Behind the Passenger Seat
How sound influences participatory design
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The Route 24 Roadmap
If you’re new here, welcome! If you’ve been here since day one, thanks for showing up week after week! My name is Sam Reetz and I’m on a mission to help restore public trust. This is a space where I look closer at moments of global and national significance to show you how cycles of misinformation and disinformation disorient communities.
Probable Cause is an XR civic education gaming experience that puts you in the driver’s seat to explore issues of public safety from community-centered perspectives. Route 24 is its companion newsletter that invites you to explore our creative process on the project as we build, deconstructing the real-world impact of policies and practices in transportation infrastructure, immigration reform, environmental justice, racial equity, and more to jumpstart public awareness and, in turn, mobilize narrative change.
Scenic Route usually parks in your inbox on Saturdays (except tonight!) to merge the lanes of immersive storytelling and politics and help you find a better view.
Every follow, share, and subscription helps to keep this work going and reach the people the mainstream media often misses. For riders in a position to financially contribute, your dollars support the creative team with the critical resources needed to iterate, travel, and scale. **Become a paid or founding subscriber during Cyber Week (until December 8) to help jumpstart the wish list for Probable Cause.**
Thank you for joining me on this road! Start your engines…
In this issue: How do you make a hybrid story environment feel as though the sequences are happening in real time? Since first embarking on this road to make Probable Cause, I’ve often considered how best to invite an audience into the experience in a way that motivates deeper inquiry around issues of public safety without inducing trauma.
On Friday, I attended a screening of The Voice of Hind Rajab. It’s a deeply moving interpretation of Hind Rajab’s story and the stories of countless others. It’s also a masterclass in craft, offering perspective and moral clarity amid a climate of chaos. Here Kaouther Ben Hania intuitively sources live audio and footage of first responders on the line with Hind to invite the audience to, as she so eloquently phrased it, “bear witness” to what happened to Hind Rajab, so that her story is remembered and similar incidents do not repeat in the future.
Back in June, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) sourced the voice notes function on WhatsApp and their Instagram Broadcast channel to explore the refugee experience in the lead up to World Refugee Day. Here technology took a backseat and user-generated content was integrated into the experience as participants voted daily on how the dramatization should develop, specifically which actions the characters, Alaa and Ibra, should take on their journey.
Both hybrid storytelling approaches simulate the feeling that the events are unfolding in the present, moment-to-moment, pulling you into the experience with sound.
To help you better understand our approach to world building, I shared a scene from Probable Cause that introduces you to how we similarly immerse the audience by sourcing live audio.
Share your thoughts! Which approach do you think feels most immersive?
I’m currently preparing for a demo of our functional prototype later this week, so thank you for your patience as this issue of Scenic Route parks in your inbox a day late.
As always, thank you for riding with Route 24 and I’ll see you back here on Tuesday for some driver’s ed on decision science.
Stay the course,
Sam
Sam Reetz, is a filmmaker, performer, and founder at Millennial Ethics, creating narrative solutions to complex issues.
Follow her work on Bluesky, Substack and Instagram.
Missed out on the latest issue of Driver’s Ed? Get up to speed here.
Go see and support Kaouther Ben Hania’s lyrical and resonant film however you’re able. The Voice of Hind Rajab releases December 17.
