In his video installations Serious Games I–IV, Harun Farocki explores how the U.S. military employs video game technology to train troops for war and to treat an aftereffect of war, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Filmed at the United States Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Serious Games I: Watson is Down pairs footage of soldiers at computers engaging in combat-simulation training with scenes from the video games. In Serious Games III: Immersion, Farocki presents footage of a role-playing exercise in which military psychologists demonstrate how to use the PTSD program on their colleagues, who describe traumatic wartime experiences. On a second channel, their descriptions play out as virtual renderings. Farocki calls attention to the subtle differences between the simulations for combat training and PTSD in Serious Games IV: A Sun with No Shadow. With the former, the sun can be programmed to cast shadows in the virtual combat zones, while the latter, less expensive technology does not offer this feature.
Additional text from What Is Contemporary Art? online course, Coursera, 2019
