I.106 Chemical Fire at Marathon Refinery
Date of Incident
24 Aug 2023 - 28 Aug 2023
Location
Garyville, Louisiana, USA
Forums
Media, Web Platform
In Partnership With
The Guardian, Earthjustice, Healthy Gulf, Louisiana Bucket Brigade, The Descendants Project, Boundless Community Action
When a leaking petrochemical tank at the Marathon Petroleum refinery in Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’ caught fire, it produced a thick plume of toxic smoke that spread for miles over neighbouring communities. Authorities claimed that nearby residents were unaffected, even as reports of severe health impacts emerged. Fearing a cover-up, some of those residents asked FA to investigate.
I.103 The Grenfell Tower Fire: Situated Testimonies
Date of Incident
14 Jun 2017
Location
Grenfell Tower, North Kensington, London
Forums
Citizens' Tribunal, Media
Commissioned By
A coalition of lawyers representing bereaved families, survivors and affected local residents
The Grenfell Tower Fire was a generational tragedy for London and the UK, ultimately claiming 72 lives. Using a technique called 'situated testimony', we produced seven video interviews with bereaved family members, survivors, and nearby residents, aided by a 3D model of the tower and its surrounding environment. These interviews were screened for the first time as part of Grenfell Testimony Week.
I.95 The Killing of Dilan Cruz
Date of Incident
1 Nov 2019
Location
Bogotá, Colombia
Forums
Legal Process
Commissioned By
Fundación Comité de Solidaridad con los Presos Políticos (CSPP)
During the 2019 'national strike' demonstrations in Colombia, 18-year-old protester Dilan Cruz was shot by a bean bag round fired by police in Bogotá, and died two days later. The Colombian Attorney General subsequently published a report defending the killing and accusing Cruz of being part of a mob; our investigation shows how this conclusion derives from a misreading of the visual evidence.
I.92 'Tear Gas Tuesday' in Downtown Portland
Date of Incident
2 Jun 2020
Location
Portland, Oregon, USA
Forums
Legal Process, Exhibition, Media
Commissioned By
Self-Initiated
Over the summer of 2020, Portland's police force deployed large amounts of tear gas to suppress local demonstrations against racialised police violence. Focusing on a single representative day—2 June 2020—we simulated the path of the toxic tear gas clouds as they spread widely across the city centre, demonstrating that the concentration levels were in serious excess of recognised safe thresholds.
I.91 Fire in Moria Refugee Camp
Date of Incident
8 Sep 2020
Location
Lesvos, Greece
Forums
Legal Process, Exhibition, Media
Commissioned By
Lawyers for the Moria 6
The fire which destroyed the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesvos was at least the 247th outbreak to have occurred in and around the overcrowded camp since 2013. Six young asylum seekers who came to be known as the 'Moria 6' were accused of arson and jailed. FA and Forensis reconstructed the fire’s spread, casting significant doubt on the basis for those convictions.
I.87 Shireen Abu Akleh: The Extrajudicial Killing of a Journalist
Date of Incident
11 May 2022
Location
Jenin, Palestine
Forums
Legal Process, United Nations, Human Rights Report
In Partnership With
Al-Haq, Al Haq’s Forensic Architecture Investigation Unit
On 11 May 2022, while reporting on a raid by Israeli occupying forces on the Jenin refugee camp, Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akhleh was fatally shot by a convoy of IOF military vehicles. With Al-Haq, we showed that she and her colleagues were explicitly targeted in an unprovoked attack by an IOF marksman despite being identifiable as press, and that she was deliberately denied medical aid.
I.86 The Raid on Al-Haq's Offices: 18 August 2022
Date of Incident
18 Aug 2022
Location
Ramallah, Palestine
Forums
Legal Process, Media
In Partnership With
Al-Haq
On 18 August 2022, Israeli occupation forces raided the offices of Al-Haq alongside six other Palestinian human rights groups. Working with Al-Haq's new Forensic Architecture Investigation Unit, we analysed available CCTV footage to determine the circumstances of the raid and expose Israeli apartheid practices against civil society organisations.
I.82 Russian Strike on the Kyiv TV Tower
Date of Incident
1 Mar 2022
Location
Kyiv, Ukraine
Forums
Exhibition, Media
In Partnership With
The Center for Spatial Technologies (CST)
The Russian strike on the Kyiv TV tower and the site of Babyn Yar on 1 March 2022 resulted in civilian casualties and urban destruction—but it also pierced through layers of historical strata, exposing a history of violence, genocide and negation that unfolded on the very same ground. This is the first installation in a new long-term collaboration with the Center for Spatial Technologies.
