Earshot Symposium: Sonic Investigations

Since the genocide began in Gaza in 2023, visual and spatial analysis for open-source investigation has entered a new and urgent phase, catalysing transformations in the field of human rights research. As visual documentation becomes simultaneously ubiquitous and unreliable – easier to fabricate, harder to verify in an effective timeframe, and life-threatening to produce – entire categories of violence and domains of injustice risk being foreclosed from investigation. At such an impasse, new methodologies – especially sonic investigation – have emerged as essential tools for documenting attacks and atrocities.

This lecture series introduces sonic investigation as a response to the limits of visual evidence. Through case studies, we explore how sound expands the domain of investigability itself: from acoustic analysis that identifies the path of a gunshot and documents strikes, to the preservation of threatened soundscapes and the uncovering of environmental violence, to earwitness testimony that centres embodied experience. The series addresses both the potentials and limitations of this burgeoning field of research. It asks how sonic investigation operates as an act of resistance under genocide, systematic violence, and systemic oppression, and how it challenges the primacy of vision in determining what counts as evidence, testimony, and truth. At a moment when the field of human rights research and international law are being intentionally undermined, what is the role of new fields of investigation?

Moderation & Closing remarks
Mohamad Safa

Opening remarks
Caline Matar

Speakers
Panel A
Susan Schuppli
Gascia Ouzounian
Caline Matar
Panel B
(Moderated by Caline Matar)
Jeronimo Reyes-Retana
Mohamad Safa
Tobechukwu Onwukeme

Screening
Soaked in Blood (MEE’s latest investigation into GHF aid points in Gaza)
Followed by a Q&A with Hossam Serhan and Mohamad Shalaby