Sandy Speaks by American Artist (2016)

Sandy Speaks (2016) is a speculative digital media artwork by American Artist. The video responds to the unjust arrest of 28 year old Black woman, Sandra Bland, an event that went viral at the height of the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement in 2015. Days after her arrest, Bland was found dead in her jail cell and little information and no security footage was released about the events leading up to her death and how law enforcement may have played a role in it. The work documents interactions with a chat bot that simulates a conversation with Bland, granting her an opportunity to “speak” posthumously and rewrite her narrative.