Samaneh Moafi (Forensic Architecture, London) in conversation with Beth Stryker (Cluster, Cairo; ArteEast, New York), moderated by Naeem Mohaiemen (Society of Fellows, Columbia University)

Forensic Architecture (FA) was founded in 2010 by Eyal Weizman, co-founder of Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London. FA employs pioneering techniques in spatial and architectural analysis, open source investigation, digital modelling, and immersive technologies, as well as documentary research, situated interviews, and academic collaboration. Findings from investigations have been presented in national and international courtrooms, parliamentary inquiries, and exhibitions at art museums, as well as in citizen’s tribunals and community assemblies. In 2018, FA was one of four finalists for Britain’s Turner Prize. Their 2019 video Triple Chaser was featured in the 2019 Whitney Biennial and was a harsh indictment of Whitney Museum board member Warren Kanders’s attempts to profit off tear gas violence and to hide his complicity behind the walls of the very museum in which the video was presented. It remained on view for the show’s duration, outlasting Kanders himself, who resigned from the museum’s board after extensive protests by artists in the biennial.

All registrants for this event will receive viewing links for the following four FA films: Cloud Studies (23 min; Region: Worldwide, tear gas and spatial dispersion), Herbicidal Warfare in Gaza (8 min; Region: Palestine-Israel); Triple Chaser (8 min; Region: US-Mexico border), and Shipwreck at the Threshold of Europe (23 min; Region: Aegean Sea).

About the discussants:

Samaneh Moafi is Senior Researcher at Forensic Architecture, providing conceptual oversight across projects, and supervising the Centre for Contemporary Nature. Her research is focused on developing new evidentiary techniques for environmental violence. She holds a PhD from The Architectural Association (AA), and an MA in Architecture from the University of Technology, Sydney. Her PhD thesis examined struggle and resistance from the home, with a particular focus on gender and class relations in Iran.

Beth Stryker is a Co-founder of CLUSTER (Cairo Lab for Urban Studies, Training and Environmental Research) a platform for urban research, architecture, art, and design initiatives based in Downtown Cairo. CLUSTER was included in the Egyptian National Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale (2016, 2018). Stryker received her B.A from Columbia University, and her M.Arch from Princeton University. She is currently Executive Director of ArteEast in New York.