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Papers by Dr Daniel Grinceri
The Routledge Handbook of Architecture, Urban Space and Politics, Volume I Violence, Spectacle and Data, 2022
This chapter employs the notion of 'witness' to the survivor accounts of Manus Prison, located at... more This chapter employs the notion of 'witness' to the survivor accounts of Manus Prison, located at the Lombrum Navy Base, Los Negros Island, Manus Province, Papua New Guinea (PNG). 1 There, thousands of asylum seekers were detained between 2001 and 2009, and again between 2013 and 2017, due to Australia's inhumane immigration detention policies. 2 Here, the focus is on the latter period to acknowledge the bravery of those who have spoken out about Manus Prison.The witness accounts have been extracted from the published works of survivors through various media such as text, flm, podcast, art and sound recordings and, combined with senate inquiries, investigative reports and academic research in order to reconstruct the Manus Prison site. In addition, the material components of the site, such as the buildings, geography and security presence, are examined against the prison's systems of regulation and sensorial experience as a means of understanding, not only what took place in Manus Prison but how it was allowed to happen.The idea that a building, as a material object, might act as a witness was pioneered by forensic architect Eyal Weizman. He points out that forensic analysis has superseded the need for living witnesses, as it is possible to reconstruct events through a forensic analysis of the architecture itself. 3 As for Manus Prison, it has since been demolished.With so few outsiders permitted on site during its operation, and as those who worked there were required by law to remain silent, there are limited accounts to go by. 4 To this end, criminologist Claire Loughnan asks: "how do we uncover the traces of what happened when the place [Manus Prison] wasn't only hidden to begin with, but has now disappeared?" 5 This chapter endeavors to mediate between the said and the unsaid, or the witness testimony and the architectural analysis, to uncover the 'remnants' of Manus Prison so that we might be able to understand what happened and what it means for us in the present. Both the witness accounts and the architectural reconstruction of the prison will reveal the extent of border violence in Australia, resulting in hundreds of injuries and 12 deaths without signifcant opposition from a majority of Australian citizens. 6 Witness accounts, like that of Behrouz Boochani in No Friends but the Mountains (2018), a Kurdish refugee who spent six years imprisoned on Manus Island, are signifcant contributions that expose the needless violence of ofshore detention and its deleterious efects on the body of the refugee. His account describes the conditions in Manus Prison and how they contributed to mistreatment by the guards, protests and riots, and the murder and suicide of detainees.Through
Interstices: Journal of Architecture and Related Arts, 2020
This paper examines the proliferation of border walls in the context of identity formation. Walls... more This paper examines the proliferation of border walls in the context of identity formation. Walls are largely ineffective preventative measures at keeping immigrants out, nevertheless, their presence provides a symbolic effect in favour of preserving ideas about how we perceive ourselves. This paper argues that border walls are the apogee of liberal markets, which despite the evocation of global mobility and economic prosperity, the state has ceded control to multinational corporations and thus turned its focus to sustaining economic conditions in which capital might thrive. Amid growing global insecurity, in particular after September 11, 81 border walls or security fences have been erected worldwide. The refugee crisis in Europe has further justified the erection of an ever-increasing number of electrified barbed wire fences equipped with high-tech surveillance systems, drones and weaponry, presenting an image of division many hoped had disappeared at the end of the Cold War. Today, walls reinforce borderlines all over the globe demarcating boundaries that were once cartographic in nature as closed, solid barriers.
This paper explores the consequences of privatised offshore detention centres on Nauru and Manis ... more This paper explores the consequences of privatised offshore detention centres on Nauru and Manis Island and reinforces the obligations of the Australian government for the safety of all asylum seekers. Furthermore, it queries the values of corporations who stand to profit from such enterprise, and ultimately, the Australian people who, in the majority, continue to support such policies. People swapping, outsourcing and privatisation come with an enormous economic cost, but ultimately serve to alleviate the Australian government of the consequences of preventing ‘illegal’ immigrants from arriving in Australia by boat. Contemporary border protection practices have sort to merge the economy with the sovereign, with the key factor in this alliance being the reduction of risk to the state and the increased profitability of private contractors. The commodification of immigration detention depoliticises and normalises its practice to the point that contracted parties may distance themselves from accusations of abuse, violence and misconduct by claiming to act within the confines of their contract. Mandatory detention, whether privatised and located in offshore detention centres, should not relieve Australian citizens, corporations and politicians alike, of general decency and the humane treatment of vulnerable people.
Books by Dr Daniel Grinceri
Routledge, 2016
This book is concerned with cultural and political discourses that affect the production of archi... more This book is concerned with cultural and political discourses that affect the production of architecture. It examines how these discursive mechanisms and technologies combine to normalise and aestheticise everyday practices. It queries the means by which buildings are appropriated to give shape and form to political aspirations and values. Architecture is not overtly political. It does not coerce people to behave in certain ways. However, architecture is constructed within the same rules and practices whereby people and communities self-govern and regulate themselves to think and act in certain ways. This book seeks to examine these rules through various case studies, including the reconstructed Notre Dame Cathedral, the Nazi era Munich Königsplatz, the Auschwitz concentration camp and the Prora resort, Sydney's suburban race riots, and the Australian Immigration Detention Centre on Christmas Island.
