The Teleology of War

by Disphotic

‘The television screen is the retina of the mind’s eye. Therefore, the television screen is part of the physical structure of the brain. Therefore, whatever appears on the television screen emerges as raw experience for those who watch it. Therefore, television is reality, and reality is less than television.’

– Videodrome

A few images from a project I’m working on at the moment about television and the way wars, both fictional and factual are depicted. I’m interested in several things, the history of wars on television, the visual language used and how these differ or are similar in news and entertainment, and ultimately the question of what purpose showing war on television serves. Is it informative or titillating, cautionary or callous? At the same time I’m interested in the potential of photographs of moving images on a screen to emulate the aesthetics of traditional war photography, and what it means for the veracity of that media if it is sometimes indistinguishable from photographs of a battle scene in an action movie.

Images shown here are from ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’ and an episode of the documentary series ‘The World at War’ on the battle of the bulge.