I.81 Racist Terror Attack in Hanau: The Police Operation
Date of Incident
19 Feb 2020
Location
Hanau, Germany
Forums
Exhibition, Media, Parliamentary Inquiry
Commissioned By
Initiative 19. Februar
On 19 February 2020, nine people were murdered in a racist terror attack in Hanau, Germany. After the attack, the perpetrator went to his house, where he killed his mother, and himself. Police knew the perpetrator’s address early on but did not storm the house for almost five hours. We were asked by the victims’ families and the Initiative 19. Februar to examine how the police operation unfolded.
I.80 The Shelling of Khudair Warehouse: Chemical Warfare by Indirect Means
Date of Incident
15 May 2021
Location
Gaza, Palestine
Forums
Legal Process, Media
In Partnership With
Al-Haq
Marking the launch of Al-Haq’s Forensic Architecture Investigation Unit based in Ramallah, we examined the circumstances of the 15 May 2021 Israeli bombing of the Khudair Pharmaceuticals and Agricultural Tools Company in Beit Lahiya—the largest agricultural chemical warehouse in Gaza—as part of the environmental disaster imposed on Palestinians.
I.77 Racist Terror Attack in Hanau: The Arena Bar
Date of Incident
19 Feb 2020
Location
Hanau, Germany
Forums
Media, Parliamentary Inquiry
Commissioned By
Initiative 19. Februar, Lawyers for the Gültekin family
On 19 February 2020, in Hanau, Germany, a racist terror attack left nine people dead, six of them in or near the local Arena bar. There are reports that the bar’s emergency exit was routinely locked, and the victims of the attack didn’t run towards it for that reason. We examined whether, had they tried to do so, and it had been open, they could have survived the attack.
I.75 The Black Boxes of Disappearance: Enforced Disappearance in the Siege of the Palace of Justice
Date of Incident
6 Nov 1985 - 7 Nov 1985
Location
Bogotá, Colombia
Forums
Legal Process, Exhibition, Media, Truth Commission, Web Platform
Commissioned By
The Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and Non-Repetition of Colombia
Our investigation examines the actions of the Colombian security forces in the aftermath of the 1985 siege of the Palace of Justice that resulted in the enforced disappearance of cafeteria workers, students, visitors, guerrillas, and judges.
I.74 The Murder of Lucas Villa
Date of Incident
5 May 2021
Location
Pereira, Colombia
Forums
Media
In Partnership With
Bellingcat, Cerosetenta, Baudo Agencia Pública
On the 5th of May 2021, Lucas Villa, a Colombian student, was shot and fatally wounded in Pereira, Colombia while participating in the National Strike. Our findings suggest Lucas was targeted in a coordinated assassination.
I.69 The Extrajudicial Execution of Ahmad Erekat
Date of Incident
23 Jun 2020
Location
Palestine
Forums
Legal Process, Human Rights Report, Media
Commissioned By
Self-Initiated
On 23 June 2020, Ahmad Erekat, a 26-year-old Palestinian, was shot by Israeli occupation forces after his car crashed into a booth at an illegal checkpoint in the occupied West Bank in Palestine. Working in collaboration with the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq, Forensic Architecture’s Palestine Unit was asked by the Erekat family to examine the incident.
I.67 Tear Gas in Plaza de la Dignidad
Date of Incident
20 Dec 2019
Location
Plaza de la Dignidad, Santiago de Chile
Forums
Media
Commissioned By
No+lacrimógenas
On 20 December 2019, the Chilean security forces used unprecedented quantities of tear gas within a relatively small area against people engaging in peaceful and unarmed protest. Using visual open source analysis and fluid dynamic simulation, we measured the concentration of tear gas in air and on the ground to estimate the scale of health risks posed on civilians on this day.
I.66 The Killing of Zineb Redouane
Date of Incident
1 Dec 2018
Location
Rue des Feuillants, Marseille
Forums
Media
In Partnership With
Disclose
80-year-old Zineb Redouane was fatally wounded by a tear gas grenade as she stood at the window of her fourth-floor apartment, as protests continued in the streets outside. A ballistics report cleared the officer who fired the shot of wrongdoing. Working with Disclose, we re-examined the case.
I.65 The Beirut Port Explosion
Date of Incident
4 Aug 2020
Location
Beirut, Lebanon
Forums
Media
In Partnership With
Mada Masr
The explosions that ripped through the port of Beirut in 2020 devastated the city, leaving as many as 300,000 homeless. Following calls for an independent investigation, we mapped the contents of the warehouse where the blast originated and the spread of fire that instigated it, and have released our 3D models of the incident as a free resource for investigators and civil society.