The Routledge Handbook of Architecture, Urban Space and Politics, Volume I Violence, Spectacle and Data, 2022
This chapter employs the notion of 'witness' to the survivor accounts of Manus Prison, located at... more This chapter employs the notion of 'witness' to the survivor accounts of Manus Prison, located at the Lombrum Navy Base, Los Negros Island, Manus Province, Papua New Guinea (PNG). 1 There, thousands of asylum seekers were detained between 2001 and 2009, and again between 2013 and 2017, due to Australia's inhumane immigration detention policies. 2 Here, the focus is on the latter period to acknowledge the bravery of those who have spoken out about Manus Prison.The witness accounts have been extracted from the published works of survivors through various media such as text, flm, podcast, art and sound recordings and, combined with senate inquiries, investigative reports and academic research in order to reconstruct the Manus Prison site. In addition, the material components of the site, such as the buildings, geography and security presence, are examined against the prison's systems of regulation and sensorial experience as a means of understanding, not only what took place in Manus Prison but how it was allowed to happen.The idea that a building, as a material object, might act as a witness was pioneered by forensic architect Eyal Weizman. He points out that forensic analysis has superseded the need for living witnesses, as it is possible to reconstruct events through a forensic analysis of the architecture itself. 3 As for Manus Prison, it has since been demolished.With so few outsiders permitted on site during its operation, and as those who worked there were required by law to remain silent, there are limited accounts to go by. 4 To this end, criminologist Claire Loughnan asks: "how do we uncover the traces of what happened when the place [Manus Prison] wasn't only hidden to begin with, but has now disappeared?" 5 This chapter endeavors to mediate between the said and the unsaid, or the witness testimony and the architectural analysis, to uncover the 'remnants' of Manus Prison so that we might be able to understand what happened and what it means for us in the present. Both the witness accounts and the architectural reconstruction of the prison will reveal the extent of border violence in Australia, resulting in hundreds of injuries and 12 deaths without signifcant opposition from a majority of Australian citizens. 6 Witness accounts, like that of Behrouz Boochani in No Friends but the Mountains (2018), a Kurdish refugee who spent six years imprisoned on Manus Island, are signifcant contributions that expose the needless violence of ofshore detention and its deleterious efects on the body of the refugee. His account describes the conditions in Manus Prison and how they contributed to mistreatment by the guards, protests and riots, and the murder and suicide of detainees.Through
Interstices: Journal of Architecture and Related Arts, 2020
This paper examines the proliferation of border walls in the context of identity formation. Walls... more This paper examines the proliferation of border walls in the context of identity formation. Walls are largely ineffective preventative measures at keeping immigrants out, nevertheless, their presence provides a symbolic effect in favour of preserving ideas about how we perceive ourselves. This paper argues that border walls are the apogee of liberal markets, which despite the evocation of global mobility and economic prosperity, the state has ceded control to multinational corporations and thus turned its focus to sustaining economic conditions in which capital might thrive. Amid growing global insecurity, in particular after September 11, 81 border walls or security fences have been erected worldwide. The refugee crisis in Europe has further justified the erection of an ever-increasing number of electrified barbed wire fences equipped with high-tech surveillance systems, drones and weaponry, presenting an image of division many hoped had disappeared at the end of the Cold War. Today, walls reinforce borderlines all over the globe demarcating boundaries that were once cartographic in nature as closed, solid barriers.
This paper explores the consequences of privatised offshore detention centres on Nauru and Manis ... more This paper explores the consequences of privatised offshore detention centres on Nauru and Manis Island and reinforces the obligations of the Australian government for the safety of all asylum seekers. Furthermore, it queries the values of corporations who stand to profit from such enterprise, and ultimately, the Australian people who, in the majority, continue to support such policies. People swapping, outsourcing and privatisation come with an enormous economic cost, but ultimately serve to alleviate the Australian government of the consequences of preventing ‘illegal’ immigrants from arriving in Australia by boat. Contemporary border protection practices have sort to merge the economy with the sovereign, with the key factor in this alliance being the reduction of risk to the state and the increased profitability of private contractors. The commodification of immigration detention depoliticises and normalises its practice to the point that contracted parties may distance themselves from accusations of abuse, violence and misconduct by claiming to act within the confines of their contract. Mandatory detention, whether privatised and located in offshore detention centres, should not relieve Australian citizens, corporations and politicians alike, of general decency and the humane treatment of vulnerable people.
Routledge, 2016
This book is concerned with cultural and political discourses that affect the production of archi... more This book is concerned with cultural and political discourses that affect the production of architecture. It examines how these discursive mechanisms and technologies combine to normalise and aestheticise everyday practices. It queries the means by which buildings are appropriated to give shape and form to political aspirations and values. Architecture is not overtly political. It does not coerce people to behave in certain ways. However, architecture is constructed within the same rules and practices whereby people and communities self-govern and regulate themselves to think and act in certain ways. This book seeks to examine these rules through various case studies, including the reconstructed Notre Dame Cathedral, the Nazi era Munich Königsplatz, the Auschwitz concentration camp and the Prora resort, Sydney's suburban race riots, and the Australian Immigration Detention Centre on Christmas Island.