Genuine Cars in Your Vicinity Are Looking for You : Part III –

We Like We Like

Blog

Platform Austria

Menu

Close

Deutsch
English
Italiano

We Like We Like

Platform Austria

Deutsch
English
Italiano

Austrian Pavilion

Biennale Architettura 2021

Curators: Peter Mörtenböck

& Helge Mooshammer

Genuine Cars in Your Vicinity Are Looking for You : Part III

by Jochen Becker

Algorithmic Governmentality
Artificial Intelligence

[1] Paglen, www.e-flux.com/journal/59/61130/operational-images

[2] Harun Farocki, Eye / Machine III, www.harunfarocki.de/installations/2000s/2003/eye-machine-iii.html

[3] Farocki shows that over twenty years ago the machines still needed orientation: “When in an image sequence a programme only charts what it is looking for, whether it uses coloured guidance lines as route markers in a landscape being flown over or the skirting boards in the corridor of a research institute to enable an autonomous robot to orientate itself, we are witnessing a denial. The guidance lines are a statement that this image is only concerned with what is marked.” Farocki, “Der Krieg findet immer einen Ausweg,” 29.

[4] Paglen, www.e-flux.com/journal/59/61130/operational-images

[5] Farocki, “Der Krieg findet immer einen Ausweg,“ 27.

[6] Farocki, Erkennen und Verfolgen. A contrast can be found in a promotional film for Texas Instruments: “B-52 bombers in slow motion with bombs falling from their hatches – the opposite of an operational image. An image intended to frighten and entertain, if possible simultaneously. Accompanied by Valkyrie music.” (Farocki, “Der Krieg findet immer einen Ausweg,” 30)

[7] Farocki, “Der Krieg findet immer einen Ausweg,“ 26.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Geoff Manaugh, “Robot War and the Future of Perceptual Deception” (2016), www.bldgblog.com/2016/07/robot-war-and-the-future-of-perceptual-deception

[11] Farocki’s last completed project, the multi-channel installation Parallel I-IV (2012-14), explores the boundaries of game worlds and the character of artificial objects: “Computer animations are currently becoming a general model, surpassing film.” www.harunfarocki.de/installations/2010s/2012/parallel.html

[12] Simon Denny, Mine, K21 / Kunstsammlung NRW Düsseldorf, 2020/2021.

[13] Serious Games I-IV, 2009/10.

[14] This recalls image recognition for which people are enclosed in coloured, computer-generated wire cages.

[15] Farocki, “Der Krieg findet immer einen Ausweg,“ 26.

[16] Farocki, Erkennen und Verfolgen.

[17] Farocki, “Der Krieg findet immer einen Ausweg,“ 25.

[18] “In the images with crosslines in the centre, there are normally no humans to be seen. The battlefield is shown as deserted. When you look at a series of such images, you could imagine that they are of a war continuing after humanity has disappeared from the planet. The agenda of war is executed by autonomous war machines. The operational images of approaching targets and detonation usually show military targets such as barracks, bunkers, airfields, and also bridges, which are classed as strategic targets even if they are being used by civilians. I remember, during the first Gulf War, a US military spokesman showing a clip at a press conference in which a car was quickly driving away from a bridge that had just been hit, and making a joke about it. Today the military archives do not show images where vehicles can be seen, which necessary imply that people are present in the target area. And we certainly never get to see images in which unarmed people are shown in the target area. This shows how making war and reporting war are becoming conflated. The images we get to see are created militarily and controlled militarily and politically.” Farocki, “Der Krieg findet immer einen Ausweg,“ 26.

Comments

Name

Comment

We Like We Like

Blog

Platform Austria