Architecture, Forensics and the Laws of War: Melbourne public lecture

In this free lecture on 6 September, architect Eyal Weisman from the University of London will discuss how, with the urbanisation of conflict, violations of human rights and the laws of war often take place within cities.

The University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, together with Melbourne Social Equity Institute, present Eyal Weisman, Architect, Professor of Visual Cultures and Director of the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London.

From analysis of mass graves of the Guatemalan highlands, the killing fields of Yugoslavia and the villages of Darfur, to modes of investigating the urban destruction of the refugee camps of Gaza, a new paradigm for the representation and documentation of calamities and catastrophes has emerged.

A recent shift of emphasis from human testimony to material forensics, from trauma and memory to scientific analysis, has started to challenge our aesthetic conception of history and politics. Within the context of this forensic turn, architecture is rapidly becoming the pathology of our era.

In this thought provoking lecture Weisman will discuss how, with the urbanization of conflict, violations of human rights and the laws of war often take place within cities.

Frequently these violations are produced by the very means of architecture itself – both by its construction and destruction. Consequently architectural representations – maps, plans, satellite imagery, aerial footage, physical and digital models – are consistently called upon as evidence in tribunals and international courts. 

Eyal Weizman directs the European Research Council funded project, Forensic Architecture, on the place of architecture in international humanitarian law. He is a founding member of the architectural collective DAAR in Beit Sahour/Palestine.

Currently a Professor of Visual Cultures and Director of the Centre for Research Architectue at Goldsmiths at the University of London. He has previously been a Professor of Architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and taught at the Bartlett (UCL) in London, at the Stadel School in Frankfurt and is Professeur invité at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris. He lectured, curated and organised conferences in many institutions worldwide.

The event takes place on 6 September, Prince Philip Theatre, Architecture Building, University of Melbourne @ 6.30pm.