Research for Tune was not easy. The biggest challenge? There’s barely any research on how war affects animals. When animals are mentioned, it’s often in passing, or limited to charismatic megafauna like elephants and gorillas. Data on other species is rare, and often fragmented.

Early on, we imagined an interaction where light would reveal hidden data. But in reality, quantifiable information about animals in war is scarce, especially compared to human statistics.

As we spoke with animal rights groups and activists, we realized that the most honest form of research might be collecting scattered testimonies and eyewitness accounts. But this raised hard questions: Can we tell an animal’s story through human voices? Are we really speaking for them---or just about ourselves?

That tension stayed with me throughout. While attempting to answer those questions, I began to understand what Tune needed to hear---and what it should share.

Our audience is human. We didn’t try to speak for animals. Instead, we wanted this project to prompt reflection about coexistence. All of our sources were ultimately human records.

But, within them, we found traces of people trying not to look away. That intent mattered to us. We carried it forward. Our research drew from academic literature, oral histories, expert interviews, and narrative inquiry. Because much of the harm wasn’t officially documented, key insights often came from memoirs and personal testimony.

These accounts hit harder. They were raw, emotional, tinged with guilt, grief, anger, and sorrow. I believe these emotions are clues to how coexistence might be reimagined.