I.61 The Killing of Muhammad al-Arab
Date of Incident
2 Mar 2020
Location
Evros/Meriç river delta
Forums
Legal Process, Media, Parliamentary Inquiry
In Partnership With
Self-Initiated
When Turkey mobilized refugees and migrants to cross into Greece, reports emerged that Greek forces had responded with live fire, causing casualties.
We confirmed that, despite Greece’s denials, automatic rounds were fired from the Greek side of the border and one person, Muhammad al-Arab, was shot dead near a group of armed Greek soldiers.
I.55 The Killing of Muhammad Gulzar
Date of Incident
4 Mar 2020
Location
Kastanies/Pazarkule border crossing, Evros/Meriç region
Forums
Media
In Partnership With
Bellingcat, Lighthouse Reports
After Turkey started encouraging refugees and migrants to cross the Evros/Meriç land border into Greece, reports emerged that Greek forces had responded with live fire, causing multiple casualties. Despite Greece’s official denials, we confirmed that live rounds were indeed fired from the Greek side of the border, that several people were wounded, and one person, Muhammad Gulzar, was killed.
I.52 Shipwreck at the Threshold of Europe, Lesvos, Aegean Sea
Date of Incident
28 Oct 2015
Location
Aegean Sea, Lesvos
Forums
Exhibition, Media
Commissioned By
Self-Initiated
The death of more than 40 people off the coast of Lesvos in October 2015 was the single deadliest incident in Europe's 'long summer of migration'. One of the survivors, Amel Alzakout, recorded the shipwreck on a waterproof wrist camera. Her footage provides a unique, situated perspective of this tragic event at the threshold of Europe.
I.47 The Killing of Harith Augustus
Date of Incident
14 Jul 2018
Location
South Shore, Chicago
Forums
Exhibition
In Partnership With
Invisible Institute
When police shot Harith Augustus to death not far from his South Shore barbershop, the Chicago police called it a legitimate 'split-second' decision. We unpacked that split second at six different time scales, from milliseconds to years. Our investigation uncovered multiple violations by Chicago police, including, not for the first time, withholding critical video evidence from the public.
I.42 The Killing of Zak Kostopoulos
Date of Incident
21 Sep 2018
Location
Athens, Greece
Forums
Legal Process, Exhibition
Commissioned By
The Kostopoulos family
In broad daylight, in a crowded street in central Athens, a young LGBTQ activist is brutally assaulted. Passers-by paused to watch. Police arrived, violently apprehended the young man, and by the time he reached a hospital, he was dead. At the request of his family, we pieced together the available video evidence. What was the motive for the attack? And who is the man in the yellow t-shirt?
I.40 The Killing of Rouzan al-Najjar
Date of Incident
1 Jun 2018
Location
Khuzaa, Gaza
Forums
Media
In Partnership With
The New York Times
Amid the chaos and violence of the Great March of Return, a young Palestinian medic is struck and killed by a sniper's bullet. Together with the New York Times we used photogrammetry, video analysis, and figure modelling to locate the victim among the crowd at the moment she was shot, and traced a line of fire back to a sand berm on the Israeli side of the border fence.
I.39 The Killing of Tahir Elçi
Date of Incident
28 Nov 2015
Location
Diyarbakır, Turkey
Forums
Legal Process, Media
Commissioned By
Diyarbakır Bar Association
In the context of rising tensions in Turkey's Kurdish-majority regions, Tahir Elçi's killing was a seismic event. The manner of his death was controversial, and only partially documented. We analysed the evidence frame-by-frame, and narrowed down the scope of who should be considered a suspect.
I.38 Lethal Warning: The killing of Luai Kahil and Amir al-Nimrah
Date of Incident
14 Jul 2018
Location
Gaza City, Occupied Palestinian Territories
Forums
Media
Commissioned By
B’Tselem
Two children died when an Israeli 'warning strike' hit a building in Gaza City. When the Israeli army shared videos of the attack, the strike that killed the teenagers had been removed. Why did the IDF manipulate their own footage? And what does the incident mean for the 'warning strike' policy?
I.36 The Murder of Pavlos Fyssas
Date of Incident
18 Sep 2013
Location
Athens, Greece
Forums
Legal Process, Media
Commissioned By
Lawyers for the Fyssas family
The murder of an anti-fascist rapper by a member of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn could bring an end to the group's political ambitions. We analysed CCTV and police audio recordings to reconstruct the events of the night. Our evidence, presented to an Athens courtroom, poses difficult questions for the Greek police.
