~ASMR: Resist

When I read/heard/watched the White House's tweet titled "ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight" I was appalled, and for good reason. The video clearly made light of, and fetishized, the shackling and deportation of human beings. That this video came from the White House shows the cruelty of the current administration.

Though this was a long time ago in the current news cycle (last week), it has continued to bother me. What kind of people find this funny? "We" may have differing opinions on immigration, but this by far crossed a threshold into a disregard for human life.

As part of my personal processing everything going on, I have been trying to approach things from a pragmatic and sometimes creative perspective. I fail continuously (and I think that is okay, keep pushing back!)

I started thinking of an appropriate response to the video and decided to go through hours of recordings from the 2017 Immigration/Muslim ban protest of the current President's first term. These are from SEATAC Airport, Seattle, WA.

The sound of these protests was explosive, collective voices screaming loud, and in my opinion, atypically beautiful.

I extracted some "atmospheric" bits from the recordings. While the result is not quite "ASMR" in aesthetic, the recordings taken from down halls, between spaces, in an elevator... offer a different perspective and (IMO) capture the spirit of how intensely people were fighting back.

I share this in the spirit of us, the people, continuing to stand up, speak out, fight back -- in whatever way we can. I am not certain at this time this style of protest is the answer (?), but I think it does show strength and (literally) the power of collective voice.

This bit of audio is a simple collage/hodgepodge of different moments during the protest. There are no effects added.

Gear: DPA 4060 microphones, used as binaural mics, to a Sound Devices MixPre 3.

Additional recordings, perhaps capturing the protest better:
freesound.org/people/listentostatic/