Paper short abstract:

Based on research with refugees in remote Italy, this paper considers how audio-visual and collaborative methods are a way to engage with a topic that is from the outset tainted by political discourse.

Paper long abstract:

Throughout Europe, refugees are placed in remote areas to address issues around rural depopulation and shortages of urban accommodation. Such villages often combine cultural homogeneity, high unemployment and limited public transportation, which lead to physical, social, economic and cultural isolation. Where refugees are located has an enormous impact on their chances to prosper, yet their everyday experiences have remained under the radar of policy makers, academic researchers. Terra Incognita is an ethnographic research project that uses collaborative and audio-visual methods to both explore and express the ways in which refugees in remote Italy experience and create a sense of belonging. Studies on refugees have to deal with the idea that everything we know, including what we know we don't know, is tainted by popular rhetoric and political discourse. In such a context, the challenge is to find a way beyond the known unknowns - towards unknown unknowns. This paper has a dual purpose. Based on the Terra Incognita research project, it argues for the use of audio-visual and collaborative methods as a way to 'control the arbitrary' and 'invite in' the unknown. The research project resulted in a triptych of academic text, a documentary short film and an audio-visual essay. The paper offers reflections on the epistemological challenges and formal choices when communicating to a wider non-academic audience about a topic that is shaped by political discourse and preconceived ideas.