The Shapes and Sounds of Visa Inequality

We designed a captivating audio-reactive visual experience to accompany the intricate data sonification. Be sure to play the video and turn the volume up high to truly immerse yourself and let the data sing.

Context

NECESSITY.INK and LAGO Collective presents an innovative collaboration that brings visa inequality to life through sounds and shapes. Teaming up with data artist Tiziana Alocci, the figures on rejection rates for Schengen visa applications in 2023 are transformed into an audio-visual experience.

Solution

The analysis, which categorises countries by income level—high, middle, and low—reveals that rejection rates of short-term visitor visas to Europe are disproportionately high for low and middle-income countries. African countries are amongst those impacted the most, with rejection rates as high as 40-50 per cent for countries like Ghana, Senegal and Nigeria.

Each data point (country’s rejection rate) is assigned a note on the harp, with a change in the bass representing a shift in the country’s income level. The harp was chosen deliberately, for its delicate balance between beauty and fragility— a single note can be a lullaby or a lament, just as a single visa application can be a gateway or a gatekeeper. 

Impact

“Our goal was to find a new way to tell this story,” says Marta Foresti, Founder of LAGO Collective. “The sound of the harp, combined with the visual animation, becomes a powerful metaphor for the tension between opportunity and rejection.”