What to do with this data? Exploring arts-based research as a way of engaging with aspects of lived experience that are difficult to articulate in aid work

This article explores the methodological challenge of engaging with aspects of lived experience that are difficult to articulate. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with nationally employed aid workers in East Africa, it traces my exploration of Arts-Based Research (ABR) as a way of coming closer to felt, sensed, embodied, and relational aspects of lived experience. The article traces how three interconnected creative analytic tactics, collage, poetic inquiry, and the making of a folded paper object, emerged in response to the evolving needs of the inquiry and were adapted as the analytical process unfolded. In doing so, the article highlights how ABR can support analytical processes that remain responsive to emerging questions, insights, and challenges while remaining open to ambiguity, complexity, and uncertainty.