“Is There Violence? Is There Murder?”

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In the pursuit of truth, Werner Herzog has his whole life elected to battle elements natural and human-made. Whether taking epic walks across Germany sans car, lugging cameras to the maw of a live volcano or commanding his cast and crew to pull a 320-ton steamship over a hill, he hasn’t always enjoyed a tension-less relationship with the tools of the Industrial Age, let alone the Digital one.

In 2011’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Herzog offered a mélange of the natural and artificial, the implements of the ancient and modern, trying to make sense of, among other things, cave drawings, 3-D filmmaking, albino crocodiles and nuclear power plants. In the forthcoming Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World, he takes a bold step into what technology has wrought, not dismissing its greatness nor drunkenly celebrating its proliferation. 

In a smart Vox interview, Emily Yoshida had the happy task of explaining Pokémon Go to the director. It could not have gone better. An excerpt:

Werner Herzog:

Tell me about Pokémon Go. What is happening on Pokémon Go?

Vox:

It’s basically the first mainstream augmented reality program. It’s a game where the entire world is mapped and you walk around with the GPS on your phone. You walk around in the real world and can catch these little monsters and collect them. And everybody is playing it.

Werner Herzog:

Does it tell you you’re here at San Vicente, close to Sunset Boulevard?

Vox:

Yeah, it’s basically like a Google map.

Werner Herzog:

But what does pokémon do at this corner here?

Vox:

You might be able to catch some. It’s all completely virtual. It’s very simple, but it’s also an overlay of physically based information that now exists on top of the real world.

Werner Herzog:

When two persons in search of a pokémon clash at the corner of Sunset and San Vicente is there violence? Is there murder?

Vox:

They do fight, virtually.

Werner Herzog:

Physically, do they fight?

Vox:

No—

Werner Herzog:

Do they bite each other’s hands? Do they punch each other?

Vox:

The people or the…

Werner Herzog:

Yes, there must be real people if it’s a real encounter with someone else.•

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