àngels barcelona | Harun Farocki | Dossier  

Deep Play, 2007 12 channel video installation, color, sound (German with English subtitles) 100 min. Ed. 2/3+ 2 AP First Screenig: XII Documenta Kassel

Director, Scriptwriter: Harun Farocki Assistance: Matthias Rajmann Camera: Ingo Kratisch Editing: Bettina Blickwede Playersoftware: Benjamin Geiselhart Animation: Regina Krotil Installation: Gregor Luft Technical Consultant: Ralph Niebuhr Research, Production: Matthias Rajmann Technical Director: Jan Ralske and Antje Ehmann, Wiebke Enwaldt, Christiane Hitzemann, Ronny Tanner. With support of DFB Kulturstiftung Berlin and Cine-Plus Media Service GmbH & Co. KG Berlin. Thanks to: MA.JA.DE. Film Heino Deckert, Meike Martens, Berlin, Ingeburg Krause, Berlin, Harun Farocki Filmproduktion, Berlin. ENG

Deep Play brings together 12 different perspectives on one of the biggest broadcasting events ever ­the 2006 FIFA World Cup held in Germany, seen by an estimated 1.5 billion viewers worldwide. The screens combine the artist's own footage, FIFA footage, digital analyses and 2D and 3D animation sequences, so that we see the event from unexpected viewpoints.

It is common knowledge that football is our life. And, just like life, we are always trying to improve our grasp of it. The joke is that it constantly frustrates our attempts, but that’s also something we try to optimize. Harun Farocki’s work Deep Play is made up of various perspectives on the final of the 2006 World Cup. We see the clean feed, the television networks’ raw material. We see individual players on both teams, but also abstract computer generated representations of the flow of play. The intelligent network of relationships among players who are kicking, passing, receiving the ball and running, a network that absorbs spontaneous individual decisions as well as tactical ideas and habits rooted in the culture of the game, it is endlessly complex given the size of the field. This roughly corresponds to the range of possible constellations offered by a group of guppies in a midsized aquarium.

This may be sublime, but it also makes us sad. However the game is not only classified, assessed and transferred to other systems, for example by trusted experts who analyze and evaluate all quantifiable events; we also experience the majestic calm of a summer’s day as it draws to a close above the Olympic Stadium. We hear many soundtracks, from the police radio to the words of TV production teams from all over the world, alternating between commanding, consequential speech and contemplative reflections on events. Above all, what we experience is how the laboratory of football is able to exhibit the most advanced technology in the production and presentation of moving images. All fans and followers of simulation and documentation, movies, TV and computer games start running a little warmer as they watch. We see how eerily close the wishes of the consumers, the trainers and the police really are to each other; just as they are in real life.

àngels barcelona | Harun Farocki | Dossier  

CAS

Deep Play reúne 12 diferentes perspectivas sobre uno de los mayores eventos de difusión mediática, la final de la Copa Mundial FIFA 2006 celebrada en Alemania, con un estimado de 1.5 mil millones de espectadores en todo el mundo. Las pantallas combinan imágenes grabadas por el artista, imágenes de la FIFA, el análisis digital 2D y 3D y secuencias de animación, para que podamos ver el evento desde puntos de vista inesperados. Es bien sabido que el fútbol es nuestra vida. Y, como en la vida, siempre estamos tratando de mejorar nuestra comprensión de la misma. La broma es que constantemente frustra nuestros intentos, pero que también es algo que tratamos de optimizar. El Trabajo Deep Play de Harun Farocki se compone de diversas perspectivas sobre el final de la Copa del Mundo de 2006. Vemos el "material original", materia prima de las cadenas de televisión, vemos a los jugadores de ambos equipos individualmente, pero el ordenador también genera representaciones abstractas de la dinámica del juego. La red tan inteligente que se compone de las relaciones entre los jugadores que están pateando, moviéndose, recibiendo el balón y corriendo, forma una red que absorbe espontáneas decisiones individuales; así como las ideas tácticas y hábitos arraigados en la cultura del juego que son infinitamente complejos dado el tamaño del campo. Esto corresponde aproximadamente a la gama de posibles combinaciones que ofrece un grupo de peces guppy en un acuario de tamaño medio. Esto puede ser sublime, pero también nos provoca tristeza. Sin embargo el juego no es sólo clasificar, evaluar y transferir a otros sistemas, como hacen los expertos que analizan y evalúan todos los eventos cuantificables; también es la experiencia de la majestuosa calma de un día de verano, que ya se acerca a un cierre por encima del Estadio Olímpico. Escuchamos muchas bandas sonoras, desde la radio de la policía, hasta las palabras de los equipos de producción de televisión de todo el mundo, alternando entre el discurso dominante, el secundario y elaborando reflexiones contemplativas sobre los acontecimientos. Por encima de todo, lo que la experiencia transmite es cómo el laboratorio del fútbol es capaz de exhibir la más avanzada tecnología en la producción y presentación de imágenes en movimiento. Todos los aficionados y seguidores de la simulación y la documentación, películas, TV y juegos de ordenador empiezan a entrar en calor a medida que ven como se desarrolla el encuentro. Vemos como misteriosamente los deseos de los consumidores, los formadores y la policía son realmente cercanos entre sí: tal y como son en la vida real.

