Capturing the Moment in the Midst of Chaos: How Interrupted Conversations Can Become Your Only Hope

This subject matter has attracted my attention because I personally had to follow an unconventional research methodology in a lot of places throughout my personal research. There are three points that my research relates to here; thinking outside the conventional definitions of the document, documenting the experiment, or the moment as research, as well as documenting the response or reaction as part of research.

My research is mainly concerned with the Syrian war and looked at developing a counter-point to the mainstream media by bringing to light some of the untold stories of the affected Syrian people. Small histories are told by way of monologues, testimonies, and informal interviews with a known circle of participants. People who lived with the conflict day-to-day, a group consisted of my mother, sisters, nephews, nieces and a few friends. My experience as a Syrian living outside the conflict, my relationships to the participants, and my travel to the country during this time of war were all considered as inspiring material, which both constrained and focused the research.

For this symposium, I explored and reflected on some of the unusual and adaptable methods I followed in order to gather a coherent collection of information. For example, the participant-observer methodology incorporation with gathering material from inside the conflict, the disrupted connection with participants and the ever-changing distance between myself and the topic. In a world of war that is full of danger, disconnection, and disrupted means of communication, the difficulty of gathering material was both challenging and inspiring for the resultant artwork based on this research journey. To address that, I brought gathered data examples like audio recordings, Skype video calls, and telephone conversations with participants.