Beyond dialogue (from the Greek dia - through, logos - speech) - dominant methods, I use the example of a modified recording of a water-well collecting song from Douz, Southern Tunisia, to show alternative ways of approaching "data". The process of listening and manipulating fieldwork recordings helps me personally analyse and make sense of information in ways that bring me closer to context. Without knowing this track resulted in my own exploration of water imaginaries in desert-scapes often described as water-less spaces, which is far from true. I am interested in turning data into sound, sensing remoteness, and post-subjectivity in sound.  

 

Presented at Northumbria University as part of the "Sounding Environments in Crisis Workshop", participants gave feedback on how this track had the effect of "slowing down the epistemological urge to know" and was an exercise in "coexisting with not knowing: undefining, distinguishing the comprehensible to non-comprehensible". 

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As an initial step I argue that this process helps approach data silently, pushing one to really listen and hone-in, rather than reason. This can help set the ground for a more honest and empathic process of making sense of data. 

 

This is an example of a participatory approach that research-activists could use to talk about desert-imageries, the concept of "scarcity", and water-resource management for pastoralists' in drylands.