Skip to main content
Forensic Architecture: using 3D modelling for the people
A group constructing an accurate model of violent events using 3D imaging based on multiple kinds of input can help us discover the truth of situations the powerful want to keep hidden, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and JOEL HELLEWELL
Forensic Architecture has used its groundbreaking methods to map incidents ranging from illegal forest burning by palm oil conglomerate Korindo to the origin of the Beirut Port explosion.

ALL models are wrong, but some are useful. This aphorism is generally attributed to a statistician in the 1970s, but its message is much older, and its truth is much more widely applicable than just to statistical models.

All representations of the world are “models,” that is, depictions of reality, or some aspect of it. They are “wrong” because they purposefully simplify reality — to make it comprehensible, or to extract a perspective through one particular lens.

When violence is inflicted on people by the powerful, they work very hard to control the story of what has happened. They offer an account of the world, a model, to describe what has happened on their terms.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
POISON: Centivax workers study antivenom to counteract the bites of various snakes at the company lab in San Francisco
Science and Society / 7 May 2025
7 May 2025

A maverick’s self-inflicted snake bites could unlock breakthrough treatments – but they also reveal deeper tensions between noble scientific curiosity and cold corporate callousness, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT

SCIENCE AND SOCIETY / 22 April 2025
22 April 2025

Science has always been mixed up with money and power, but as a decorative facade for megayachts, it risks leaving reality behind altogether, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT

(Left) Human embryonic stem cells; (right) A patient after i
Features / 26 March 2025
26 March 2025
A small Japanese trial has reported some positive results for stem cell therapy to treat spinal-cord injuries
MORE THAN A WATERWAY: The Agua Clara (Clear Water) locks on
Science and Society / 12 March 2025
12 March 2025
Man-made canals like Panama and Suez face unprecedented challenges from extreme weather patterns and geopolitical tensions that reveal the fragility of our global trade networks, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
Similar stories
A rainbow lights up the Edinburgh skyline during the Scottis
Science and Society / 4 December 2024
4 December 2024
Rox Middleton, Liam Shaw and Miriam Gauntlett look at the history of lasers, from cat toys to modelling the explosion of stars
SOCIETY UNDER SIEGE: Children who suffered mental health iss
Features / 24 October 2024
24 October 2024
The people of one of the world’s wealthiest countries in terms of natural resources have been condemned to violence and poverty by US-backed foreign interventions to secure mineral wealth for corporations, says PAVAN KULKARNI
Peter Kennard, (L) The Gamble, 1986; (R) Protest and Survive
Exhibition Review / 23 August 2024
23 August 2024
JAN WOOLF applauds art that has not only documented the anti-war and anti-capitalist movement but been an integral part of it 
World map of submarine communication cables as of July 2015
Science and Society / 14 August 2024
14 August 2024
The infrastructure of the internet relies on submarine optical fibre cables which can be exploited to investigate the oceans and what lies beneath them, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT