Daily Pic: A moment in a video diptych called “Serious Games I: Watson is Down,” by Berlin-based artist Harun Farocki, who is now getting a solo show at the Museum of Modern Art. The piece pairs images from a video game used to train soldiers, which features scenes of mayhem and casual slaughter, with the antiseptic room where the soldiers are playing it. All Farocki’s works look at overlaps between the culture of games and the culture of war, at surveillance technology in prisons and in supermarkets, at high-tech factories and high-tech missiles. His videos are all about content, not looks, and they ask us to reject our standard notions about what fits where in politics, economics and culture. The show’s not easy, and demands time, but it has something to say.
The Daily Pic, along with more global art news, can also be found on the Art Beast page at thedailybeast.com.