Forensic Architecture is a multidisciplinary research group based at Goldsmiths, University of London that uses architectural techniques and technologies to investigate cases of state violence and violations of human rights around the world. The group is led by architect Eyal Weizman.[1] He received a Peabody Award in 2021 for his work with Forensic Architecture.
The agency develops new evidentiary techniques and undertakes advanced architectural and media research[2] with and on behalf of communities affected by state violence, and routinely works in partnership with international prosecutors, human rights organisations and political and environmental justice groups.[3] It consists of an interdisciplinary team of investigators including architects, scholars, artists, filmmakers, software developers, investigative journalists, archaeologists, lawyers, and scientists. It investigates alleged human rights violations by states or corporations on behalf of civil society groups.[4] The group uses advanced architectural and media techniques to investigate armed conflicts and environmental destruction, as well as to cross-reference a variety of evidence sources, such as new media, remote sensing, material analysis, and witness testimony.[5][6]
The term forensic architecture also refers to an academic field and an emergent field of practice developed at the Centre for Research Architecture, at Goldsmiths, University of London, concerning the production and presentation of architectural evidence, relating to buildings and urban environments and their media representations.[2]
History
Eyal Weizman, the founder of Forensic Architecture, in 2012
Forensic Architecture was formed in 2010 as a research project within the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London.[7] The project developed as a response to several converging phenomena, such as the urbanisation of warfare, the erosion of trust in evidence in relation to state crimes and human rights violations, the emergence and proliferation of open source media (or 'image flotsam'), the increased use of smartphone footage in documenting human rights violations in urban conflict, and the need for civil society to have its own means of evidence production for application in law, politics and advocacy.[8]
The first project undertaken by Forensic Architecture was an investigation into the killing of Bassem Abu Rahma in Bil'in, for human rights lawyer and activist Michael Sfard, which was eventually presented to the Supreme Court of Israel.[9][10]
In 2011, Forensic Architecture was awarded funding for four years by the European Research Council.[11] Also that year, a team within Forensic Architecture began to conduct investigations into the policies of European national and international authorities in relation to migration across the Mediterranean. That team, called Forensic Oceanography,[12] published its first report in 2012, investigating of the deaths of seventy-three migrants who were left drifting for two weeks within NATO's maritime surveillance area.[13]
In 2012, Forensic Architecture presented a report to a meeting of states party to the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons on the use of airburst white phosphorus munitions in urban environments, in regard to the Israeli attacks on Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009, known as 'Operation Cast Lead'. The report eventually led Israel to admit for the first time the use of such munitions, and later to declare that the IDF would stop using white phosphorus munitions in populated areas.[14] Also that year, the agency conducted an investigation with SITU Studio and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism titled 'Where the Drones Strike', on behalf of the UN Special Rapporteur on Counter Terrorism and Human Rights, Ben Emmerson.[15]
In 2013, the project was awarded a second European Research Council grant[16] to develop a multimedia data-aggregation and -visualisation platform called Pattrn. Pattrn enables its users to anonymously collate and share first-hand reports of events 'on the ground' and to make sense of information by combining and visualising different forms of media and information.[17] The tool was employed by Forensic Architecture in their Gaza Platform, an interactive map of attacks by Israeli forces on Gaza between 8 July and 26 August 2014, developed in partnership with Amnesty International,[18] as well as by organisations including as ACLED.
In 2015, in partnership with Amnesty International, Forensic Architecture collected and analysed mobile phone footage of hundreds of explosions in the city of Rafah, Gaza, during the city's 'Black Friday' of 1 August 2014. By analysing the shape and movement of bomb clouds captured in mobile phone footage, Forensic Architecture's researchers located and mapped hundreds of Israeli strikes on the city.[19] The investigation exposed the Israeli military directive known as the Hannibal Directive, leading to its discontinuation.[20]
In 2016, Forensic Architecture was awarded further funding by the European Research Council.[21] That year, again in partnership with Amnesty International, Forensic Architecture conducted an investigation into Syria's Saydnaya Prison, interviewing surviving detainees who had been blindfolded or kept in darkness for most of the years they had spent in the space, and reconstructing the dimensions of the prison through a process of 'ear witnessing' and digital modelling.[22]
In 2017, Forensic Architecture produced a video investigation into the presence of a member of the German intelligence services at the scene of the 2006 killing by neo-Nazis of a Turkish internet cafe owner. Forensic Architecture conducted physical experiments which cast doubt on the testimony of the secret service agent.[5] The results of their video and written reports were ultimately referenced in both federal and state parliamentary inquiries in Germany, as well as the trial of the remaining NSU members in Munich.[23]
In April 2018, it was announced that Forensic Architecture were one of four nominees for the 2018 Turner Prize for their work relating to Al-Qia'an's killing in Umm al-Hiran, but ultimately they lost out to iPhone artist Charlotte Prodger.[24][25][26][27]
In May 2018, in partnership with Bellingcat and Venezuelan journalists, Forensic Architecture collected, timed, and located nearly 70 pieces of evidence related to El Junquito raid, including videos, photographs, leaked audio of police radio communications and official statements, asking for more material to determine if rebel police officer Óscar Pérez and his companions were victims of extrajudicial killings.[28][29][30][31]
Fellows and PhD students who have been part of the Forensic Architecture programme include Susan Schuppli, John Palmesino, Lorenzo Pezzani and Charles Heller (co-founders of the Forensic Oceanography project), Lawrence Abu Hamdan,[32] Anselm Franke,[33] Ayesha Hameed, Thomas Keenan, Paulo Tavares, Francesco Sebregondi, Maayan Amir, Ariel Caine and Stefanos Levidis.
