The European Union’s Lethal Maritime Frontier
Forensic Oceanography is a project initiated within the framework of Forensic Architecture by Charles Heller and Lorenzo Pezzani, in the wake of the Arab uprisings of 2011. It seeks to critically investigate the militarised border regime imposed by Europe across the Mediterranean Sea, analysing the political, spatial and aesthetic conditions that have led to the death of large numbers of migrants in the region over the last 30 years.
By combining human testimonies with traces left across the digital sensorium of the sea constituted by radars, satellite imagery and vessel tracking systems, Forensic Oceanography has mobilised surveillance means ‘against the grain’ to contest both the violence of borders and the regime of (in)visibility on which it is founded. While the seas have been carved up into a complex jurisdictional space that allows states to extend their sovereign claims through police operations beyond the limits of their territory, but also to retract themselves from obligations, such as rescuing vessels in distress, Forensic Oceanography has sought to locate particular incidents within the legal architecture of the EU’s maritime frontier, so as to determine responsibility for them.
[Institute of Contemporary Arts]
Part of Counter Investigations by Forensic Architecture (March-May 2018).
Forensic Architecture is both the name of the agency established in 2010, and a form of investigative practice into state violence and human rights violations that traverses architectural, journalistic and legal fields, and shifts between critical reflections and tactical interventions.
Counter Investigations presents a selection of recent investigations undertaken by the agency into incidents occurring in different contexts worldwide. In parallel, the exhibition outlines five key concepts that raise related historical, theoretical and technological questions. Continuing to be explored in an accompanying series of public seminars, these investigations and propositions add up to a Short Course in Forensic Architecture.
Grounded in the use of architecture as an analytic device, Forensic Architecture has in recent years developed a host of new evidentiary methods that respond to our changing media landscape – exemplified in the widespread availability of digital recording equipment, satellite imaging and platforms for data sharing – and propose new modes of open-source, citizen-led evidence gathering and activism.
Forensic Architecture has worked closely with communities affected by acts of social and political violence, alongside NGOs, human rights groups, activists, and media organisations. Their investigations have provided decisive evidence in a number of legal cases, and contested accounts given by state authorities, leading to military, parliamentary and UN inquiries.
Counter Investigations marks the beginning of a long term collaboration between the Institute of Contemporary Arts and Forensic Architecture. The exhibition and this ongoing partnership exemplifies the Institute of Contemporary Arts’ intent to foster and explore new modes of civil practice operating across the fields of art, architecture and activism.
[Institute of Contemporary Arts]
The European Union’s Lethal Maritime Frontier
Forensic Oceanography is a project initiated within the framework of Forensic Architecture by Charles Heller and Lorenzo Pezzani, in the wake of the Arab uprisings of 2011. It seeks to critically investigate the militarised border regime imposed by Europe across the Mediterranean Sea, analysing the political, spatial and aesthetic conditions that have led to the death of large numbers of migrants in the region over the last 30 years.
By combining human testimonies with traces left across the digital sensorium of the sea constituted by radars, satellite imagery and vessel tracking systems, Forensic Oceanography has mobilised surveillance means ‘against the grain’ to contest both the violence of borders and the regime of (in)visibility on which it is founded. While the seas have been carved up into a complex jurisdictional space that allows states to extend their sovereign claims through police operations beyond the limits of their territory, but also to retract themselves from obligations, such as rescuing vessels in distress, Forensic Oceanography has sought to locate particular incidents within the legal architecture of the EU’s maritime frontier, so as to determine responsibility for them.
[Institute of Contemporary Arts]
Part of Counter Investigations by Forensic Architecture (March-May 2018).
Forensic Architecture is both the name of the agency established in 2010, and a form of investigative practice into state violence and human rights violations that traverses architectural, journalistic and legal fields, and shifts between critical reflections and tactical interventions.
Counter Investigations presents a selection of recent investigations undertaken by the agency into incidents occurring in different contexts worldwide. In parallel, the exhibition outlines five key concepts that raise related historical, theoretical and technological questions. Continuing to be explored in an accompanying series of public seminars, these investigations and propositions add up to a Short Course in Forensic Architecture.
Grounded in the use of architecture as an analytic device, Forensic Architecture has in recent years developed a host of new evidentiary methods that respond to our changing media landscape – exemplified in the widespread availability of digital recording equipment, satellite imaging and platforms for data sharing – and propose new modes of open-source, citizen-led evidence gathering and activism.
Forensic Architecture has worked closely with communities affected by acts of social and political violence, alongside NGOs, human rights groups, activists, and media organisations. Their investigations have provided decisive evidence in a number of legal cases, and contested accounts given by state authorities, leading to military, parliamentary and UN inquiries.
Counter Investigations marks the beginning of a long term collaboration between the Institute of Contemporary Arts and Forensic Architecture. The exhibition and this ongoing partnership exemplifies the Institute of Contemporary Arts’ intent to foster and explore new modes of civil practice operating across the fields of art, architecture and activism.
[Institute of Contemporary Arts]