function of images in the perception of the war, the role of «operational images». Farocki uses the images themselves as a way to make the modification of our aesthetic relationship with images and their political function perceptible and comprehensible. The four videos that make up the installation Serious Games (exhibited in many museums including: MoMA New York, Ryerson Image Center Toronto, Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin, Jeu de Paume Paris) were shot entirely inside some training centers for U.S. Army soldiers in which “serious games” are widely used both for the training of fighters (Virtual Battle Space 2 by Bohemia Interactive), and for the immersion therapy of patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorders: through AR and VR devices they can try to overcome the shocks suffered (in particular the Virtual Iraq program of clinical psychologist Albert Rizzo). The essay aims to analyze Farocki's installation focusing on the aesthetic and political issues related to the use of AR and VR technologies with particular reference to training and therapies for P.T.S.D.