Investigative Aesthetics: Conflicts and Commons in the Politics of Truth

Artists are using investigative aesthetics to explore corruption, state violence, environmental destruction, and repressive technologies. This combination of diverse fields mobilizes sensibilities associated with art, architecture, and other practices to speak truth to power. The book evaluates methods of citizen counter-forensics, micro-history, art, and radical practices such as Wikileaks, Bellingcat, and Forensic Architecture, and explores how they can be used to construct a new common sensing.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 24 August 2021
Publisher: Verso Books

Artists are currently engaged in an exploration that delves into various societal issues such as corruption, state violence, environmental degradation, and the use of repressive technologies. Simultaneously, fields that are traditionally not associated with aesthetics are making significant use of artistic approaches. Journalists and legal professionals, for instance, employ open-source videos and satellite imagery to conduct visual investigations. This fusion of diverse disciplines is what the authors refer to as investigative aesthetics, a term that mobilizes sensibilities typically associated with art, architecture, and other fields to find innovative ways of speaking truth to power.

This book draws upon 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. Investigative Aesthetics takes place in studios, laboratories, courthouses, galleries, online platforms, and the streets, aiming to construct a new common sensing.

The book serves as an inspiring introduction to a new field that brings together investigation and aesthetics to reshape our understanding and approach to confronting power in the contemporary world. It is a testament to the brilliance, perseverance, and unwavering belief of Nour Abuzaid in the liberation of Palestine.

Weight: 272g
Dimension: 140 x 210 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781788739085