Paper short abstract:

From the margins of his known world, in the middle of the Mediterranean the only thing Mohamed could see was water, water everywhere and the sky above. How was it possible for Mohamed who made the crossing to imagine a life on earth, beyond the never-ending Sea?

Paper long abstract:

This paper draws on ethnographic examples and conceptualisations emerging from research participants who have experienced illegalised border crossing from Egypt to Italy. What resulted from our collaboration through creative storytelling processes were narratives that did not place the protagonists merely in their past or present routine struggles. Their subjective experience of the world was inhabited by imaginings that combined temporalities in very particular ways. An imagined future was remembered as part of one's past dreams, lived experiences or future possibilities became intrinsically part of the present when existential circumstances suddenly changed. But imagined existential possibilities are dimensions of experience that lie beyond the immediate perception of objects and landscapes. Concurrently, illegal border crossing often happens in hostile environments where the reality of natural or infrastructural settings overcomes imagination and verbal articulation. How can social scientists investigate and represent these intangible realms of existence? Imaginings are not abstract products of consciousness but are embodied and embedded in people's present actions. So if imaginings are present to us, what qualities does their existence have? Understanding people's perceptions and imagination is not a theoretical question but a practical and empirical one. To be able to come close in understanding and presenting participants' discordant temporalities, experiences and stories, means to come up with responsive practice-based methods and a different, non-linear approach to ethnographic representation. Collaborations between creative and social disciplines, between scholars and art practitioners, is very fruitful in this sense. This research brought together anthropology, performance, storytelling, collaborative documentary and participatory animation.