Harun Farocki: Forms of Intelligence

When Harun Farocki died, in 2014, he was one of Germany’s most celebrated contemporary artists. In her Academy project, “Harun Farocki: Forms of Intelligence” (forthcoming with Illinois UP), Alter explores the transformations of Farocki’s artistic practice against the backdrop of the ever-changing mediascape of the late twentieth century. During his fifty-year career, Farocki produced over a hundred works of varying length, format, and media that were exhibited in multiple platforms and venues. Between his first film, in 1966, and his last installation of 2014, independent filmmaking moved from Super 8 and 16mm of the 1960s and 1970s, to video in the 1970s and 1980s, to digital production beginning in the 1990s. Screening platforms evolved from movie theaters to televisions, from galleries to computers. Farocki learned and mastered all of these new forms, always cognizant of how each medium came with its own set of possibilities and styles. Alter plans to organize her text around several thematic concerns that resurface throughout Farocki’s oeuvre: critique, war, and work. In addition to a critical introduction, she includes several translated interviews, a filmography, list of installations, comprehensive bibliography of Farocki’s writing, and critical bibliography of writings about him, all of which will cohere into a foundational work that will introduce a broad readership to the life and work of Harun Farocki.