Illustrating the Hidden Architecture of Immigration Detention

The lack of transparency surrounding immigration detention centres has fostered conditions that silence and conceal human rights violations. This interdisciplinary project, focusing on Greece, aims to address this knowledge gap through an ambitious audio-visual and 3D modelling initiative that explores the hidden architecture of immigration detention. This project builds upon a soon to be published collaborative database, Detention Landscapes, developed by the PI in collaboration with civil society actors in Greece. The database incorporates testimonies, reports, and images from individuals with lived experience of detention. With the ISRF funding, we envision a new collaboration with 3D artists, civil society organizations (CSOs), legal practitioners, and independent researchers to expand the database and develop 3D models that provide a unique visual and legal perspective to detention centres. By making training on 3D models openly accessible to interested volunteers, we seek to strengthen people’s technical capabilities but also make hidden information about immigration detention available to the wider public. This will contribute to shedding light on detention systems and foster both academic and public discussions. The methodology embraces montaging, an interdisciplinary approach merging traditional research methods with advanced visualisation technologies to reveal the intricacies of immigration detention. By utilising 3D modelling techniques, the project aims to translate diverse data sources into tangible models, providing a holistic understanding of detention spaces and serving as a powerful advocacy tool. These visual representations serve as a novel form of documentation, knowledge production, and dissemination, offering an embodied understanding of the lived spaces within detention centres. The initiative contributes to evidence-based advocacy, accountability campaigns, and academic and public debate. The collaborative effort between Border Criminologies at the University of Oxford, the Border Violence Monitoring Network and other actors in the field of detention in Greece facilitates knowledge sharing across academia and grassroots organisations.