George Floyd's Death Sparks Global Movement: The defining event of the month was the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, igniting nationwide protests against racial injustice and police brutality that quickly spread across the world.
COVID-19 Pandemic Accelerates in New Hotspots: While protests grew, the pandemic continued. Brazil emerged as a new global hotspot, becoming second only to the US in case numbers. US unemployment soared to 14.7%, the highest level since the Great Depression.
Devastating Attacks in Afghanistan: Gunmen attacked a maternity ward in Kabul, killing 24 people including two newborns. A suicide bomber killed 32 at a funeral on the same day.
Hong Kong Protests Resume: Pro-democracy protests returned to Hong Kong as China announced plans for a controversial new national security law.
May 2020 was the month the signal fractured. The monolithic, all-consuming narrative of the pandemic was shattered by a raw, powerful, and righteous cry for justice. The glitch is this very rupture—a crack in the screen of our collective reality, revealing that one crisis does not wait for another to end.
This artifact visualizes that fracture. In the background, the grim, fading signal of the pandemic monitor from April still flickers, a reminder of the ongoing crisis. But the screen itself is broken. A new signal—the words and energy of the global protest movement—burns through the cracks.
The ghost in this machine is the transfer of focus. Your cursor is an agent of this transfer. As you move it, you agitate the new signal, making it burn brighter and break through more forcefully. It demonstrates how our collective attention, once fixed on one point, can be violently wrenched towards another, changing the narrative for everyone.