Serious Games War Media Art /anglais/allemand - Tapa dura

During the Persian Gulf War, the world witnessed an unprecedented convergence of warfare and media coverage. Civilian televisions were broadcasting images that had just been seen by military censors; shortly afterwards, this data was being translated into computer games peddled to teens. Through the work of international artists, Serious Games investigates how devastation is transfigured into forms of entertainment that militarize the imagination.

During the Iraq War in 1992, warfare concurred with the media coverage. Civilian television stations showed images that had just been seen on the screens of military censors. In the meantime, offices run by the United States Army deliver complete sets of data for computer games. Virtual desert landscapes with concrete runways and utility poles influence children and teens today in the way that tunnels and villages from toy railroad sets once did. This lexical compendium investigates how images of war are constantly transformed into entertainment images and thus militarize the imagination. It is about the types of images created in war and how contemporary art incorporates and mirrors them. This issue is examined through photographs, videos, computer games, paintings, and installations by artists such as Peggy Ahwesh, Oliver van den Berg, Kota Ezawa, Harun Farocki, Jean-Luc Godard, Richard Hamilton, Walid Raad, Martha Rosler, Allan Sekula, and Hito Steyerl.