*Seminar + Symposium

What are the media cultures of self-authorized “people’s” tribunals that render judgments without legal standing? And which media cultures are specifically prone to be tribunalized?
What are the ethic-aesthetic capacities of tribunals, and which potential dangers derive from tribunalization?

Media theoretically and cultural analytically this seminar investigates contemporary media cultures of tribunals. Furthermore, it examines tribunalization phenomena in media cultures more generally, focusing on “forensic aesthetics” ranging from various forms of witnessing, over evidence procedure, to propagandistic strategies, and activist rhetoric.

Tribunal media cultures & media cultures of tribunals: What are the media cultural conditions of various self-authorized people’s tribunals engaging in truth finding and rendering judgments without legal standing? Differing in context and procedure, the case studies under investigation include socially-engaged tribunalizations hosted by platforms of contemporary arts (e.g., Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes [2021–2022] organized Radha D'Souza and Jonas Staal), theatrical courts (e.g., Moscow Trials [2013] or the Kongo Tribunal [2015] initiated by Milo Rau), social movements and civil society activism organized as tribunal (e.g., Tribunal: Unraveling the NSU Complex [2017–]), and global alliances built around tribunal hearings (e.g., International Rights of Nature Tribunal [2014–]).

Tribunalization of and through forensic aesthetics: “Forensic aesthetics” (Weizman 2017) has many facets, potentially involving (i) witnessing, (ii) intelligence, (iii) investigation, (iv) evidence procedures, and (v) fora of presentation and negotiation. Up for discussion are actors such as Forensic Architecture, bellingcat, and Airwars working with forensic aesthetics as both methodology of sensing and making perceptible, and as style, rhetoric, and genre. 

The seminar sessions revolve around the following topics and concerns:

• Tribunals/Tribunalizations: Case Studies at the Crossroads of Para-Legal Fora and Contemporary Arts
• Forensics Supported by Evidence and Propaganda: Counter Forensics, Pseudo Forensics, Forensic Aesthetics
• Symposium @Weibel Institute for Digital Cultures (details tba)
• Subjectivities: “Cyberwar’s Subjects” put in dialogue with the “Implicated Subject”
• Witnessing: “Media Witnessing”, “Material Witness”, and “Nonhuman Witnessing”
• Investigation/Intelligence: Between Investigative Journalism and Open-Source Intelligence
• Prospects: De/Tribunalizing Media Cultures

– Active participation during the seminar
– Visiting the Symposium @Weibel Institute for Digital Cultures  with Exhibition opening (November 20–22, 2024)
– Readings
– Writing of a scientic paper/essay (in English or German), due February 23, 2025

Relevant materials will be uploded to a folder on Base Cloud.

Please note that deregistration is no longer possible after the introductory session, in order to ensure an atmosphere of dedicated collective learning.