#15 Audio walks

Walking has become the number one leisure activity for many during the pandemic. People are strolling, exploring and walking around places in a way that has never been seen before.

How about combining walks with extracurricular political education formats? So-called audio walks are a good way to take part in educational formats together without being in the same place with lots of people at the same time. Short audio pieces are linked to locations in a city and can be accessed via mobile devices. For example, a city map is provided with QR codes that lead to audio pieces that have been pre-produced and uploaded to a website. Relevant video platforms, for example, are suitable for this.

The material can be made available to walkers with mobile devices and supplemented with small work and/or thinking tasks. In terms of content, it makes sense to use the location-specific character of an audio walk for the educational offer. For example, audio walks can draw attention to the historical and political significance of specific locations.

Furthermore, audio walks offer the potential to be constantly developed further. If they are technically simple and accessible, the listeners become producers. Further development can be carried out by anyone who wants to add an audio piece to the city map. Along concrete guiding questions, audios are recorded for specific locations, which could even represent reactions to previous ones.

Currently, for example, it would be interesting to create a participatory audio walk on "missing places". Which place that is not accessible, closed or even no longer available during these times do you miss? What do you miss about this place? What did it look like the last time you were there? What did it smell like in this place?