Syrian Bodies, Sonic Ruptures

Abstract

My audiography of the Syrian migrant crisis aims to disrupt expulsionary discourses in the West, particularly those that project Syrian bodies as undesirable. As Europe and the United States continue to contest the arrival of ‘others’ in spaces themselves contingent on the presence of out-of-place bodies, my audiographic work seeks to reorient our sensory relationship to the undesirable bodies that traverse and inhabit these spaces. The work is composed of three continuous movements: Revolution (Syria), Migration (transport hubs and routes), and Resettlement (Chicago). Together, these movements juxtapose field recordings of protests worldwide and public spaces crossed by migrants with sound media accessed by Syrian migrants via mobile phones. At once audio documentary and sound composition, my work makes audible the spatialized and embodied sensibilities of Syrian displacement in a work that critiques the resurgence of anti-immigrant sentiment and politics in the West.