Short Course in Forensic Architecture: Counter Forensics

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As part of the exhibition Counter Investigations, Forensic Architecture leads five seminars organized around key concepts that underpin the agency's work, adding up to a short course in forensic architecture. These seminars take place in the ICA gallery spaces, within and around the investigations on display. Whereas these investigations were produced for presentation in juridical and political forums, the seminars gather an alternative forum in which the same evidence is interrogated theoretically and historically

Special multibuy offer
All five Forensic Architecture Short courses for £20/£18 concessions/£12 ICA Members

All are welcome to join these seminars, but we encourage people to attend all or a number of sessions where possible. Space is limited, so please register early  

This seminar on counter forensics seeks to problematise the institutionalised character of forensic practices. Counter forensics is exemplified by the inversion of the forensic gaze, by individuals or civil society groups undertaking independent investigations to interrogate state crimes. But in what ways do counter forensic practices, assumptions and ways of presenting evidence differ from scientific forensics as conceived from the 19th century onwards? What new technologies and techniques are available to civil society groups exposed to and documenting state crimes from European cities through the Mediterranean Sea to the cities of the Middle East and Central America? And what are the challenges involved in taking over the means of evidence production?  

Members of Forensic Architecture introduce the concept of 'counter forensics' in relation to investigations including The Murder of Halit Yozgat, Drone Strike in Miranshah and The Killing of Nadeem Nawara and Mohammad Abu Daher.  

Invited participants—including researcher Adam Elliot Cooper and artist and member of German anti-racist alliance Unraveling the NSU Complex Natascha Sadr Haghighian—will respond to and offer insights on the investigations and the concepts raised.

Following the seminar, members of Forensic Architecture will lead a practice-based workshop on geolocation – the practice of determining the location and timing of an image or video clip without its metadata.

Image caption: Simulated propagation of sound within a digital model designed to mimic the exact dimensions and materials of the internet café where Halit Yozgat was murdered by members of the National Socialist Underground in 2006. Forensic Architecture and Anderson Acoustics, 2017

The Short Course in Forensic Architecture is organised in partnership with the MA Studio in Forensic Architecture, Centre for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths, University of London, led by Susan Schuppli and Lorenzo Pezzani. The practice-based workshops are organised by Christina Varvia