UC Irvine

Beginning in 2000, Harun Farocki’s work and writing theorized the operational image, an image produced as part of an operation, rather than for educational, aesthetic or rhetorical ends. My thesis uses the concept’s antecedent in Roland Barthes’ influential Mythologies to consider how Farocki’s approach differs from other methods of politically inflected analysis of culture and representation. I argue that Farocki’s work differs in its emphasis of mediating connections as a constitutive aspect of reality, rather than an obstacle to such. I develop this argument through a reading of Farocki’s accounts of film and video editing, which emphasize both his working processes and the autonomy of his subjects and materials. I discuss how Farocki’s method of “soft montage” allows for critical commentary while preserving his materials’ independence.