This map shows the spatial relationship between noise complaints categorized as ‘loud music and/or parties’ made in 2019, dominant racial group by US Census tract, and population density. Produced by Jessica Thompson and Anugra Shah as part of Borderline, a research-creation project that uses the mapping and analysis of urban sound to generate critical dialogues around inequality.
This map covers the traditional territories of the Wappinger, Munsee Lenape, Canarsie, Lekawe and Matinecock peoples, and was produced at the University of Waterloo which is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land promised to the Six Nations that includes ten kilometres on each side of the Grand River. As a team of researchers led by a Black Canadian, we acknowledge our participation in colonization and recognize our responsibility to engage in reconciliation as outlined by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s 94 Calls to Action. To learn more, visit native-land.ca. As we engage in critical map making, we acknowledge the colonized and racialized history of mapping including how maps have been used to dominate Indigenous people and places while reproducing the power of the Europeans and the differences between them and the various peoples they subordinated. We also acknowledge that this statement is only a small step in the process of decolonization, and we understand that reconciliation requires systemic change.
Presented as part of “Noise Complaints as Sonic Warfare: An intersectional approach to listening through data”, information+conference, September 28, 2021