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Architecture can be 'an exercise of violence' warns Forensic Architecture founder

2022-10-25T13:38:00-04:00

Forensic Architecture founder Eyal Weizman has used a speech at the Culture Summit Abu Dhabi to set out the group’s position on the relationship between architecture and human rights. Weizman, who is also a professor at Goldsmiths, University of London, offered the summit a series of examples of how the Peabody Award-winning, Turner Prize-nominated organization has used spatial principles to expose human rights abuses.

“Forensic architecture is a way of reading architectural facts, architectural material, architectural situations, in order to see within them evidence for these violations that I'm speaking about,” Weizman said, as reported by The National News. “Perhaps the best way to understand it is, just like a pathologist reads a dead body — looking at the bones — forensic architecture looks for evidence of these crimes in walls, in foundations, in buildings, in plans, in bridges, in roads etc in a way that they're conceived sometimes, in order to survey and control us.”

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Forensic Architecture's latest investigation is a dig at one-sided Israeli archaeological pursuits

2022-04-13T12:14:00-04:00

Fresh off its recent Peabody Award win, London-based Forensic Architecture (FA) has returned to one of its most popular research sites with a new project, called “Living Archaeology in Gaza,” examining the fate of an important archaeological site under assault in the Gaza Strip.

The site in question was tentatively added to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites in 2012 but has since been closed off to further archaeological research and beset by damaging new construction. The group examined ten years' worth of data collected by the French Biblical and Archaeological School of Jerusalem between 1995 and 2005 to produce 3D renderings of an ancient city called Anthedon that existed for two millennia until about the High Middle Ages.

Image: Forensic Architecture

What they discovered was that Israeli bombing and consolidation, combined with climate change-caused coastal erosion, has placed a considerable strain on the site, which counts among its ruins examples of building from the Byzant...

Forensic Architecture has been named a 2022 Peabody Award winner

2022-03-30T18:30:00-04:00

The activist community can rejoice today on the news that groundbreaking London-based collective Forensic Architecture (FA) has been given an Institutional Peabody Award for its continued public service and contributions to electronic media.

The group was cited for their work documenting the use of Israeli spyware called Pegasus, the ongoing exhibition Cloud Studies, and myriad investigations into police brutality, war crimes, surveillance culture, environmental racism, and the illegal occupation of Palestine.

FA’s use of various forms of data, 3D visualization technology, photogrammetry, lidar, and citizen videos was likewise commended for its innovation and incorporation into what the awards jury deemed “sophisticated architectural techniques.”

The twelve-year-old group founded by Israeli academic Eyal Weizman is coming off of another banner year in which its pursu...

The University of Manchester has forced out Whitworth Gallery director Alistair Hudson over his pro-Palestine Forensic Architecture show

2022-02-24T17:39:00-05:00

A legal smear campaign has ousted a museum director over the inclusion of a pro-Palestinian statement in an exhibition examining the work of Forensic Architecture at the University of Manchester.

Artnet News is reporting the forced resignation of Alistair Hudson following a concerted lobbying effort on the part of several prominent local barristers who form the group U.K. Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI).

Hudson has been the director of the university’s Whitworth Art Gallery since 2017 and became the target of the pro-Israel group’s effort after allowing the statement as part of a show called Cloud Studies that focused in part on the activist group’s study of poor air quality and human rights in areas that included the occupied territories as well as Louisiana and Beirut.

In a statement, Forensic Architecture’s founder Eyal Weizman said the saga “makes clear yet again that the anti-colonial struggle in support of Palestine and elsewhere has to be fought within and sometimes against our ...

Forensic Architecture reinstates exhibition at University of Manchester following censorship row

2021-08-19T20:55:00-04:00

A statement in support of Palestinian rights put up by Forensic Architecture as part of an exhibition at the University of Manchester’s Whitworth Gallery is back in its rightful place tonight after backlash against the message caused the group to temporarily withdraw the exhibition over censorship concerns.

The group shared a social media post on Wednesday showcasing the re-installation of their statement that decried the “ethnic cleansing” of the country as a prominent introduction to their exhibition titled Cloud Studies which opened on July 2nd. The exhibition outlines FA's initial phase of the latest investigation which explores and exposes how “power reshapes the very air we breathe," according to a brief posted on the group's website.

Our statement is back up! pic.twitter.com/uwE5pJM7Am
— Forensic Architecture (@ForensicArchi) August 18, 2021

Read Forensic Architecture's statement standing with Palestine here.

