| Note: If you see this text you use a browser which does not support usual Web-standards. Therefore the design of Media Art Net will not display correctly. Contents are nevertheless provided. For greatest possible comfort and full functionality you should use one of the recommended browsers. |
Relevant passages:
Inke Arns «Social Technologies
Deconstruction, subversion, and the utopia of democratic communication»
Harun Farocki
«I thought I was seeing convicts»
Images from the Maximum Security Prison in Corcoran, California.
The surveillance cameras show an excerpt the shape of a slice of pie, and the concrete-surfaced yard where prisoners, wearing shorts and usually no shirts, can spend a half hour every day in the open.
The moment one inmate attacks another, those not involved lie down on the ground, arms covering their heads. They all know what comes next: after shouting a warning, the warder fires a round of rubber bullets. If the fighting continues, he fires again, using live ammunition this time.
The images are silent. Finally, smoke from the fired shots drifts across the picture frame.
With the camera and the gun side by side, the field of view and field of fire merge together...
Harun Farocki
(Source: http://www.farocki-film.de/2000.htm)
