Julia Weist never expected to become a private investigator. Compared to the cops, fire marshals, and insurance fraud analysts who are normally granted this powerful license, her primary qualification was a 2019 public art contract with the City of New York that embedded her in the Department of Records and Information Services. It was hard to imagine that the bureaucrat reviewing her application would see this period of artistic research as “investigative experience” or the resulting photographic prints—layering city records about the arts with the retrieval slips used to obtain them—as “evidence.” More likely Weist would follow the path of other denied applicants: she would appeal the decision and proceed to adjudication, when a judge would determine how her practice failed to qualify her for the job. Weist spent several months preparing for this outcome. Her artwork would literally be put on trial, and the record of the proceeding could serve as raw material for a future project. The New York Department of State had other plans for the artist—it approved her application. Text by Tyler Coburn