Investigation: Forensic Architecture: Horizontal Verification and the Socialised Production of Evidence

CITIZENS OF EVIDENCE: Independent Investigations for Change The Art of Exposing Injustice - Part 3 The 17th conference of the Disruption Network Lab FORENSIC ARCHITECTURE: Horizontal Verification and the Socialised Production of Evidence Robert Trafford / Forensic Architecture (Researcher, Open Source Investigations, UK). Moderated by Laurie Treffers (Freelance Journalist & Conflict Researcher, Airwars, NL). The institutions on which we have long relied, as producers of truth and to underscore our human rights, are weakened, and our faith in them is declining. New actors, most successfully from the populist right, are inhabiting the space that has opened up. Concepts like ”news”, “evidence”, and “fact” have become weaponised. In this climate, it becomes vital to articulate concepts of truth and truth-making that succeed where present concepts are losing the battle. But the technological and social circumstances that have driven this 'decentralisation' of truth also carry great promise, and propose new possibilities for civil society to expose and interrogate power and its misuse: modern theatres of conflict are densely media-rich environments, information is poorly guarded, and open sources have collapsed the distance between violence and analyst. At the heart of Forensic Architecture's 'counter-forensic' practice is an understanding of the production of evidence as a collaborative enterprise by civil society, in which situated knowledge speaks in coalition with technical, legal, and journalistic expertise. Through the lens of a selection of Forensic Architecture's recent cases, Robert Trafford will discuss how this approach works in practice, its promise, and some of its problems. What are the challenges to traditional forms of truth-production that this 'socialisation' overcomes? What are the avenues through which civil society can expose and prosecute violence, when the state is responsible for that violence? How must this kind of truth be reconstituted when it interacts with legal and political forums? https://www.disruptionlab.org/citizens-of-evidence Photo credit: Elena Veronese Produced by Voice Republic For more podcasts visit http://voicerepublic.com