Dham Dham began as a three day workshop, “Thalaam Riddim Reapers” to introduce free digital music productions tools at DreamSpace Academy during Dinacon 3, 2022. In 2024, it evolved into a 10 day “bootcamp”, Dham Dham Riddim and in June 2025 it will rejoin Dinacon at Sea Communities and Les Village to lead a research Node, “Sonified Plastics”. This episode revisits conversations, field recordings and music made in Batticaloa to tease out some of the ideas and context that gave rise to the “Dham Dham Method”. Featuring the voices of: Dinoj M., Lucinda Dayhew, SajaS, Kishoth Navaretnarajah, Andrew Quitmeyer and Hannen Wolfe. Music is from the Dham Dham Riddim EP (2024) [Bandcamp], alongside recordings made in Batticaloa during Dinacon 3 and Dham Dham Riddim.
As suggested by Kishoth Navaretnarajah, co-founder of DreamSpace Academy, the “Dham Dham Method” is somewhat elusive. It is shaped by the role of music, (digital music) skill-sharing and cultural exchange in “peace-building” post-war, post-genocide Sri Lanka. It is a culture of commoning, making use of free/libre and open source tools and informal processes of collective learning. This was necessary for the circumstances in Batticaloa. Sri Lanka had already declared itself bankrupt by the time Dinacon convened there in July 2022, and was in the midst of a fuel, energy and political crisis, as President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was usurped just days after we arrived. Indeed, I propose that making technology accessible and malleable and developing digital literacy via music is foundational to the Dham Dham Method. It is inherently collaborative, open to differing skill sets and is all for having fun—which is crucial to the learning process. And as Dinoj and SajaS discuss, it promotes reciprocity—once you have learnt something you are encouraged to pass it on.
An important aspect arose from the enthusiasm of participants in Dham Dham Riddim. This might simply be due to making time and space and finding a legitimate reason to pursue people’s passion in making music. This is something that Dinacon co-founder Andy Quitmeyer touched on during a address delivered at DreamSpace, where he expressed his frustrations with academia because it put up so many obstacles to simply pursuing one’s curiousity.
Passion, enthusiasm and curiousity are also ideas that DreamSpace invests in, as it encourages and facilitates a post-war generation to pursue their interests in order to become “change-makers”, empowering themselves and their communities. For DreamSpace and Batticaloa, this is inherently entrepreneurial as there is a need for youth to make an income and local opportunities are slim. So, leveraging the affinity between people who share similar interests is crucial to developing friendships, networks and opportunities, and underscores the Dham Dham Method. “A bunch of weirdos hanging out together” is how Luci phrases it, or as Dinoj M. puts it: “working together to get things done.”
