My mother passed away in March 2011, after a six-year battle with lung cancer. With Sorry To Hear, I tried to convey the emotional whiplash, limits of language, and questions of disclosure that I had on my mind in the weeks after she died. I went through every condolence e-mail I've received between my parents' deaths, excerpted them, and put the results into a text file.

I wrote a Python script to run a Markov chain with three-gram analysis to make a condolence generator. I then programmed the Markov chain results in Processing to fall down in staggered, vertical formation. After setting the text to "The Letter" by Deux Filles, I mapped the acceleration and de-acceleration of the text to fit the timing of the music and edited the text sequence to form a loose narrative.