Open Session #19: Hosted by Nabil Ahmed

Transdisciplinary scholar and writer Nabil Ahmed from Norway-based forensic investigation agency INTERPRT, convenes an evening to celebrate the launch of An Image of Colonial Violence Pulled from the Air. This new digital publication documents a decade of research and advocacy from INTERPRT’s work using spatial and visual techniques to produce evidence for legal actions, including briefings and petitions to the International Criminal Court. Published by End of Medium and distributed through the online platform Library Stack, this new eBook is a lexicon of INTERPRT’s applied investigative practices, organized around their conceptual, legal, and methodological frameworks. Writer, curator, and educator, Anisa Jackson, will join Ahmed for a conversation.

An Image of Colonial Violence Pulled from the Air consists of multiple sections. The “Concepts” section lays out the unique evidentiary challenges of representing environmental destruction. “Legal Terms” situate the crime of ecocide within international criminal law and political theory. “Methods” charts INTERPRT’s technical and computational approaches to their investigative work. Alongside firsthand descriptions and analyses are visual materials from their first decade of investigations, providing a working toolkit for practitioners across the environmental justice movement.

This book is published by End of Medium, with support from Library Stack and NN Contemporary Art, Northampton, UK. It is distributed through Library Stack and is publicly available for free with an account. Learn more here.

Nabil Ahmed is on the faculty of architecture and design at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). With Olga Lucko, he leads the research agency INTERPRT, which utilizes architectural research, 3D reconstructions, remote sensing and publicly available datasets to investigate environmental destruction and human rights violations. INTERPRT undertakes long-term investigations on behalf of diverse groups, and pursues self-initiated research projects for which they produce advocacy videos, interactive maps and evidence files. INTERPRT collaborates with Climate Counsel, an initiative of former UN lawyers to address the climate emergency, and is a member of Investigative Commons, an initiative of Forensic Architecture. They support the global campaign to make ecocide a fifth international crime.

Anisa Jackson is a writer, curator, and educator whose work bridges urban history, visual cultures, and spatial justice. They are a doctoral candidate in the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University, where their research traces squatting and self-help housing movements in Harlem from the 1960s through the 1980s. Their practice moves between scholarship, curatorial work, and creative production, taking form as installation, moving image, and critical writing. Anisa’s essays and research have appeared in Art Practical, Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas, Black Embodiments Studio, and Ghosts of Seattle’s Past, among others. Their work has been presented in exhibitions and programs at the Museum of the City of New York; Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh; Lewisham Arthouse, London; Specialist Gallery, Seattle; LCB Depot, Leicester; Bluecoat, Liverpool; Babycastles, New York; Abrons Art Center, New York; Bellevue College Gallery, Bellevue; King Street Station, Seattle; and Northwest Film Forum, Seattle. Anisa is a Curator-at-Large for the Aspen Art Museum and a member of the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project.