Shoot! War, geometry and horror

The aim of this video essay, which is linked to the introductory video on the ground floor Watch! Watching the conflict, is reflecting on the impact of images in the evolution of war; that is, how technologies of vision, media images, and artistic representations have contributed to the transformations of our gaze towards war. Through case studies taken from contemporary art history, photography, film, and visual culture, Spampinato addresses several themes inherent in the transformation of ways of viewing conflict, beginning with the realisation that the narrative of war is entrusted to images that, although presented as natural, are in fact carefully constructed to generate consensus.

A central theme is the evolution of battlefield visualisation and computerisation techniques, from balloons to aerial photography to drones. The counterbalance to this impulse to codify war consists of the documentation and depiction of the pain of others, evidence of the dehumanisation that leads exponents of opposing factions to commit the most nefarious acts of violence against the enemy.

Francesco Spampinato (1978, Catania, Italy) is an Associate professor at the Bologna University’s Department of the Arts and conducts research in the field of contemporary art history and visual studies, particularly on the relationships between contemporary art, media and technology. Recent publications include Art vs. TV: A Brief History of Contemporary Artists’ Responses to Television (Bloomsbury Academic, 2022); he edited GMM – Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici: Computer Comics 1984-1987 (NERO, 2021); and Ran Slavin: Shapeshifter (Mousse Publishing, 2022); and monographic essays for academic journals or exhibition catalogs.