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Architect and investigative journalist Alison Killing presents the results and methodology of the research on mapping detention camps for the Uyghurs other Muslim minorities in China, for which her team was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2021.
The project uncovered details of the mass detention of these groups in so-called “re-education” camps, which the Chinese government officially denies or downplays. Alison Killing, along with journalist Megha Rajagopalan and developer Christo Buschek, embarked on an innovative and complex project to find these places. Using her architectural expertise, she began to analyze the Xinjiang area along with investigative journalism techniques and, most importantly, satellite imagery and geographic information systems (GIS).
Killing and her team searched for the camps by comparing satellite maps and finding “blind spots” that hid strategic targets, including prisons and camps. These were then compared with interviews with former prisoners who had managed to escape from the camps. Using these technologies, they were able to map hundreds of sites across the region, not only providing factual evidence of the organisation of the camps, but also highlighting the significant role that technology can play in human rights – both on the side of repression and on the side of uncovering the truth.
The lecture took place on 31 October 2024 as part of the exhibition project Space as Evidence, focusing on projects that use architectural and spatial analytical tools to investigate and document violence, human rights violations or environmental crimes.
