Forensic Architecture

If toxic air is a monument to slavery, how do we take it down?

Forensic Architecture

A stretch of the Mississippi River once called "Plantation Country" is now the "Petrochemical Corridor", known to those who breathe its toxic air as "Death Valley". Using advanced cartography and fluid dynamics techniques, we work to support local demands for liability and repair.

Tear gas in Plaza de la Dignidad, Chile

Forensic Architecture

On December 20, 2019, Chilean security forces used unprecedented amounts of tear gas within a relatively small area against people participating in a peaceful and unarmed demonstration. Using open source analysis and fluid dynamic simulations, we measured the concentration of tear gas in the air in that territory to estimate the scale of health risks inflicted on civilians that day.

The Battle of Ilovaisk: Verifying Russian Military Presence in Ukraine

Forensic Architecture

In late summer of 2014, the Ukrainian Armed Forces battled pro-Russian separatists for control of the town of Ilovaisk, in the border region of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine. By September, the separatists had won a resounding victory, routing the retreating Ukrainian army. Even as the battle was ongoing, however, allegations swirled that regular units of the Russian army had joined the battle on the side of the separatists, tipping the balance decisively in their favour. Russia denied the charges. But, in what became a watershed moment for open source investigation, communities of researchers, reporters, and citizen journalists gathered substantial and compelling open source evidence for the presence of the Russian military in the region. This video is a documentary piece that ventures both into the realms of science and politics (it’s part of the body of evidence submitted to the European Court of Human Rights in the form of an interactive platform).

Model Zoo

Forensic Architecture

Since 2018, Forensic Architecture has been working with ‘synthetic images’-photorealistic digital renderings of 3D models-to train machine learning classifiers. Model Zoo includes a growing collection of 3D models of munitions and weapons, as well as the different classifiers trained to identify them making a catalogue of some of the most horrific weapons used in conflict today.

The Killing of Harith Augustus

Forensic Architecture

When police shot and killed Harith Augustus not far from his South Shore barbershop, Chicago police called the incident a legitimate "split-second" decision. We unpack this fraction of a second into six different timescales, from milliseconds to years. Our investigation revealed multiple violations perpetrated by the Chicago police, including, not for the first time, the withholding of critical video evidence from the public.

The Killing of Mark Duggan

Forensic Architecture

An investigation into the shooting of Mark Duggan by Forensic Architecture, a department based at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Triple Chaser

Forensic Architecture

David Byrne

When US border agents fired tear gas grenades at civilians in November 2018, photographs showed that many of those grenades were manufactured by the Safariland Group, one of the world’s major manufacturers of so-called ‘less-lethal munitions’. The Safariland Group is owned by Warren B. Kanders, the vice chair of the board of trustees of the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Cloud Studies

Forensic Architecture

Shipwreck at the Threshold of Europe, Lesvos, Aegean Sea: 28 October 2015

Forensic Architecture

On 28 October 2015, a migrant boat left the coast of Western Turkey heading to the closest European coast – the Greek island of Lesvos. The shipwreck resulted in the death of at least 43 people, making it the deadliest incident of that period, also known as “the long summer of migration.” One of the survivors, the artist Amel Alzakout, recorded the journey and the shipwreck on a waterproof camera attached to her wrist. This footage – which also forms the basis of her subsequent film Purple Sea – provides a unique situated perspective on this tragic event at the threshold of Europe.