Visible Justice

Abstract This article traces the history of the research hub Visible Justice, fore-grounding the necessity for transdisciplinary thinking and the need to seek alternative modes of address for transformative discourse in cultural spaces. Founded at University of the Arts London in 2018, and emerging from a global moment of political unrest and mass mobilization, the initiative is dedicated to exploring the intersections of visual culture, ethics, aesthetics, and social justice beyond the confines of traditional legal frameworks. Visible Justice fosters collaboration between artists, activists, scholars, and legal practitioners, channeling political voice through visual, sonic, and performative interventions. It seeks to reckon with the specters of slavery, empire, colonial rule, and totalitarian control—forces that have never been laid to rest and that continue to render lives unlivable and environments unbreathable today. Recent projects have examined the algorithmic mediation of justice, the rise of neocolonial “frontierism” in space exploration, and the entanglements of climate colonialism with indigenous and diasporic dispossession. Through a series of symposia, exhibitions, and performances, Visible Justice envisions transformative, collective futures grounded in environmental, racial, and social justice. Can working across traditional disciplinary lines with artists, activists, academics, lawyers, and arts institutions create collective routes to political freedom?