The move came after the announcement earlier in the week that the g...

Forensic Architecture is now combating an Israeli spyware giant with the help of Edward Snowden

2021-07-12T15:11:00-04:00

Two giants of activism have acquired a new target in their ongoing fight for online privacy rights in the digital age.

Forensic Architecture is pairing with Edward Snowden to take on an Israeli spyware company called NSO Group that has been behind hacks of journalists, lawyers, and human rights activists across the globe since its founding in 2010.

Courtesy of Forensic Architecture.

Decrying a campaign of “digital violence” resulting from a spyware product authored by the company called Pegasus, Forensic Architecture, which has targeted NSO in the past, is once again taking aim in the form of an open-source investigation meant to raise awareness of the ongoing abuses that have been allowed to continue despite a slate of legal challenges.

The group’s lead researcher Shourideh Molavi pointed to the psychological toll taken by hacking victims as the reason behind the group’s condemnation of Pegasus and other similar technologies it charges as having an outsized role in a system of “sta...

Hidden cartographies: the vanishing graves of the enslaved in Death Alley, Louisiana

2021-06-29T17:30:00-04:00

The London-based research group, Forensic Architecture (FA), published a new project on Monday, June 28, called “Environmental Racism in Death Alley, Louisiana,” which was featured by the New York Times.

A short documentary on the Times website tells the story of the fight to identify and preserve the graves of enslaved people in Louisiana’s Death Alley, also known as Cancer Alley. Between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, the area along the Mississippi River is known for its deadly concentration of polluting petrochemical facilities, which have led to high rates of cancer in the local, majority-Black population. According to advocates, identifying and preserving these burial sites is a way to memorialize the enslaved Black people who built Louisiana’s economy; it also raises awareness of the connection between current day structural racism and the history of capitalist development. Helping to identify and visualize the extent of these sites, FA mobilizes the architect’s tools in suppor...

Forensic Architecture's first American survey goes on view at Miami's Museum of Art and Design

2020-02-24T16:45:00-05:00

Forensic Architecture's first United States survey exhibition, Forensic Architecture: True to Scale, made its debut last week at Miami's Museum of Art and Design at Miami Dade College.

The exhibition, according to a press release, "explores a new understanding of architecture, a new evidentiary aesthetic, and a new form of coalition activism," and is going public as news surfaces that Forensic Architecture director Eyal Weizman was denied a visa to visit the United States for the exhibition's opening by Department of Homeland Security authorities. Weizman's visa application was denied because "an algorithm had identified a security threat that was related to him," The New York Times reports. Weizman published an open letter describing the situation on the Forensic Architecture website.

Investigation #31: the Seizure of the Iuventa (2018). Image courtesy of Forensic Architecture.

The exhibition in Miami highlights a collection of Forensic Architecture's recent research projects, whi...

Algorithm denies Forensic Architecture's Eyal Weizman entry into United States

2020-02-20T11:55:00-05:00

Last week Mr. Weizman confronted an unexpected mystery when he was denied a visa to enter the United States. An official at the U.S. Embassy in London told him, without elaboration, he said, that an algorithm had identified a security threat that was related to him.

According to a report by Colin Moynihan in The New York Times, Eyal Weizman, the director of research-focused investigative practice Forensic Architecture, was stopped on his way to attend the opening of the group's first American retrospective exhibition.

The exhibition, Forensic Architecture: True to Scale, is being displayed at Miami’s Museum of Art and Design.

Weapons mogul resigns from Whitney Museum board amid artist revolt

2019-07-25T12:41:00-04:00

A vice chairman of the Whitney Museum of American Art stepped down on Thursday after months of protests over his company’s sale of tear gas, culminating in the withdrawal of eight artists last week from the prestigious Whitney Biennial exhibition.

The decision came days after London-based Forensic Architecture joined seven other artists in withdrawing from the 2019 Whitney Biennial exhibition.

Kanders struck a petulant tone in his resignation letter, saying, “The targeted campaign of attacks against me and my company that has been waged these past several months has threatened to undermine the important work of the Whitney,” adding, “I joined this board to help the museum prosper. I do not wish to play a role, however inadvertent, in its demise.”

