Roland Meyer (University of Zurich / Zurich University of the Arts) 
Wild Forensis. Suspicion as a Visual Practice

In cooperation with „Théâtres de la Mémoire“, Groupe de recherches en études cinématographiques - Universités Paris 1 (HICSA) Paris 3 (IRCAV) Paris 8 (ESTCA) Bordeaux (ARTES)

Images, it seems almost a truism by now, can no longer be trusted: with generative AI, we are told, comes the end of truth. Yet the evidential value of technical images has never been uncontroversial, and images have been manipulated, decontextualized and dis-interpreted since the beginnings of photography. What has changed is that the suspicion of manipulation has become the default mode of image perception, spawning new forms of both playful and problematic pseudo-forensic investigation. On social media, almost any widely circulating image will sooner or later become the object of intense scrutiny. Practices of «wild forensis» — collective, networked image interpretation and analysis — borrow the visual rhetoric and iconography of open source intelligence and professional image forensics, without ever reaching a verdict. Visual truth is not abandoned; it is put into permanent competition, and the investigation continues as long as it generates clicks, engagement and reactions. Taking recent cases such as the killing of Renee Good as its starting point, the lecture develops a theory of «wild forensis» as an online visual practice.

Roland Meyer has been DIZH Bridge Professor for Digital Cultures and Arts at the University of Zurich and the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) since July 2024. Previously, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Collaborative Research Centre «Virtual Lifeworlds» at the Ruhr University Bochum, where he worked on virtual image archives. Roland Meyer’s work as a media and visual culture researcher focuses on networked image cultures. He is particularly interested in the new aesthetic and operational functions of digital images under the conditions of global digital platforms, ubiquitous computing, mobile media and big visual data. He has published on the history and present of facial recognition, practices of image forensics, navigation in augmented spaces, and generative AI and synthetic image worlds.