Truth is hardly making it under an information ecosystem defined by speed, exploitation, opacity and inequality. But journalism is not in danger, it is just happening somewhere else. Eyal Weizman founded Forensic Architecture to test a methodology for analyzing the occupation of Gaza as a crime scene, using buildings as witnesses, satellite data as evidence and models and artificial intelligence as tools for the testing and verification of new hypotheses.
This exercise of counter-forensics has been replicated and improved over the years to provide new evidence against official narratives in international human rights courts. It also prompted a new genre of journalistic procedurals and a community of practice that, under the moniker Investigative Commons, seeks to confront the disinformation machine of “counter-factual” neo-fascist groups by socializing the development and deployment of “counter-forensic” evidence. Initiated by Forensic Architecture, FORENSIS and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), Investigative Commons includes documentary superstar Laura Poitras/Praxis Films, Bellingcat, Mnemonic and HKW, among others.
STREAM 8/8
https://aksioma.org/reprogramming/
Eyal Weizman is the founding director of Forensic Architecture and Professor of Spatial and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is the author of over 15 books, he has held positions in many universities worldwide including Princeton, ETH Zurich and the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. He is a member of the Technology Advisory Board of the International Criminal Court and the Centre for Investigative Journalism. In 2019 he was elected life fellow of the British Academy and appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to architecture. In 2020 he was elected the Richard von Weizsäcker fellow at the Bosch Academy. Eyal studied architecture at the Architectural Association, graduating in 1998. He received his PhD in 2006 from the London Consortium at Birkbeck, University of London.
Reading List:
[Book]: Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation
[Project]: The Beirut Port Explosion
[Talk]: Eyal Weizman: Searching for truth
Attendance is free of charge. No registration required.
Organised and produced by: Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana
In partnership with: Kino Šiška – Centre for Urban Culture
For the series: Tactics & Practice
In the framework of: konS – Platform for Contemporary Investigative Art
Photo: Paul Stuart for New Scientist
