BOOK REVIEW. INVESTIGATIVE AESTHETICS: CONFLICTS AND COMMONS IN THE POLITICS OF TRUTH

Abstract

This review examines Investigative Aesthetics: Conflicts and Commons in the Politics of Truth (2021) by Matthew Fuller and Eyal Weizman, situating the book within the contemporary context of a crisis of public evidence, the proliferation of technical images, and political disputes over the production of truth. Drawing on contributions by Achille Mbembe and Ariella Aïsha Azoulay, the text approaches evidence not as neutral data but as the effect of material, institutional, and historical operations of validation. The review analyzes how Fuller and Weizman articulate artistic practices, forensic investigation, and technical infrastructures of sensing in order to propose an investigative methodology capable of producing evidence that can circulate publicly across arenas such as courts, museums, and the media. By engaging concepts such as procedural aesthetics, string figures, and agonistic commons, the text highlights both the political strength of the project—namely,its capacity to transform technical procedures into legible aesthetic operations—and its limits, particularly with regard to the structural asymmetries that condition the recognition of evidence. Ultimately, it argues that Investigative Aesthetics does not offer a normative solution to so-called post-truth, but rather constitutes a critical tool for understanding and contesting contemporary regimes of evidence, archives, and the commons.