Investigative Aesthetics: Conflicts and Commons in the Politics of Truth

A new field of counter-investigation across journalism, human rights, art and law

Today, artists are engaged in investigation. They probe corruption, state violence, environmental destruction and repressive technologies. At the same time, fields not usually associated with aesthetics make powerful use of it. Journalists and legal professionals pore over open source videos and satellite imagery to undertake visual investigations. This combination of diverse fields is what the authors call “investigative aesthetics”: mobilizing sensibilities often associated with art, architecture and other such practices to find new ways of speaking truth to power.

This book draws on 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 the studio and the laboratory, the courtroom and the gallery, online and in the streets, as it strives towards the construction of a new “common sensing.”

The book is an inspiring introduction to a new field that brings together investigation and aesthetics to change how we understand and confront power today.