Eye/Machine I, II and III

Harun Farocki utilizes a vast collection of image sequences from laboratories, archives and production facilities to explore modern weapons technology. This trilogy examines "intelligent" image processing techniques such as electronic surveillance, mapping and object recognition, in order to take a closer look at the relationship between man, machine, and modern warfare.

"Mr. Farocki’s focus on techniques of simulation invites skepticism about the representation of reality in general. His art is a meditation on the degree to which our world, what we take for reality, is formed by recording and image-making machinery.  We are always “at a distance,” in peace as well as in war. Representational technology becomes an experience in and of itself, which at least partly eclipses what it purports to reveal. Similarly, our minds organize incoming information into images and narratives that may or may not be true to the facts. The nonexistent weapons of mass destruction that ostensibly led to the United States’ invasion of Iraq are a case in point."

--Ken Johnson, Unfiltered Images, Turning Perceptions Upside Down, New York Times, August 26th 2011