Today, artists are engaged in investigation. They probe corruption, human rights violations, environmental crimes and technological domination. At the same time, areas not usually thought of as artistic make powerful use of aesthetics. Journalists and legal professionals pore over opensource videos and satellite imagery to undertake visual investigations. This combination of diverse fields is what the authors call "investigative aesthetics" the mobilisation of sensibilities associated with art, architecture and other such practices in order to speak truth to power.
Investigative Aesthetics draws on theories of knowledge, ecology and technology; evaluates the methods of citizen counter-forensics, micro-history and art; and examines radical practices such as those of WikiLeaks, Bellingcat, and Forensic Architecture. These new practices take place in the studio and the laboratory, the courtroom and the gallery, online and in the streets, as they strive towards the construction of a new common sense.
Matthew Fuller and Eyal Weizman have here provided an inspiring introduction to a new field that will change how we understand and confront power today.
To Nour Abuzaid for your brilliance, perseverance, and unshaken belief in the liberation of Palestine.
Eyal Weizman directs the Centre for Research Architecture and the international investigative project, Forensic Architecture. He is the author of Hollow Land, The Least of All Possible Evils, and Forensic Architecture. After a hugely acclaimed exhibition at the ICA, Forensic Architecture was shortlisted for the 2018 Turner Prize. They have exhibited around the world, and in 2019, their work was included in the Whitney Biennial.
Founder and creative director of @Bellingcat and director of Bellingcat Productions BV. Author of We Are Bellingcat. Tonal Whiplash Zone.
I've spent my break rereading Investigative Aesthetics by @weizman_eyal and Matthew Fuller, which I'd highly recommend to anyone who thinks seriously about open source investigation. https://www.versobooks.com/books/3801-investigative-aesthetics
Founded in 85, Zone Books is an independent nonprofit publisher of philosophy, art history, theory, and political science.
“Colonialism is not simply about the occupation of land, the building of settlements, the abuse of resources… but a certain epistemology that needs to be broken.” Investigative Aesthetics: Eyal Weizman Interviewed by Rhoda Feng - @BOMBmagazine https://t.co/eG67DCeqpc
"Aesthetics is a battleground, a contested space; Investigative Aesthetics is part battle-plan or tactical guide and, more fundamentally, part user's manual for surviving this beautiful and terrifying world."
--Mark Rappolt, ArtReview
"A fascinating treatise on how our political world functions today and how we might seek to interrupt it."
--Jack Smurthwaite, Art Monthly
"Expansive ... [Fuller and Weizman] explore sense and sense-making in its fullest political terms: understanding the systemic forces of capitalism as well as an individual's sense of morality."
--Chris Hayes, Tribune
"An undeviating announcement of the subversive potential of contemporary aesthetic practices. "
--Lawrence Abu Hamdan, White Review ("Books of the Year 2021")