In 2019 as part of the Whitney Biennial, the group created a video piece critical of Whitney trustee member Warren Kanders. The video detailed Kanders' involvement in a company that produces tear gas used against nonviolent democratic protestors across the world.[34] Kanders resigned from his position as Whitney board member shortly after the exhibition opened.[35]
In 2024 Forensic Architecture received a Right Livelihood Award for its lead in the development of new methodologies that combine technology with human rights advocacy.[36]
Methodology
Forensic Architecture describes forensic work as operating across three spaces: the field, the laboratory, and the forum.[37] Lacking the privileges of the state's forensic process - access to crime scenes, resources, and the power to set the rules of evidence - the agency employs 'counter-forensics', the process of turning the 'forensic gaze' onto the actions of the state.[22] This includes operating in multiple 'forums', or public spaces, engaging not only with parliamentary and juridical processes but also museums, art galleries, citizens' tribunals, and the media.[38] The ways in which the investigations by Forensic Architecture oscillate between judicial proof and art work is subject of an ongoing theoretical debate on evidence, aesthetics, and third-generation institutional critique.[39]
FA begins each case by conducting research from a range of sources, including: site visits, lidar scanning, photogrammetry and ground-penetrating radar, as well as the use of digital models to locate and synchronize source materials in space and time.
When citizens, journalists or participants in conflict record events using cameras or smartphones, they also inadvertently capture vast amounts of spatial information about the immediate environment. When a site is recorded from more than one angle the intersection provides information about depth and volume. The resultant architectural models will be the basis for locating and animating the movement of each camera/video, as well as the movement of protagonists in space.[40]
The Architecture of Memory: FA engages witnesses using models as memory aids. The memory of witnesses/victims to violent events is often obscured by the experience of extreme violence, trauma and the general confusion of war.[41] The entanglement of mediation and embodiment brings the witness back to the space and time of the incident, helping the recollection of previously forgotten details.
James Henry Dominic Miller was a Welsh cameraman, producer, and director, and recipient of numerous awards, including five Emmy Awards. He was killed by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) gunfire while filming a documentary in the Gaza Strip. Miller worked regularly with Saira Shah for several years, and they formed a business partnership to operate an independent production company called Frostbite Productions in 2001.
A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of execution, although an exact definition is not unanimously agreed upon. Mass graves are usually created after many people die or are killed, and there is a desire to bury the corpses quickly for sanitation concerns. Although mass graves can be used during major conflicts such as war and crime, in modern times they may be used after a famine, epidemic, or natural disaster. In disasters, mass graves are used for infection and disease control. In such cases, there is often a breakdown of the social infrastructure that would enable proper identification and disposal of individual bodies.
The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932; the first biennial was in 1973. It is considered the longest-running and most important survey of contemporary art in the United States. The Biennial helped bring artists like Georgia O'Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, and Jeff Koons, among others, to prominence.
Pallywood, a portmanteau of "Palestine" and "Hollywood", is a disinformation campaign used to falsely accuse Palestinians for supposedly faking suffering and civilian deaths during their conflict with Israel. The term came into currency following the killing of Muhammad al-Durrah in 2000 during the Second Intifada, involving a challenge to the veracity of photographic evidence. Israeli pundits have used the term to dismiss videos showing Israeli violence or denial of Palestinian suffering. During the Israel–Hamas war, it has been used to dismiss Palestinian suffering such as claiming dead Palestinian babies as fake dolls, and is regarded by some news sources as a conspiracy theory. The term and related disinformation has been used and circulated as a propaganda tool by official Israeli government profiles.
On June 9, 2006, an explosion on the beach near the Gaza Strip municipality of Beit Lahia killed eight Palestinians. At least thirty others were injured. The aftermath of the incident was captured on video and showed a distressed 11-year-old girl, Huda Ghaliya, reacting to the loss of family members, most of whom were killed in the incident. The footage of Ghaliya, which received considerable media attention, was broadcast on news networks around the world, making her a symbol of Palestinian suffering. The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung questioned the reliability of the video footage.
