Flight Paths, Freeways and Open Roads

Flight Paths, Freeways and Open Roads is a series of short film vignettes exploring how diverse participants currently experience transport mobilities and how automated technologies might be part of our future lives.

“There’s more to life than being a passenger.”

Amelia Earhart

Filmmaker Jeni Lee  accompanies and films diverse participants moving around urban and regional spaces. The act of commuting is intended to elicit reflection and thoughtful responses from the research participants. Each participant's commute forms the backbone and narrative arc of a short film. Illustrations created in collaboration with artist, Jan Rothuizen, embed an additional layer of rich ethnographic insight within the films, highlighting the moods and emotions of the participants and the participants' imagined futures.

Film participants include migrants, visually impaired and differently abled individuals. The resulting short film vignettes aim to surface impacts of automated decision making (ADM) that haven’t been accounted for and explore barriers and biases propagated and amplified by ADM.

The films are critical of techno-determinist and techno-solutionist views of automated mobility. By documenting experiences of the so-called 17%, the people who see the world differently, this project reveals biases and threats of automated transport mobilities and also uncovers creative opportunity and innovation. The films have research objectives while also aiming to fulfil other communication functions such as participation, advocacy and education.

Key investigators

Jeni Lee, Monash University

Sarah Pink, Monash University

Co-investigators

Sarah Pink, Monash University

Emma Quillty, Monash University

Thao Phan, Monash University

Funded by

Contact: Sarah Pink

Email: sarah.pink@monash.edu