I.34 Chemical Attacks in Douma
Date of Incident
7 Apr 2018
Location
Douma, Syria
Forums
Media
Commissioned By
The New York Times
Allegations of chemical attacks lead inevitably to conflict and discord on social media, and competing claims from reporters and politicians around the world.
Working with the New York Times, we developed innovative new techniques to help cut through the confusion with material facts.
I.33 The Killing of Óscar Pérez
Date of Incident
15 Jan 2018
Location
El Junquito, Venezuela
Forums
Media
In Partnership With
Bellingcat
A former intelligence agent turned rebel live-streamed his final hours on social media during a tense stand-off with security forces in El Junquito, near Caracas.
We used that footage to try to answer: did the agent try to surrender? Were he and his group murdered by the state?
I.32 Sea Watch vs the Libyan Coastguard
With Forensic Oceanography
Date of Incident
6 Nov 2017
Location
Mediterranean Sea
Forums
Legal Process, Exhibition
Commissioned By
Self-Initiated
When the Libyan coastguard interrupted a rescue operation by the NGO Sea Watch, at least twenty migrants lost their lives, and more were ‘pulled back’ to inhumane detention in Libya.
Forensic Oceanography shone a light on the practices of a coastguard funded and trained by the Italian government.
I.31 The Seizure of the Iuventa
With Forensic Oceanography
Date of Incident
2 Aug 2017
Location
Mediterranean Sea
Forums
Legal Process, Exhibition
Commissioned By
Self-Initiated
The Iuventa has rescued over ten thousand people from the Mediterranean since it began operating in 2016.
When the vessel was impounded by Italian authorities under suspicion of collusion with people smugglers, we used video evidence and meteorological data to refute the allegations.
I.20 Airstrikes on M2 Hospital
Date of Incident
1 Jun 2016 - 1 Dec 2016
Location
Aleppo, Syria
Forums
Human Rights Report, Media
Commissioned By
Digital Forensic Research Lab, Atlantic Council
Omar Bin Abdul Aziz Hospital was struck fourteen times by munitions fired by the Syrian army, including cluster and barrel bombs.
Within a digital model, we corroborated multiple sources of CCTV footage to support claims that Syria and its allies were intentionally targeting civilian hospitals.
I.19 Killing in Umm al-Hiran
Date of Incident
18 Jan 2017
Location
Umm al Hiran, Negev/Naqab desert
Forums
Legal Process, Exhibition
Commissioned By
Self-Initiated
A police raid on an ‘illegalised’ Bedouin village in the Naqab/Negev desert led to the deaths of a local man and an Israeli policeman.
Police quickly blamed the man for what they called a ‘terror attack’. In fact, as we exposed, Israeli police had fired unprovoked on an innocent driver, causing him to crash into them.
I.15 The Bombing of Rafah
Date of Incident
8 Jul 2014 - 26 Aug 2014
Location
Rafah, Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territories
Forums
Exhibition, Human Rights Report, Media
Commissioned By
Amnesty International
When an Israeli soldier was captured and taken into the tunnels below Rafah, the full force of Israel’s military was unleashed.
Using smartphone footage and satellite imagery, we mapped the destruction as over two thousand munitions were fired into the city in a single day.
I.12 The Killing of Nadeem Nawara and Mohammed Abu Daher
Date of Incident
15 May 2014
Location
Beitunia, West Bank, Occupied Palestinian Territories
Forums
Exhibition, Media
Commissioned By
DCI Palestine
When Israeli military police killed two Palestinian teenagers, the event was recorded by security cameras, US news teams, and photographers.
Using that footage, our audio and image analysis exposed a tactic by which Israeli personnel disguise live rounds as rubber-coated ‘non-lethal’ munitions.
Synchronisation⤵
Synchronisation is the process of establishing the exact relationship between two or more pieces of audiovisual material—knowing when one piece of footage begins, relative to another.
Synchronising images or videos in space and time can be done using visual clues, such as the shape of bomb clouds or the movement of people. Pieces of video or audio can be synchronised using their sound profiles. Witness testimony can also be ‘synchronised’ to a video or audio recording if there is an important, distinct element, such as an explosion or a gunshot, that is either captured or described in both.
Synchronisation is necessary whenever we are working with multiple pieces of evidence, not all of which have accurate metadata. Once multiple pieces of evidence are reliably synchronised by reference to their contents, the accurate metadata of one piece ‘anchors’ the others in time and space.