Russia-Ukraine Tensions Reach Breaking Point: US President Biden warned that Russia may invade Ukraine within the next month. Russia built up massive forces along the border while denying invasion plans, centering the dispute on Ukraine's potential NATO membership. The UN Security Council held its first meeting to push for a diplomatic solution.
Kazakhstan Erupts in Nationwide Uprising: The country faced its worst civil unrest since independence, as protests over fuel prices escalated into a nationwide revolt. A state of emergency was declared, the government resigned, and President Tokayev requested military assistance from the Russian-led CSTO alliance to suppress what he called "terrorist gangs."
Burkina Faso Military Coup: Military forces staged a coup, following a similar pattern to neighboring Mali. The move, while condemned internationally, was popular domestically due to the government's failure to address security threats from extremist groups.
North Korea Resumes Missile Testing: North Korea launched a new series of missile tests designed to circumvent US and Japanese defense systems, escalating regional tensions.
January 2022 was a month where the world held its breath. The signal was not one of collapse, but of immense, building pressure. On one side of the globe, the rhetoric and military build-up between Russia and NATO were escalating towards a breaking point. On the other, the nation of Kazakhstan was experiencing a violent internal rupture that required foreign military intervention.
The glitch of this era is this "Tension Signal." It is the experience of watching multiple systems being pushed to their absolute limits, a visualization of the strain on a network that is about to snap.
This artifact simulates a geopolitical network under this extreme tension. Lines of force connect the major actors, pulling and vibrating with energy. The ghost in this machine is the fragility of peace. Your cursor is a disruptive force, a point of instability. As you move it, you increase the tension on the lines, causing them to vibrate more violently and the system to glitch, revealing the raw data—the headlines of a world on the brink.