Well, one way is the AUDIOTOUR. I have experienced some cool audio tours over the past few years, which managed to trigger my imagination very well. Get inspired!

–‘Alternatives to the Apocalypse’. I experienced my first audio tour during the Festival of Progress, organised by the Dutch online newspaper De Correspondent in 2015. While some 80 participants and I closed our eyes, theatre maker Johan Fretz took us on an imaginary walk through ‘a city where people had stopped the apocalypse.’

–Mould stood up to three metres high on the buildings, but no higher. The people had stopped the floods. The combination of the highly evocative text by Fretz and the atmospheric cello music by Anne Korff de Gidts made sure I still carry the message with me: we can stop the apocalypse.

–The second audio tour I experienced was at a small storytelling festival in Hamburg, Beyond Storytelling. During this festival, I participated in ‘an intimate audio tour by storytelling therapist Joe Lambert. Joe challenged us to imagine how we want to behave in a complicated future. What is the role we want to take on? How do we deal with loss? What do we want to contribute?

–Joe had us take 1 or more steps forward each time, where 1 step stood for 1 year later. At each step, he described what was going on in the world, asking us what things might be going on in our lives at that time and how we wanted to act. For my ‘a powerful experience, where I dared to face the possible future, but also felt empowered by imagining how I acted.

–De Tegentijdse Tocht. On 15 April 2023, I participated in the Turn Day, at Heleen Bouwmans’ The Hidden Garden. The day began with De Tegentijdse Tocht (De Journey Against Time), an audio tour created by Merlijn Twaalfhoven et al in which you experience the passage of time, from the Big Bang to 2121, and can feel how much of a responsibility we have to future generations.

–We took a walk through the greenery while listening to a recording of this musical-poetic story. A beautiful, intense and emotional journey. You can book it online.

I truly believe we need to tap into the INTUÏTIVE KNOWLEDGE. Rationally we can know so well that things have to change, actually taking action proves to be a different matter. That is the point of these kinds of creative forms.

QUESTION: HAVE YOU EXPERIENCE AN AUDIOOTOUR that moved you or touched you in another way? Let me know!