Charles
Heller is a researcher and filmmaker whose work has a long-standing focus on the politics of migration. In 2015,
he completed a Ph.D. in Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London, he is currently conducting a Visiting Lecturer
at the Graduate Institute, Geneva. Together with Lorenzo Pezzani, in 2011 Heller co-founded Forensic Oceanography, a collaborative
project based at Goldsmiths that has developed innovative methodologies to document the conditions that lead to migrants’
deaths at sea. Heller and Pezzani have also launched the WatchTheMed platform, a tool enabling nongovernmental actors to exercise
a critical right to look at the EU’s maritime frontier. They have authored a number of human rights reports, including "Report
on the Left-to-Die Boat" (2012); “Death by Rescue” (2016) ; “Blaming the Rescuers” (2017) and "Mare Clausum", which have contributed
to strategic litigation and have had a major impact both within the fields of migration and border studies, nongovernmental
politics and the public sphere. Based on their research, they have lectured internationally and generated a number of theoretically
innovative articles on the transformations of the Euro-Mediterranean border regime, the politics of aesthetic practice and
nongovernmental politics at sea, which have been published in several edited volumes and in a number of international journals
such as
Cultural Studies, Postcolonial Studies, the
Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales, ACME, Spheres,
Global Media and Communication, Philosophy of Photography, New Geographies and the
Harvard Design Magazine.
Their videos "Liquid Traces" (2014), “Death by Rescue” (2016), "The Crime of Rescue" and “Mare Clausum” (2018) have been exhibited
internationally, including at the HKW, the Venice Biennale, the MACBA, the MOMA, the ICA and Manifesta 12.
forensic-archtecture.orgEine Veranstaltung der Abteilung
DIGITALE KUNST/Ruth SchnellDonnerstag, 12. 12. 201914:00 – 15:30 UhrUniversität für angewandte Kunst
Ferstl-Trakt, Dachgeschoß
Oskar Kokoschka-Platz 2, A-1010 Wien