Controlling Observation

Farocki, Harun

doi:10.1515/9789048505265-020

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…But this is not the circularity imagined by the European Commission’s report on critical raw materials: a still somewhat theoretical model of the Circular Economy, in which end-of-life devices and manufacturing wastes are mined for their raw materials, reducing the need for new extraction sites. Quite the contrary of this ambitious and problematic model, one of the most notable consequences of digitization – the machine legibility of images – has led to a rapid and much commented-on expansion of the use of images within technical processes, what Harun Farocki presciently foresaw as the rise of the operative image (2001). Multispectral or infrared imaging is now proposed as a machinic outsourcing solution in numerous realms of visual inspection: crops, food packaging, forests, infrastructure, logistics, pharmaceuticals, carbon emissions, the sorting of recyclable waste – all can be supported by infrared image analysis, leading to a massive increase in demand for the critical metals which enable visual access to infrared spectra.…”

Section: Circularitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Inverting resolution: accounting for the planetary cost of earth observation

Cornford¹

2023

Journal of Visual Culture

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This article uses the resolutional relationship between digital image and planetary surface in satellite remote sensing as a lens through which to view the reliance of visual culture on mineral resources. While most studies of resolution in satellite imaging have focused on visibility and invisibility, the author argues that the equivalence between pictorial and geographic space in its cm/pixel specification offers an opportunity to consider the physical relationship between the two. The proposed inversion enables the satellite and its transmitted images to be understood as contingent upon an unsustainably extractive industrial model. The article then traces the material trajectory in geophysical prospecting applications of remote sensing, identifying a recursive loop in which images are used to produce minerals that are used to produce images. The potential geopolitical impact of this circularity is then assessed with regard to an example of future remote sensing emissions governance. In this, and many other climate-critical applications, remote sensing potentially plays a vital role, yet its instrumental gaze tends to shape the earth as an informational resource whose mineral reserves should be capitalized upon. Ultimately, the author’s aim is not to denounce earth observation as ecologically untenable, but to propose that we find a measure with which to assess the planetary impact of the various aspects of industrialized visual culture. Conceiving of resolution not as a measure of pictorial space but of the terrestrial cost of producing, consuming, distributing and permanently storing digital images might enable a more relational understanding of image and ground, pixels and planet. Accounting for the inverse resolution of an image could bring the deep temporal costs of digital visual culture into focus.

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Section: Circularitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Inverting resolution: accounting for the planetary cost of earth observation

Cornford¹

2023

Journal of Visual Culture

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“…It corresponds to what Farocki himself calls ‘controlling observation’, meaning a visuality, to which no human observer corresponds, and for which the body and the senses – touch, hearing, motion, affect – have become the protectively and defensively invoked stand-ins or prostheses. This new invisibility poses a special challenge to the filmmaker, because as Farocki (2004: 294) argues:The prison visiting hour scene [so central to the prison film genre] will soon find itself without a correspondence in reality. The introduction of electronic cash will make [films that feature] bank robberies practically impossible too … With the increase in electronic control devices, everyday life will become just as hard to portray and to dramatize as everyday work already is.…”

Section: Surveillance and The Militarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulation and the Labour of Invisibility: Harun Farocki’s Life Manuals

Elsaesser

2017

Animation

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This article focuses on Farocki’s four-part film cycle Parallel I–IV which explores the image genre of computer animation. In Parallel I–IV, Farocki traces the development of video-game graphics from the crude two-dimensional images of the early 1980s to the hyper-realistic environments of contemporary titles, such as Grand Theft Auto. The article situates the film cycle in relation to Farocki’s wider body of work and thematic interests, while also considering how Parallel I–IV sheds light on a media–archaeological reassessment of cinema history. Five interrelated topics are addressed: representation and reproduction; operational images; surveillance and the military; simulation and role play; and the labour of invisibility and the invisibility of labour.

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“…With the prevalence of various electronic imaging technologies and visual aids, such as augmented reality, medical imaging, digital maps, and CCTVs, the operational aspects of these imaging techniques tend to fade into the background and merge with aesthetic devices. Within electronic systems, the technical representation of the underlying principle behind these processes often becomes obscure and mystified (Farocki, 2004: 15). Demystifying these techniques is crucial for comprehending our position in an increasingly technologically driven world.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The electronic screen, which remains the predominant interface in our media usage, was an essential component of the cathode-ray tube 2 (CRT), responsible for representing image information in specific spatial-temporal arrangements. Harun Farocki coins the term ‘operative image’ to describe images that do not merely represent an object but rather a component of an operation (2004: 17). In this paper, the concept of the ‘operative image’ is expanded beyond military and surveillance applications to encompass all electronic imaging techniques that visualize, detect, track, and identify.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From glows to graphics: The invention of visuality in early electronic media systems

Sun

2023

Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Med

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By going through a history of electronic visuality, from fluorescence glows in European laboratories in the nineteenth century to the computer screen in the twentieth century, this paper discusses technical image operations in the interaction between media machines and media people. Examining this set of apparatus from the evolution of a neglected technical object – the vacuum tube, it traces the history of the screen and the temporal-spatial composition of electronic graphics in television, radar, and early computer systems. In doing so, it outlines the entangled history of analog and digital displays and demonstrates the impossibility of neglecting the role of the human observer in the technical invention of visuality.

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Controlling Observation

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Inverting resolution: accounting for the planetary cost of earth observation

Inverting resolution: accounting for the planetary cost of earth observation

Simulation and the Labour of Invisibility: Harun Farocki’s Life Manuals

From glows to graphics: The invention of visuality in early electronic media systems

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