Forensic Architecture withdraws from Whitney Biennial, citing evidence linking board member to violence in Gaza

2019-07-24T17:18:00-04:00

Forensic Architecture has announced its decision to withdraw from the 2019 Whitney Biennial. The London-based research group has also requested to replace its 10-minute video about the global spread of tear gas and bullets produced by companies linked to Whitney Museum vice chairman Warren Kanders, with new evidence they’ve found that directly links the weapons manufacturer to violence on the Israeli-Palestinian border in Gaza.

The fallout over the unethical business ties of certain members of the Whitney Museum of American Art's board of trustees continues unabated.

Forensic Architecture's decision to join seven other exhibitors in withdrawing from the prestigious 2019 Whitney Biennial exhibition comes as the art world questions the ethically-dubious funding that underpins some of the field's more coveted and valued institutions and events.

Early highlight contributors announced for 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial

2019-03-14T15:25:00-04:00

The curators for the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial have announced early highlight contributors who will create newly commissioned projects and other materials for the exhibition.

The initial list is comprised of 51 practices and practitioners from 19 countries. It includes architects, artists, collectives, and researchers, whose work touches on the biennial's four curatorial focus areas: land, memory, rights, and civic participation.

Among the designers tasked with exploring the theme of land is Chicago-based architect Theaster Gates, who will challenge the concept of land as property and commodity. Also participating will be Wolff Architects, a design studio in South Africa that works at the nexus of design, advocacy, research and documentation, as well as Territorial Agency, Caroline Caycedo, and Joar Nango.

The design collaborative MASS Design Group, best known for their community-driven approaches, will look at sites of memory. Other contributors whose projects will dive in...

Forensic Architecture pieces together the Grenfell Tower fire

2018-03-26T14:33:00-04:00

Over the last few months, the team at Forensic Architecture, housed at London’s Goldsmiths University in Lewisham, has been working to piece together data and footage from the event using a mixture of video and imagery from Youtube, Periscope and other forms of social media, as well as footage from Sky News, which is a partner on the project.

In June of 2017 the Grenfell Tower fire killed 71 in the London public housing block. Criminal investigations are still ongoing with no one yet held accountable. Forensic Architecture has taken on the case in order to piece together how the fire spread within minutes throughout the building.

By creating a public database from various sources of video footage, the agency's approach is an open-ended investigation where anyone with information can participate. Forensic Architecture is creating a 12 hour video sequence mapping footage onto a model of the building. Initially named "Grenfell Media Archive", the team hopes to eventually be able to share it externally as an interactive archive.

Through their new methods of data visualization, Forensic Architecture hopes to fully uncover how this incident happened.

Architecture as forensic evidence in global crimes against humanity

2018-02-26T15:22:00-05:00

Forensic Architecture [...] is an agency based at Goldsmiths, University of London. The organisation’s founder and director is Eyal Weizman, a British-Israeli architect. Its primary mission is research, to “develop evidentiary systems in relation to specific cases”; in so doing, it acts as “an architectural detective agency”, working with NGOs and human rights lawyers to uncover facts that confound the stories told by police, military, states and corporations.

Weizman conceives of his work as an alternative practice, aiming to create a sub-discipline of architecture using architectural evidence in cases of war crimes or other human rights violations. Calling their activity "counter-forensics", the organization does not take commissions from governments or corporations and does not take political sides leaving them with many enemies.

“We think that architects need to be public figures [...] They should take positions, whatever they do. We map the most extreme and violent forms" explains Weizman.

Reconstruction by Forensic Architecture of the bombing of Rafah, Gaza, 1 August 2014. Image: Forensic Architecture.

Originally focused in Israel and Palestine, Forensic Architecture has taken their practice global to wherever their services are needed such as Kassel, Syria, the disappearance of a student in Mexico, a lethal factory fire in Karachi, and a detention center in Cameroon.

We live in a world where almost everything is exposed to view a...

Eyal Weizman uses architectural evidence to investigate bombings in Syria

2017-08-09T15:22:00-04:00

Eyal Weizman is a London-based Israeli architect and Professor of Spatial and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London. His work focuses on architecture as a form of political intervention and the discipline's role in modern urban warfare. For the past couple of years, Weizman's research project—Forensic Architecture—has been using architectural evidence for the investigation of crimes against the state on cases ranging from drone strikes to genocide. Repositioning the field of architecture within forensics, Weizman and his team look at evidence such as debris left behind, physical ruin, floor plans, cell phone footage etc. in order to reconstruct the events that took place, much like one would analyze a crime scene.

In a recent interview with Vice, Weizman talks about his work, recreating bombings in Syria, and using architecture to investigate the invisible. Check out the video below!

