The Cinema of Harun Farocki Pe eh aTeeeetemeeeiesanieinienseeeesieeeeeeeeseceeieieeeeseeentantetemesestnbehaemeaammntamssaeegmeniheeiemnsenenentubteeialtinittechinssaninaasimianneniaanaieensnacensapaaaanas ‘Born in 1944 to an Indian father and a German mother, Harun Farock! studied atthe German Film and Television Academy in Berlin rom 1966 to 1968. This places him n the ambit of the most famous figures of New German Cinema (Fassbinder, Herzog, and Wenders), but his practice is closer to the more engaged filmmaking of Jean-Marie Straub, Alexander Kluge, and Helke Sander. Politcized by the struggles around the Vi Frock’ has like these peers, developed eta cinema—one fused fom the image as "a meane of technical contro™—and i n't as well known aie deserves tobe “The crtiaity of his wotk sone reason for is delayed reception anothers its sheer diversity ninery-10 6 Teng ‘ews; and, lately, several image installations as well The lms vay bothin styl and topic fom a psychological ler (eran eto the “essay fins” with which Fae ypsally associated” Among the late are Iga ofthe World and the lsrption of War 988), Hove to Liven the German Federal Republic 1990), Videogame of Revolution gon Workers Lawing the Factory 19s, 1 Thought 1 Wee Seeing Comets (2000), and Eye Machine Ill 2 ‘nae atthe Carnegie Intemational in Ps Tn these works Faroe cove sand videos, many made TV numerous ado pices of ates, reviews and inter 1205 hich cure uegh cin, and ede chia iages, laegely drawn fom institutional records, sti lms, instruction videos, surveillance tapes, and home movie, of such sues a labor practice, rodition modes, ining methods, weapons test, contol Spaces, and "everyday Ii” sit il somewhat optimistic nam War in the 60s and the Red Army Faction in the 70s, ‘Of he slows these images down, repeats them in various ustapost ‘ond mint on them with voceover that range fom hea Iyer the deadpan; the overall effec is that we seem tose these ‘presentations, together wth Fark, forthe fist ime In this respect his esa ils are pedagopicl but never pedantic: The intelligence in playextactd from the images, inflected by the commentary, and ‘opeoduced soit ees) withthe audence—is ro quiz, lpia and geneous to be las seductive origi, and the fic voice cot bbe identied sticly with Farocl in any cise. is reworking of mot tage asa recurent custerng of adjacent letmoti als leaves much forthe viewer todo: We ae vied to futher workover the image texts that FacK’ has assembled for us (ry not wo ad ies to the fn” he ays" ey to thinkin fl so thar hehe come out offic rculaton”, perhaps to dleticze them as best we cn, withthe tact understanding if we atend to the eis of the fli vice at all thatthe purle wil remain open, never forma nthe end—a problem to reconsider, pecsly an exay to revise, ars later moment, 2 lileentconunctre, The essay fils have both 3 foren ienension anda wientoleimperative. From Inge of the World to Fye/Macin, aoc has jst pose emblematicimages from vars moment in aptalis pee: simple punches sy, th a sophisticated obo or misse—n ‘order to reieve some evidence ofthe technical elation, some sense of the lived onmecton, betwen diferent mode of abor, wt, nd ep sentation that each new mode tend to banish fom mtooe, Asin ad ‘gan berets eo intents of scing and maging a ths ks ticof "new medi” and outmoded forms he all bu obsessed with he FAROCKI APPLIES WARHOLIAN MEANS TO BRECHTIAN ENDS: HE “ANNEXES” FOUND IMAGES—THAT IS, BOTH CANCELS AND SUBSUMES THEM—IN ORDER TO INSIST ON A NEW RELATION TO SEEING AND IMAGING ALIKE. rol indeed theft, of inca. This obsession focuses bis practice ad sous ints orn means ia way that allows Faock’ “show” 8 ich aso "ell—and what he want ta show above lar signa an formations i seeing and imaging. ten Farock presents his vatous| devices perspective engravings, stl photographs, compute model, and so onnor only as repeesentative of the long Industral Revolution, bucas indice ofits significa shifts Like Mars he implies tha each new phase inthis history of production and reproduction sts up anew relay of power and knowledge; and ike Michel Foacalt nd Jonathan (Gary, he