Flightpaths, Freeways and Railroads has been acquired by SBS for national broadcast and to host on the SBS on demand platform.

This collection of three, five-minute films take us on a journey with two blind and one deaf person as they move around urban and regional spaces. The short films illustrate the challenges and opportunities that emerging technologies pose for diverse groups as they move throughout the city.

Micaela is a blind advocate and access consultant living in the regional twin towns of Albury-Wodonga. This film reveals that she won’t be replacing her guide dog with a robot anytime soon.

Brenton is a learning mentor who lives and works in Adelaide. This short film explores some of the difficulties he faces driving himself around, as well as his vision for the future of transport.

Orhan, an anthropologist from the northern suburbs of Melbourne, tries out some Orientation and Mobility apps with his Vision Australia trainer, Darren. Orhan reinforces the need to keep humans in the loop when it comes to transport mobilities for the blind.

The first transmission is scheduled for October 10.

‘Flightpaths, Freeways and Railroads’ is collaborative project with our team from the Emerging Technologies lab at Monash University, Jeni Lee, Sarah Pink, Thao Phan, and Emma Quilty as well as key project participants, Brenton Lillecrapp, Micaela Schmidt, Orhan Karagoz and Darren Moyle.

Illustration: Jan Rothuizen and Animation: Franka Wiggers

This project was funded by the ARC Centre of Excellence
Automated Decision Making + Society