Forensic art is any art used in law enforcement or legal proceedings. Forensic art is used to assist law enforcement with the visual aspects of a case, often using witness descriptions and video footage.
The 2009 Ibrahim al-Maqadma Mosque strike or massacre of Ibrahim al-Maqadma Mosque occurred on January 3, 2009, as part of the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza War when the Israeli Air Forces launched a missile and hit the Martyr Ibrahim al-Maqadma Mosque in Beit Lahia in the Gaza Strip during the evening prayers.
Roof knocking or "knock on the roof" is a term used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to describe its practice of dropping non-explosive or low-yield devices on the roofs of targeted civilian homes in the occupied Palestinian territories as a prior warning of imminent bombing attacks to give the inhabitants time to flee the attack. The practice was employed by the IDF during the 2008–2009 Gaza War, the 2012 Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip, and the 2014 Gaza War to target the homes of police officers or Hamas political or military leaders.
Al-Shifa Hospital was the largest medical complex and central hospital in the Gaza Strip, located in the neighborhood of northern Rimal in Gaza City.
Accusations of violations regarding international humanitarian law, which governs the actions by belligerents during an armed conflict, have been directed at both Israel and Hamas for their actions during the 2008–2009 Gaza War. The accusations covered violating laws governing distinction and proportionality by Israel, the indiscriminate firing of rockets at civilian locations and extrajudicial violence within the Gaza Strip by Hamas. As of September 2009, some 360 complaints had been filed by individuals and NGOs at the prosecutor's office in the Hague calling for investigations into alleged crimes committed by Israel during the Gaza War.
The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, also known as the Goldstone Report, was a United Nations fact-finding mission established in April 2009 pursuant to Resolution A/HRC/RES/S-9/1 of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) of 12 January 2009, following the Gaza War as an independent international fact-finding mission "to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law by the occupying Power, Israel, against the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly in the occupied Gaza Strip, due to the current aggression". South African jurist Richard Goldstone was appointed to head the mission. The other co-authors of the Report were Hina Jilani, Christine Chinkin and Desmond Travers.
Eyal Weizman MBE FBA is a British Israeli architect. He is the director of the research agency Forensic Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London where he is Professor of Spatial and Visual Cultures and a founding director there of the Centre for Research Architecture at the department of Visual Cultures. In 2019 he was elected Fellow of the British Academy.
The Beitunia killings refers to the consecutive killings of two Palestinian teenagers which took place on the occasion of the annual Nakba Day protests on May 15, 2014, near the Israeli Ofer Prison outside Beitunia in the occupied West Bank. Israel described the protest as a riot in which a crowd refused to disperse, and initially denied responsibility, saying the cause of the deaths was unknown, the deaths were faked, that video clips of the killings either failed to capture the violence of the scene shortly before or might have been manipulated, that soldiers had been provoked, and that only rubber bullets had been fired.
Jugend Rettet is a non-governmental organization (NGO) from Berlin. Its goal is to save drowning persons at the Mediterranean Sea. Operations are conducted with the Iuventa, a ship that sails under Dutch flag. This ship was seized in August 2017 after suspicion of cooperation with migrant smugglers.
Rouzan Ashraf Abdul Qadir al-Najjar was a Palestinian paramedic who was killed by the Israeli military while volunteering as a medic during the 2018 Gaza border protests. She was shot and killed by an Israeli soldier as she tried to help evacuate wounded Palestinian protestors near Israel's border fence with Gaza.
Decolonize This Place is an art collective based in New York City that organizes around Indigenous rights, black liberation, Palestinian nationalism, de-gentrification, and economic inequality. Their actions often take place at museums and cultural institutions and focus on claimed colonialist tendencies within the art world.
Imani Jacqueline Brown is a researcher and artist from New Orleans. She was a 2017 Whitney Biennial artist. In 2017, she was a U–jazdowski resident in Warsaw.
On 17 October 2023, an explosion took place in the parking lot of the courtyard of al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City during the Israel–Hamas war, resulting in a large number of displaced Palestinians seeking shelter there being killed or injured.
Since the start of the Israel–Hamas war on 7 October 2023, the UN Human Rights Council has identified "clear evidence" of war crimes by both Hamas and the Israel Defense Forces. A UN Commission to the Israel–Palestine conflict stated that there is "clear evidence that war crimes may have been committed in the latest explosion of violence in Israel and Gaza, and all those who have violated international law and targeted civilians must be held accountable." On 27 October, a spokesperson for the OHCHR called for an independent court to review potential war crimes committed by both sides.
There has been extensive environmental damage caused by the ongoing Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, including the destruction of agricultural land, displacement of people, bombing of Gaza, the Israeli blockade, and the Gaza Strip famine. By March 2024, nearly half of tree cover and farmland in Gaza had been destroyed.
↑ Felman, Shoshanna; Laub, Dori (1992). Testimony: Crises of Witnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis, and History. London: Routledge. ISBN9780415903929.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
