Recently arts-based projects linked to a “forensic turn” have increased dramatically to become a dominant form of practice. Forensics refers to the application of science to law enforcement to support the prosecutorial aims of the state. What happens when this practice is appropriated by artists, filmmakers and NGOs to indict state and extra-state perpetrators? What are the consequences of such a “forensic turn” in contemporary cultural production, specifically a move from public debate to evidence production and litigation? Then how to assess such a shift in a moment of public distrust toward traditional journalism?
Three subtopics are explored in these workshops–Epistemological Aesthetics, Carceral Law, and Forensics as Social Practice–to build a new transdisciplinary research network. To gauge the “state of the art” in both studies and practice, workshop settings span research and cultural institutions, particularly film festivals as a primary site of encounter with the addressed topics.
The research network intends to produce scholarship on the topics, facilitate public dialogues between researchers and practitioners, and formulate new models in both spheres. As the new research topic arises out of dialogue between several Vetenskapsrådet-funded research projects at IFFS in artistic research and media studies, the institute is an ideal host.
