Forensic Architecture: Violence at the Threshold of Detectability is Eyal Weizman's foundational account of the research agency he founded—a group that turns the tools of architecture to the investigation of state violence and human rights abuses.
About This Book
Forensic Architecture works as an unusual hybrid: part architecture studio, part investigative unit, its evidence presented in courts, truth commissions, human rights reports and galleries. Here Weizman sets out where the practice came from, how it works and the problems it has to contend with. Central to the book is the idea of the 'threshold of detectability'—the point at which traces of violence hover between being visible and invisible, often deliberately kept beneath the resolution of satellite imagery or the reach of official inquiry.
The argument is carried through detailed case studies, documented with maps, models, stills and diagrams. They range in scale from shrapnel patterns in a single room hit by a drone strike in Pakistan to a reconstruction of a day-long battle in Gaza, a Syrian detention centre rebuilt from survivors' memories, and environmental violence in the Guatemalan highlands. Throughout, Weizman treats buildings and cities as recording devices, and architectural analysis as a way of producing public truth against official denial.
Key Features
- The first in-depth account of Forensic Architecture written by its founder
- Extensively illustrated with images, maps and reconstructions from the group's investigations
- Case studies spanning Pakistan, Palestine, Syria and Guatemala
- Combines theoretical argument with granular investigative documentation
What You'll Discover
- How architecture can work as an optical and analytical device in the investigation of conflict
- Methods drawn from remote sensing, material analysis, digital modelling and witness testimony
- Why states keep violence at the limits of what images and evidence can register
- The ethical and political double binds of 'counterforensics'
- How spatial evidence moves between legal, media and art forums
About the Author
Eyal Weizman is an architect and the founder and director of Forensic Architecture, based at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he is a professor of spatial and visual cultures. He is also a founding member of the architectural collective DAAR in Beit Sahour, Palestine. His other books include Hollow Land, The Least of All Possible Evils and Mengele's Skull.
Specifications
- Format: Paperback
- Dimensions: 177 x 222 mm
- Pages: 368
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781935408871
- Publisher: Zone Books
Perfect For: architects, urbanists, artists, journalists, lawyers and anyone interested in how spatial evidence can hold power to account.