Speaker: Sidar Bayram
The concept and practice of forensic architecture, which brings academics, artists, researchers, architects, software developers and activists together, enables us today to understand the production of evidence and truth as a collective social relationship, as well as revealing how technical, aesthetical and political practices in a post-truth world are intertwined and mutually sustaining. Forensic Architecture, a research agency based at Goldsmiths University in London, has been receiving widespread attention in recent years both within academia and in the field of art through the investigations they have been conducting and the evidence they have produced about issues in dispute in areas of conflict. Their research on human rights violations in various geographies of the world is not only discussed in legal, academic and public spheres, but their work also influences the field of art with its presentation and visualization techniques, and offers new horizons of deliberation on the relationship between aesthetics, technology and politics in the production of facts and truth. In 2018, Forensic Architecture was among the contending finalists of one of the most important modern art awards in England, the Turner Prize, and they participated in the Whitney Biennial in 2019.
Sidar Bayram is currently a PhD candidate at Koç University, Department of Sociology, focusing on the relationships of audio-visual documents, politics of human rights, and forensic science. He has translated Eyal Weizman and Thomas Keenan’s book, Mengele’s Skull: The Advent of a Forensic Aesthetics [Mengele’nin Kafatası: Adli Estetiğin Ortaya Çıkışı, (Açılım Kitap, 2014)], and Eyal Weizman’s The Least of All Possible Evils: Humanitarian Violence from Arendt to Gaza [Arendt’den Gazze’ye Ehvenişer Siyaseti: İnsancıl Şiddetin Kısa Tarihi, (Açılım Kitap, 2018)]. Together with Duygu Doğan, he has worked as a co-editor and translator for the book, Çatışmayı Kaydetmek: Arşivler, İnsan Hakları ve Toplumsal Mücadele (DEMOS Yayınları, 2018) [Recording the Conflict: Archives, Human Rights and Social Struggle] published with the support of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.
The event is free of charge.
Invitations available from the Akbank Sanat ticket office on the event day, one hour before the event begins.