Dancing with the Ghost: An Exercise in Counter-Forensics

On Poem for E.L. (or Processing the Violence of Imposed Narratives) by the artist Maya Gurantz.

Identifying the forensic turn in contemporary popular culture, media theorist Lindsay Steenberg argues that it appears at the intersection between science, the justice system, and the media. In her book, Steenberg asks: "Mediated or tabloid forensic science is an area where academics, journalists and the public are interested in asking the same questions—what effect do programs like CSI have on American culture?" (Steenberg 2013: 102) The obsession with unresolved crime cases, murders, or missing persons has resulted in a rising number of television programs and media content in which the forensic narrative seems