The architecture of data forensics

2016-02-07T21:43:00-05:00

FA investigators take standard architectural and digital tools such as telemetry, video-footage syncing and shadow clocks, and repurpose them to reveal the secrets of conflict zones. Weizman's team has also pioneered plume analysis...Weizman and his colleagues' brief is as wide-ranging as man's cruelty to man: they mine the information seam where enemies clash, where migrants drown, natives are dispossessed and civilians bombed.

For the January 2016 issue of WIRED magazine, Michael Hodges profiled the work of Forensic Architecture (FA) and the organisation's director Eyal Weizman.

Architecture and the index: McKenzie Wark on Eyal Weizman and Forensic Architecture

2015-11-09T16:38:00-05:00

Besides the thing itself, architecture concerns itself with two kinds of sign about it: iconic signs and symbols. Iconic signs resemble the thing itself. They are the plans and elevations and isometrics. The more symbolic architecture is that of language, the word, the logo and so forth. The postmodern turn shifted the emphasis from the iconic to the symbolic. I think [Eyal] Weizman has created an architecture about a whole other kind of sign – the index.

"Indexical signs are traces of events: where there is smoke there is fire. The smoke does not resemble the fire. It is not an icon. Nor does it have a code like a symbolic sign system. Forensics is a matter of working backwards from the index to the event of which it is the sign, like in a detective story. A forensic architecture takes as its subject events that happen or don’t happen in build space, including the destruction of built space."

Along the political equator of the desert threshold

2015-11-03T00:24:00-05:00

Weizman’s new book, 'The Conflict Shoreline' (Steidl in association with Cabinet Books, 2015), a richly illustrated volume produced in collaboration with American photographer Fazal Sheikh about the displacement of the Bedouins in the Negev/Naqab desert.

George Prochnik and Eyal Weizman discuss the latest work by the Forensic Architecture team, Bedouin displacement in the Negev and "threshold of detectability."

What can ‘forensic architecture’ reveal about the conflict in Gaza?

2014-09-02T13:25:00-04:00

Weizman has also made a name for himself as the chief proponent of “forensic architecture”, by which he analyses the impacts of urban warfare for clues about the crimes that were perpetrated there. To Weizman, buildings are weapons. When he looks out across the landscape of the occupied Palestinian West Bank [...] he sees a battlefield. “The weapons and ammunitions are very simple elements: they are trees, they are terraces, they are houses. They are barriers.”

What Architecture Reveals About Secret Drone Strikes

2014-03-13T14:58:00-04:00

"It’s an attempt to really use architecture intelligence and design intelligence to unpack violations of international law," Weizman says of Forensic Architecture. Along with SITU Research, he and his team have developed a technique called video-to-space analysis to harvest spatial data from cell phone videos and photos, analyzing footage, sometimes from multiple sources, to model and recreate chaotic events to better understand what happened on the ground.

Editor's Picks #350

2014-01-14T13:15:00-05:00

The latest edition of ShowCase highlights CRAB Studio’s Abedian School of Architecture in Queensland, Australia.

Plus, the fourth installment in Screen/Print (Archinect’s experimentation in translation across media) features "fruity labors" from the quarterly journal MAS Context's 20th issue, Narrative.

News
Architect Magazine reported the American Folk Art Museum will be razed for a Diller Scofidio + Renfro's designed MoMA expansion.

Amelia Taylor-Hochberg Editorial Manager for Archinect, went to the trouble of gathering "a slew of responses to the proposal, both indignant and accepting, from Archinect contributors and beyond".

HotelSphinx thought the excuses/reasons given for demolition were ironic "DS+R is a firm that made a building out of fog for the Expo in Yverdon-les-Bains in 2002. Yes, fog. But aligning floor plates is too difficult? They have got to be joking me".

Meanwhile, Mason White of Lateral Office was perplexed.

"Architects revolt about 2 high-society architecture firms in...

The quasi-archaeological methodologies of forensic architecture

2012-11-27T11:27:00-05:00

The “architecture” in forensic architecture would thus designate, not the product of building design, but rather an expanded field of spatial investigation, imaging and representation, while the word “forensic” should be understood as the very condition that enables architectural research to perform politically, that is, to enter a complex political or juridical calculus.

Eyal Weizman is the Principal Investigator for Forensic Architecture, which is a European Research Council funded project (2011-2014) hosted by the Centre for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths University of London within the Department of Visual Cultures.