‘Reckoning with Torture’
Category : Interface Research
On October 13, 2009, at the Great Hall at Cooper Union, was hosted a conference entitled: ‘Reckoning with Torture: Memos and Testimonies from the “War on Terror.” ’ Guest speakers included Matthew Alexander, Jonathan Ames, K. Anthony Appiah, Paul Auster, Ishmael Beah, David Cole, Don DeLillo, Eve Ensler, Nell Freudenberger, Jenny Holzer, A.M. Homes, Jameel Jaffer, Susanna Moore, Jack Rice, George Saunders, Amrit Singh, and Art Spiegelman. The conference aimed at bringing to light hidden information of torturing methods used to obtain information from suspected terrorists in the aftermath of September 11.
The conference was presented as a series of readings from censored documents, such as CIA memos, interrogation accounts, presidential speeches, FBI e-mails, autopsy reports, and tribunal transcripts. Additional evidence were shown as video captures of detainees’ testimonials, clearly reflecting the dehumanizing conditions of the methods and their repercussions. The goal of this conference was, I think, first to create accountability of tortures, abuses, and killings made in the name of America, and second to comment on selective information and create more awareness and evidential proof. In an ongoing backdrop slide-show, Jenny Holzer exposed her latest work showing biometry documents.