suggests that eah new relay ivolnes a ew regime of de sabjec a wells ‘Although some of his sions run to Renaissance representation, amore point tothe bith of fm ust over one hundred year ago. "Cet tral ois work” writes historian Thomas Esisse, ctor of new ‘lesion of say on Frocks he insight tht wh he advent of he ‘ema, the worl has become wine radically new way with reaching cmmequences forall spheres fife fom he world of work a ‘Production, to polis and our conception of denocracy and comunt pity, for warfare and statepc planning, for abstract thinking and ‘hoxophy, a well for erpersonl relations and emotional bond, fer sbjcty unlink abetivay™ Of oe, soe ofthese cone quences are explored in Pop artone thinks immeatly of Andy ‘Warhol and Gerhard Richter. Yet arock does not redouble the image world as pasivey as they often do again, he works to incat is hiv torial wajectry through a partial archacoogy of stelle devices Moreover, hes deven by Brechin imperative to vefunton these inscriptions” and in this respect he has acknowledged Brecht along with Warhol as his "most important influences.” “ln both eases, Fok has emarked, the mpc to aod naturaiing the image The diference, of cours, tht Brecht wants to devel mod of rs resentation, while Pop ae annexes ome."” In effect, Fatock apis ‘Warholan means to Brechtan ends: He, too annexes” fund nage thats both cancels and subsumes them order to insist on anew ‘elon 0 seing andi alike, My way,” Farock has leo commented sto look for submerged seaning, clearing sway the detritus onthe image.”* This diet ay ure isso quintesenially modems athe acne draws o the ‘eologyerigue ofthe Westen Marxist tadtion, especially ax devel ‘oped by Brecht an, late, Roland Bathe in Mythologies 95). Frock ‘reviewed this seminal text soon afer ts German piaton in 196, ‘nl ics lms are indeed myth rkiquesso many anal ear tations of ideological images.* The assocaion of Brecht and Warhol also coaures up Godard, another important inuenex on Frock Like Godard, Frock has produced a political meracinema yer whereas Godard has focused onthe classic gees of fl, Frock concentrates com its miltary-industrial expo {sumed a elit match esween camera ad ey that he then moved tisrup, Fock! demonstrates a perpetual seooling of eye by camera that he then works to deconstrict, Is thi motive of his pace, pro posed in magsof the World atl labored Eye Maching that want to underscore here Theil Inge of he World and he ncn of War suggest not ly amedisiono the word by images but aio an ernbodlednes of wae this medion, and “inscription” pis that Both equie decoding. Tnumedately, the, Farockanounces is pinay theme—the ication tof nstrument of repeesentation anid destruction which the seventy frettinite fin proceeds vo examine through speci examples that they are repeated take onthe hermeneutic orm of allegorical abject cece that we mus fist decipher and then sen further deciphering ‘We begin and end with a wave machin in a maine laboratory in Hannover afigue of the conteol-sroush-repoduction of nature ats extreme. Ye, nits mindless repetition ths device appears even more inexorable than the se and so sigs not echnolopel ingenuity such a mechanistic inference, a world not ony without quai the hut” as well Nex, na diletcal move, ston, and wheress Godard once but nealy without Fock! eles thi contempocaydifasion ofthe human tots historia development in Renaissance humanism he shows us Die engravings detailing perspective) and in the Age of Reason (here he reflects on ‘Auflirang the German ser for Enlightenment). Theft connection herwcen the invdal subject and ile pone perspective echoes he Heidegger of "The Age of the World ture” 193 allusion othe arabgtous history of rational echocethe Adorno and Horkbeimer of Dialect of Enlightowment (944: Yet chese suspicions ae sun in keeping wth posstrctulicriques ofthe 19708 and os However Fak Focuses these faa crgues onthe rae of rep resentation in rationalization. He does fist, obliquely, through an mnecote about on Imessue the facade ofthe cathedral in Weta, Germany, or purposes Albrecht Meydenbaer, who, in 19h ex out to