DRONE STRIKES, 2013-2015
© Digital reconstruction of the scene of the strike in a 3D-model. Düsseldorf, May 21, 2013. Photo: Forensic Architecture DRONE STRIKES, 2013-2015
Forensic Architecture’s Drone Strike investigation is a series of case studies intended to investigate the spatial mapping of drone warfare, with the aim to explore the little understood architectural dimension of this form of attack.
The analysis involved an architectural examination of a selection of strikes in Pakistan, Gaza, and Yemen. In Up in the Air, Forensic Architecture presents two cases: a strike in Mir Ali on October 4th, 2010 and in Miranshah on March 30th, 2012, both in North Waziristan, Pakistan. One of the surviving witnesses to the Mir Ali strike, which killed five people, is a German woman who lived in the house at the time with her two-year-old boy and her husband. Together with Forensic Architecture, this witness built a digital model of her home that no longer exists. The process of model building establishes a link between architecture, memory and destruction. The analysis of the Miranshah case focuses on a video testimony smuggled out of North Waziristan, in order to reconstruct the space of the strike and interrogate the event. This footage revealed a great deal beyond what appeared to be chaotic images of rubble and ruin.
Whereas the FA’s Drone Strike investigations are looking at the consequences of military air activity, the Rafah: Black Friday project investigated the air above in order to unfold the sequence of events taking place on the ground.
Forensic Architecture (UK)
Forensic Architecture is a research project based at Goldsmiths, University of London. The project, founded in 2011, has assembled a team of architects, artists, filmmakers, activists, and theorists to undertake research that gathers and presents spatial analysis in legal and political forums. Their investigations provide evidence for international prosecution teams, political organisations, NGOs, and the United Nations. Additionally, the project undertakes critical examinations of the history and present status of forensic practices in articulating notions of public truth.
Forensic Architecture team: Eyal Weizman, Christina Varvia, Nick Axel, Francesco Sebregondi, Camila E. Sotomayor, Vere Van Gool, Shourideh C. Molavi, Gustav A. Toftgaard, Dorette Panagiotopoulou, Jamon Van Den Hoek, Rosario Güiraldes, Hania Halabi, Jacob Burns, Mohammed Abdullah, Kent Klich, Ana Naomi de Souza, Susan Schuppli, Chris Cobb-Smith, Marc Garlasco