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Broken Numbers, Broken Waves
Data Sonification: Speech Disrupted by Immigration Data
Oct. 2023
Also on SoundCloud
Broken Numbers, Broken Waves was created using a speech on immigration by New York City Mayor Eric Adams, distorted and disrupted by data on “Refugee Arrivals” and “Non-citizen Apprehension” from 1980 to 2021. The data was sourced from the "Yearbook of Immigration Statistics" web pages published by the Department of Homeland Security. The speech becomes increasingly fragmented as the number of refugee arrivals grows and louder as the number of non-citizen apprehension rises. This piece reflects on the relentless power struggle between the collective forces and centralized systems, offering a sonic perspective on how voices can be amplified to those who are voiceless.
