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Look-alikes

by Ulrike Kremeier


The ideological connotation of the symbiotic relation between information, image production, political realities (in particular in war times), and the(ir) representation can be traced back to antiquity. But a new dimension in this field emerged when photography came up, and when daily newspapers were established as popular mass media in 19th century.

«It is amazing that the public which constantly judges war on the basis of newspaper information nevertheless is convinced about having come to an own, and therefore independent opinion about the war activities».(1) This thesis articulated by Marcel Proust‘s novel character Lord de Charlus indicates an early critical reflection on the relation of mass media and public opinion. In 1922 Proust’s / de Charlus’ position was a clear comment on manipulative press strategies of representations of the reality of WW I.

Between WW I and WW II the connections between politics, public (opinion), and representations of war realities in mass media seem to have become more complex already. During WW II, and even more after the Cold War, the meaning of the image in mass media has increased enormously. As opposed to primarily language based representations, the impact of images became more relevant. As Ernst Jünger wrote in 1944: «while language fails in the face of war, the image talks».(2)

Historically, texts have always been considered as constructions of reality. The written or spoken word describes an event, reproduces the likeness of it, and therefore (re)creates it on a different level. But it never shows evidence. Any kind of traditional image production (photographic as well as filmic) has a specific physical nexus to reality, and was therefore conceived as more authentic. What is fixed by their chemical development processes, are light reflections of the objects or events being represented. The veracity of the real was no longer only witnessed by the human eye, but also by the camera as well as the film. The role of the technical apparatus seemed to have objectified the representation.

Paul Virilio parallelized the technical developments of (film) cameras and weapon systems. They are described in their strange osmosis as tools of perception determining human ways of seeing war activities. (3) Following this thesis the perpetrator is not only the person actually executing the war, but is also to be found behind the camera. And furtheron the identifiable perpetrator anyway disappears when camera and weapon are the same apparatus. Besides, those high tech apparatus evoke the idea of the disappearance of the image (white noise) indicating a successful destruction of the target.

Analogous to the technological developments of image (re)production and information distribution, the demand for topicality as well as the idea of authenticity rose until the 60s. Since at the time television gained relevance in comparison to print media, significant changes concerning media formats happened.(4) The permanent presence of televised pictures of the Vietnam War and their direct link to the massive protests against the war, led to a new paradigmatic shift concerning the ideologized use of images (in particular pictures of war) in mass media.

In the public memory there are no specific and signifying media images of contemporary wars any more. Instead, different kinds of blurry representational images function as fill-ins. High-tech wars, as they are the standard when Western nations are involved, do not involve the human on a visible level. As Jean Baudrillard stated: «The imagery is no more mirror of being and appearances, of the real and its concept».(5) None of the late 20th century wars is associated with an iconographic media image, like for example, the Spanish civil war is related to Robert Capa Falling Soldier. Meanwhile all mass media war images look like we have seen them already: either in the context of other war reports (at other times, in other countries, etc.) or, alternatively there is this fatal similarity to computer or video game images.

Real time representations (desert storm), re-introduction of the human eye as primary witness (embedded journalists in Iraq), automatic implication of an image critique, etc. and other media strategies were invented to regain the credibility of mass media war representation. Similar to earlier considerations of texts being constructions of reality, meanwhile any kind of representation, in particular the pictorial one is being under general suspicion.

In the Western world not war itself, but only its media representation is part of our everyday life. War takes place as mass cultural media construction. It became a symbolic phenomenon of mass cultural products and practices being reflected by the media: we are caught in an endless circulation of war metaphors being inscribed in specifically unspecific commercial images of war.

Monika Anselment’s photo series TV Wars focuses on war image typologies of global mass media representations of late 20th and early 21st century wars. Between 1991 and 2004 the photos were taken from television news. The pictures show images of wars, where Western nations were involved. Most of the images could be neither decoded, nor the places be identified (it could be Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, etc.), or even dated (it could be 1991, 1993, 2000, 2002, etc.) without textual information. Without this info, the pictures could also be read as advertisements for luxurious New Year celebration somewhere in the desert, a new mainstream cinema action film, etc. If there were no logos of internationally known tv channels, you would not even be sure of the image source. As opposed to the character of the images, the selection and (re-)presentation of pictures produced by Monika Anselment is specific. The consequent exaggeration of the sameness, the false banality as well as the seductiveness leads to a discourse about aesthetical strategies of mass media representation. With TV Wars Monika Anselment thematizes (or even partially utilizes) the exhibition space, even more the artworld in general, as a symbolically political context.

(1) Proust, Marcel. A la recherche du temps perdu: Le Temps retrouvé, Vol 5. Paris 1956. p. 274.

(2) Jünger, Ernst. Strahlungen, Tübingen 1949. P 536.

(3) see: Virilio, Paul. Krieg und Kino. Die Logistik der Wahrnehmung, München 1986.

(4) see: Luhmann, Niklas. Die Realität der Massenmedien, Opladen 1996.

(5) Baudrillard, Jean. Simulations, New York 1983. P 8.


Source: TV WARS / ed. by Fundació Espais, Girona, 2005.