ART CITIES:Berlin-Serious Games

 

In the four video projections that make up the widely exhibited video installation Serious Games, Harun Farocki examines the use of computer game technologies in the training of American soldiers, positioning video games within the context of the military. Serious Games I: Watson is Down, shows young recruits engaging in simulated combat training on the computer, which barely differs from games produced by the entertainment industry. Serious Games II: Three Dead, was filmed during a military exercise in the Mojave Desert in California, where a city, populated by some 300 extras playing Afghans and Iraqis, had been erected for that purpose. According to Farocki, the city “Looked as though we had modeled reality on a computer animation”. In the third part, Serious Games III: Immersion, in a therapy session, a soldier retells a traumatic combat experience while wearing a headset streaming a simulated environment which replicates the memory. The final part, Serious Games IV: A Sun with No Shadow, depicts various elements of the games, such as obstacles click-placed by the trainer: an armed enemy, a civilian, a cat, a Coca-Cola can, the texture of the terrain, and shadows which most make realistic the simulation for training.

 

Also is projected a formally stringent critique of the Vietnam War, Inextinguishable Fire, Farocki critiques the role of consumer industry in the production of chemical weapons during the Vietnam War, in particular, the work of Dow Chemicals. Near the start of the film, Farocki poses a question that seems to get at the heart of many people’s anxieties about violence and the media: “How can we show you napalm in action? And how can we show you the injuries caused by napalm? If we show you pictures of napalm burns, you’ll close your eyes. First you’ll close your eyes to the pictures. Then you’ll close your eyes to the memory. Then you’ll close your eyes to the facts. Then you’ll close your eyes to the context. If we show you someone with napalm burns, we will hurt your feelings. If we hurt your feelings, you will feel like we’d tried napalm on you. We can give you only a hint of how napalm works”. And then Farocki takes a lit cigarette and snuffs it out on his own arm. “A cigarette burns at 400 degrees”, a narrator says. “Napalm burns at 3,000 degrees”.

Info: curating: Henriette Huldisch, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin, Invalidenstraße 50-51, Berlin, Duration: 6/2/14-18/1/15, Days & Hours: Tue, Wed, Fri: 11:00-18:00, Thu: 10:00-20:00, Sat, Sun: 11:00-18:00. www.smb.museum/en/museums-and-institutions/hamburger-bahnhof/home.html