Control, Detention and Torture in the So-called Global War on Terror

This thesis is a PhD by Published Work comprising three books and three solo survey museum exhibitions that form a collective body of research contributing new knowledge about unseen or underrepresented aspects of conflict and counterterrorism in the so-called Global War on Terror, including the detention camps at the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, the extraordinary rendition process, the CIA secret prison programme, the use of enhanced interrogation techniques, and the use of control orders as a counterterrorism measure in the UK.

This knowledge contributes to a range of fields including photography, art and visual culture, international relations, security studies, and international law by adding significant new complexity to narratives obscured by state denial and simplified by stereotypical media analysis and representation, and filling absences of justice or accountability with original insights. The thesis illustrates how this is achieved through: long-term immersion in research leading to uncovering previously unseen material; new insights into experiences of control, detention and torture generated by relationships of trust with former detainees; unique access to secure and hard to reach detention sites and representation of significant global locations; the collaboration of world-leading experts in human rights law and counterterrorism research.

In turn, this thesis demonstrates how investigative research combined with visual art practices, are uniquely able to interrogate new forms of conflict and terrorism through an emergent methodology and original strategy of visualisation. It illustrates how, through these approaches, the quotidian experience of the Global War on Terror is represented in my work by the themes of everyday terror, legal terror, bureaucratic terror, and sublime disorientation.