N 嚴肅遊戲 I、II、III Serious Games I, II, III

嚴肅遊戲I:沃森倒下了、嚴肅遊戲II:三名亡者、嚴肅遊戲III:沉浸
Serious Games I: Watson is down, Serious Games II: Three Dead, Serious Games III: Immersion

嚴肅遊戲 I, III: 2010、2009,雙頻道錄像裝置,8分、20分;嚴肅遊戲II: 2010,單頻道錄像裝置,8分
Serious Games I, III: 2010, 2009, 2-channel video installa- tion, color, sound, 8'00", 20'00"; Serious Games II: 2010, single-channel video installation, color, sound, 8'00"
哈倫.法洛基
Harun FAROCKI

德國 1944年出生於捷克共和國新伊欽,2014年於德國逝世
Germany 1944 born in Nový Jičín, Czech Republic, and 2014 died near Berlin, Germany

在法洛奇的作品《嚴肅遊戲I-III》中,藝術家以影像傳播媒介與戰爭形式之間的變化關係,抽絲剝繭電腦影像生成與戰爭之間的關鍵點,並進行交叉的論證。

《嚴肅遊戲》系列的時空背景訂於美國開始阿富汗與伊拉克戰爭後,針對美軍29棕櫚樹營區的軍事訓練方法進行探討。作品中的暴力與戰爭並非自然發生,部分是由影像媒體技術製造。先自電腦生成軍事訓練的地貌與情境,再至電腦影像如何重建戰後創傷軍人們的創傷經驗,並行給予治療機會。法洛奇曾提過,電腦生成的影像構築了我們的想像,在這件作品中,真實與虛擬的邊界不易補捉,狀態亦模糊難辨。影像媒體除了代表畫面敘述之外,也隱含了許多的操作動作及背景影像的多種樣態,此系列分別以下述三個單元自不同方向探討解碼它。

《嚴肅遊戲I:沃森倒下了》拍攝了有關美軍使用電腦遊戲軟體來進行軍人的軍事操演。場景發生於加州的辦公室內,軍人們並坐於數排電腦前,各自進入模擬戰場的遊戲軟體中進行戰術推演。最終,軍人沃森被突擊陣亡,彈出對戰畫面回到辦公室椅子上,其餘同袍冷靜地同悼他的傷亡。

《嚴肅遊戲II:三名亡者》則反向重現電腦繪圖的戰場於真實世界中。油漆起皺的船運箱將電腦繪圖的戰場重現於真實時空,加上300名的臨時演員,模擬真實世界中遊戲式的軍隊田野操練。片末出現電影劇組供餐場景,影像又切回了電腦繪圖生成的世界,幾種錯置和敘事場景的安排,讓製造的真實與衝突被突顯出來。

《嚴肅遊戲III:沉浸》則使用虛擬實境影像設備「虛擬伊拉克」,藉由軟體設計師/ 指導者/ 世界重製者的解說,後加以治療師與戰後創傷的軍人的對談,患者接受療程並一次次的重述與沉浸過去傷痛經驗中,以期真實面對並接受。當療程結束時,我們赫然發現這是產品的銷售宣傳會所有一切真實的被演員演出著,錯亂所有觀者情感經驗。

In Farocki’s Serious Games I, II, III, the artist employs the varying relationship between the medium of image communication and the form of war, unveiling the key between computer generated images in order to cross examine the two.

The background of Serious Games series is set at the time when the U.S. went to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, investigating the military training methods employed by the 29 Palms Marine Corps Base. The violence or war occurred in the work does not happen naturally for part of which are generated through image media technology. First, the computer generates the landscape and scenes for military training. Next is how the computer imaging recreates the traumatic experience of the post-war soldiers that suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and intervenes? Farocki mentioned that the computer generated images constitute our imagination. In this work, the border between reality and fiction is hard to grasp and the status is vague and hard to identify. Apart from the frame narrative, image medium is hidden with various movements of manipulation and diverse forms of background images. The series discusses in three different orientations as follows.

Serious Games I: Watson is Down filmed the US marine used computer game for military exercise for soldiers. The scenes took place in the office in California, where soldiers sat in front of rows of computers, engaging tactic simulation in the simulated battlefield computer game. In the end, Watson was assaulted and down, ejected from the battle on the monitor and retreated back to the chair in the office, while the other comrades mourned his death in a calm manner.

Serious Games II, on the other hand, reproduce the CGI battlefield in the real world. The crates with mottled paint reproduced the CGI battlefield in the real space. Along with 300 extras, they simulated the game-like military field exercise in the real world. In the end of the film, the scene of meal serving to the filming crew pops up, and then is switched back to the CGI world. Several displacement and arrangements of the narrative scenes highlight the generated reality and conflicts.

Serious Games III employs virtual reality gear “Virtual Iraq”. Through the introduction by programmer / instructor / world re-maker, together with the conversation between therapist and the PTSD solider, the patient receives the treatment and recount again and again and immerses himself in the traumatic experience in the past, in hopes of confronting and embracing the fact. When the session is over, all of sudden, we come to realize that all of this is a sales pitch. Everything was acted out by actors, confusing all the emotional experiences of the viewers.