àngels barcelona | Harun Farocki | Dossier  

Track 1:

The live recording (“clean feed”) delivered from Infront Sports & Media AG, Zug (CH) to the television broadcasters. Bar charts Ascensio, Match Expert, Nizhny Novgorod (RU) showing the players’ average and top speeds. Vector survey of the players’ bodies in relation to functional efficiency, reaction time and torque, University of British Columbia, Visualization of Human Kinetics, Vancouver (CA). Sound: voice of the worldwide broadcasting director, Wolfgang Straub.

Track 2:

Outside the Olympic Stadium; filmed by the artist from the neighboring Corbusier Building. Sound: police radio.

àngels barcelona | Harun Farocki | Dossier  

Track 3:

Playback from a high-angle camera; relationship of each frame to the pitch. Penalty shootout; movement of the Italian goalkeeper, Munich University of Technology, Aspogamo (DE). Track 4:

Playback from a camera tracking one Italian player respectively. Graph of his speed of movement, Ascensio, Match Expert, Nizhny Novgorod (RU).

àngels barcelona | Harun Farocki | Dossier  

Track 5:

Dynamic representation of the back four, the playmakers and the paths, Ascensio. Match Expert, Nizhny Novgorod (RU). Track 6:

Playback from a camera tracking one French player respectively. Graph of his speed of movement, Ascensio, Match Expert, Nizhny Novgorod (RU).

àngels barcelona | Harun Farocki | Dossier  

Track 7:

Simulation of the clean feed (track 1); simulation of the tracking of a French player (track 6); ball-oriented version, Ascensio, Match Expert, Nizhny Novgorod (RU). Track 8:

The Italian and French trainers in alternation. Schematic representation of the passes, Ascensio, Match Expert, Nizhny Novgorod (RU).

àngels barcelona | Harun Farocki | Dossier  

Track 9:

Automatic translation of the course of the game into words, Center for Computing Technologies, Spatial Temporal Analysis of Dynamic Occurrences, Bremen (DE). Semantic interpretation using neuronal networks, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Dycos GmbH (DE). Sound: course of play and interpretation rendered by computer voice. Track 10:

Notation of the game for statistical analysis; service of Impire AG, Ismaning (DE), for use in the press. Representation of fouls and moves in Laban notation, Folkwang Hochschule, Kinetography, Essen (DE). Analysis of the game by football trainers of the German Football Association, Frankfurt (DE), for strategic purposes.

àngels barcelona | Harun Farocki | Dossier  

Track 11:

High-angle fade-ins of passes, dribbles and drives (track 3), Munich University of Technology, Aspogamo (DE). Track 12:

Security cameras in the Berlin Olympic Stadium

àngels barcelona | Harun Farocki | Dossier  

Partial views of exhibition at DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art, Montreal.

Partial views of exhibition at Documenta 12, Kassel