ISBN: 9783956790119

Paperback: 744 pages
Publisher: Sternberg Press, 2014
Language: English
Product Dimensions: 24 x 17.2 x 4 cm

Forensics originated from the term ‘forensis’ which is Latin for pertaining to the forum. The Roman forum was a multidimensional space of negotiation and truth-finding in which humans as well as objects participated in politics, law, and the economy. With the advent of modernity, forensics shifted to refer exclusively to the courts of law and to the use of medicine, and today as a science in service to the law. The present use of forensics, along with its popular representations have become increasingly central to the modes by which states police and govern their subjects. By returning to forensis this book seeks to unlock forensics original potential as a political practice and reorient it. Inverting the direction of the forensic gaze it designates a field of action in which individuals and organizations detect and confront state violations.