For over ten years, people seeking asylum in Australia by boat have been stopped by the Australian Navy & sent to offshore detention centres in Nauru, Manus Island & Papua New Guinea. They wait indefinitely to be processed, held in privately-owned prisons. Cameras & journalists are banned. Guards are all-powerful. Neither the public nor politicians know what occurs inside, leading to atrocities that have been hidden from view.

Australia’s leading social justice law firm, Maurice Blackburn, had been running a class action lawsuit on behalf of survivors against the government, arguing that indefinite offshore detention should be unlawful. Unfortunately, in 2021, due to a change in the law, the case was dismissed. However, Maurice Blackburn still believed survivors’ stories deserved to be heard. Their brief was to create widespread awareness of the atrocities survivors experienced to try to use these stories to provoke policy change discussions.

The most powerful evidence is visual. Yet for 10+ years, the Australian government has inhumanely detained refugees in offshore detention centres, banning cameras & journalists. There is no visual evidence. Only by making injustice visible, can we provoke change. Introducing Exhibit A-i.

Social justice law firm, Maurice Blackburn, conducted 300 hours of interviews with refugees, documenting the atrocities they faced in offshore detention. Together with AI technicians, survivors then generated the first visual evidence of their experiences. Details were made as accurate as possible, from the colour of tents to subjects’ facial expressions. While photojournalists were consulted to guide composition & image quality.

The evidence was compiled into a book, submitted to members of Australian Parliament & used in 1:1 conversations with policy-makers. It was sent to journalists, garnering worldwide attention, before being shared with the public in OOH, exhibitions & online, as well as integrated into stock libraries alongside

Visual storytelling is the most powerful recount of history. A single image has the power to expose injustice. Exhibit A-i created 130 of these images from 32 witness statements and compiled them in a hardcover book , providing unique and deeply moving assets to share with the media and Australian public.

The PR strategy’s priority was ensuring survivors’ stories were told & seen — with AI being the tool to do so & a ‘hook’ for media.

Target audiences were broad. Offshore detention is not only an Australian issue, but a worldwide one, given similar draconian immigration policies are being replicated internationally. Media targets were researched based on their broad reach, ability to reach mass audiences and likelihood of not sensationalising this important issue.

A critical part of the strategy was ensuring a presence in key media outlets read by politicians and policy-makers; those with the ability to ultimately affect.

Exhibit A-i doesn’t use AI for tech’s sake, but to generate visual evidence of injustices that occurred in Australia's offshore detention facilities — places where cameras are banned. Hundreds of hours of interviews were conducted with survivors, who then worked with AI technicians to create visualisations of their experiences. Workshops were held with survivors to ensure details were as accurate as possible, from the colour of the tents to the subjects’ facial expressions. To make sure our visuals were as evocative as possible, we consulted photojournalists to ensure the images had the same composition & quality as real photography. The images now sit alongside real photojournalism in editorial stock libraries, and on the desks of Australian politicians in a book. The evidence was also shared in exhibitions, OOH and social.

The campaign softly launched on 26.03.23, with a hero launch on 04.04.23 and will continue throughout the year.

Exhibit A-i restored humanity to the thousands whose trauma had been hidden from view, and did justice to these individuals’ requests for their stories to be shared and understood. It also exposed the hidden horrors of Australia’s offshore detention to the public, politicians and press — receiving $2.5M+ in earned media in one week and reaching over 340 million people with over 300 pieces of coverage.

Our collated images and statements have become a body of evidence that’s used as a tool in policy-change conversations with members of Australian Parliament and in 1:1 meetings with key decision-makers within the coalition government.

Exhibit A-i was presented to Australia’s Minister for Immigration, who is now evaluating the evidence