CSI: Colonial Crimes Unit*
Osnabrück 1490s-2026

The city has been designated a crime scene based on anonymous informants. Preliminary investigations confirm evidence of ongoing criminal activity that predates the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The emergent sovereign nation state model proved instrumental in colonial expansion, providing a logic for international gangs to operate. The Colonial Crimes Unit, utilizing highly specialized skill sets, speculative research methodologies and advanced forensic technologies exposed a pattern of systematic abuse and exploitation. Witnesses and victims – dead and alive, human and non-human – have been activated to testify that the city was built upon this predatory logic commodifying local and global ecosystems. Osnabrück is recognized as a City of Peace of “Friedenstadt”, but it is implicated in colonial crimes. The famed production and export of Osnaburg fabric and the import of coffee and tobacco enforced the labor of enslaved Africans. Biopolitical governance is also gendered. If witch drowning tests were not simply religious hysteria, was the Hase complicit? Can the river challenge a history of hydropolitical regulation? Did this criminal activity go unnoticed and how does it continue? Indications show it continues in the present. The CCU investigatory data and evidence is on display at Krahnstr. 57. The public is invited to engage in the investigations via crime scene routes and guided tours within Osnabrück.

(http://colonialcrimes.org)[http://colonialcrimes.org]

The CSI: Colonial Crimes Unit applies specialized skill sets, speculative research methodologies and advanced forensic technologies to investigations in Osnabrück. CCU paranormal communications with victims and witnesses are deployed to gather data exposing ongoing historical injustices (1600s-2026). The evidence and analysis is on display at Krahnstr. 57. The public is invited to engage in the investigations via crime scene routes and guided tours within the old city.

The CSI: Colonial Crimes Unit operates within the Decoding the Colonial Algorithm research group (HfG Karlsruhe). The CCU investigation into Osnabrück 2026 has been conducted by:

• India Marie Adams: Navigation Imagineer
• Ege Bayraktar: Forensic Flâneur
• Leander Blaschke: Phantasmatic Agitator
• Rosa Maas: Critical Cartographer
• Anna Manankina: Hauntologist & Paranormal Visualization
• Seungeun Lee: Hauntological Imagineer
• Luna Labenz: Psychic Research & Historical Analysis
• Diana McCarty: Paranormal Communication
• Feng Qianqian: Forensic Interface & Human Intelligence Node
• You Qi: Hauntologist & Witness Manifestation
• Helin Ulas: Collective Dream Interpretation
• Rroomba H-1648: Hydrological Informant
• a.o.

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Die auf dem EMAF gezeigten kollektiven und individuellen Arbeiten sind das Ergebnis eines laufenden Seminars mit dem Titel „Decoding the Colonial Algorithm – Investigations“ an der Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe im Bereich Medienkunst.

Das Festival findet vom 22. bis 26. April 2026 statt Mehr zum Festival: (https://www.emaf.de/)[https://www.emaf.de/]