Hot Peace, Bloody Grain

In his 2005 essay film A Way, Harun Farocki formulates a simple principle: “Only if future wars have humanitarian objectives, intelligent weapons are justifiable. Weapons that accurately distinguish between friend and foe.” As we are livestreaming a genocide in the time of intelligent weapons, the question clearly arises: Is our humanity really tied to resolution?

What happens when operational images produced by intelligent weapons transit into the realm of visual culture and when visual culture transforms into in-visual data culture? Almost a decade after Farocki’s film, we all stand on the battleground. Looking away is almost impossible and, consequently, an active choice.

Hot Peace, Bloody Grain emphasises how a pixel is a whole universe that precedes and proceeds the image itself. The manipulation of images is embedded in material circumstances and consequences. Value and meaning are embedded into the operation as warfare becomes visual.