I felt particularly inspired by Noortje Marres’ guiding critical question with regards to data journalism: “What are the methods, materials, techniques and arrangements that we curate in order to create spaces where problems can be addressed differently?” The research agency Forensic Architecture has been involved in investigations into human rights violations through a deeply collaborative and situated practice of blending architectural analysis techniques, immersive technologies, and testimonial interviews. From their website, Forensic Architecture’s mandate is “to develop, disseminate, and employ new techniques for evidence gathering and presentation in the service of human rights and environmental investigations and in support of communities exposed to state violence and persecution… [a]rchitectural analysis and digital modelling techniques enable us to unravel that complexity, and to present information in a convincing, precise, and accessible manner–qualities which are crucial for the pursuit of accountability.”
Before I talk about Forensic Architecture’s investigation “Dispossession and the Memory of the Earth: Dispossession in Nueva Colonia”, I wanted to highlight two other data journalism investigations that I highly recommend to read about with regards to Israeli settler colonial occupation of Palestine, and the historical and ongoing violent displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians: Living Archaeology in Gaza, and Sheikh Jarrah: Ethnic Cleansing in Jerusalem. Both of these investigations are incredibly relevant and can help us all learn more about the genocidal oppression of Palestinians in Gaza. It’s crucial that we be critical of the propaganda-filled news cycles that continue to circulate in mainstream media in the Global North. Similar questions raised in The Data Journalism Handbook can be applied to thinking critically about the news we consume: Which news do we continue to see, and whose news? Whose narratives are being pushed forward, and whose are being ignored? Remember… [news] are not “neutral and straightforward representations of the world, but [are] rather entangled with politics and culture, money and power” (Jonathan Gray and Liliana Bounegru, “Introduction” in The Data Journalism Handbook).
“Dispossession and the Memory of the Earth: Dispossession in Nueva Colonia” focuses on the violent and hidden dispossession of campesino land in the Colombian region of Urabá Antioqueño. The purpose of the project is to show the various actors involved in land dispossession through concerted efforts of “armed repression, massacres, and terror spread by private paramilitary forces, serving local and international banana producers under the protection of the Colombian military.” Forensic Architecture used 3D architectural technologies to digitally reconstruct 100 km2 of stolen and threatened land through situated testimony. The immersive nature of the technologies used help to provide affected campesinos an opportunity to archive and re-experience temporalities of “not only places that were lost, but also their farms which they have struggled to hold on to.” The lack of focus on purely quantitative data (from aerial and satellite imagery + financial data from 1955 to present) through interviews serves to empower disenfranchised campesinos, reinforces their humanity and embodied presence on their dispossessed land, and places value on their testimonies as a foundation for data journalism investigations. Forensic Architecture’s investigation is placed within the context of oppression on global scales, as shown in the following quote highlighting the role of the Israeli Defense Forces in developing techniques for violent policing and surveillance: “We interviewed a judge who investigated the massacres, and who was forced into exile after identifying the former paramilitaries who committed the massacre, and Yair Klein, a former Israeli military officer who trained them.” “Dispossession and the Memory of the Earth: Dispossession in Nueva Colonia” is a powerful investigation that exposes the “agricultural canal systems of banana businesses and other environmental elements… used by landowners to flood the fields of campesinos, and contribute to the destruction of their fields, and eventual dispossession,” both through a comprehensive 24-minute video shared through exhibitions, events, and press, and an interactive web platform containing a cluster visualizations, timeline, and map for multiple ways of engaging with the scale of land dispossession that took place.
