At the end of 2018, QuietPixel had the pleasure of working on the “Alabama Justice” exhibit for Backstory Educational Media. We developed 9 iPad applications for the exhibit, which let visitors read more about 8 Supreme Court case that originated in Alabama, and read through the U.S. Constitution. The apps allow you to see images from each case, dig into the legal precedents, and listen to oral arguments recorded before the Supreme Court.

The exhibit was developed by Dr. Steve Brown of the Auburn University Political Science Department. He moved to Alabama several years ago, and took notice, while teaching Auburn students, of how many historically significant cases from Alabama ended up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

With the help of Philip Ratliff from Backstory Educational Media, they designed a traveling exhibit that highlights eight Alabama cases that were argued before the Supreme Court, and which had a significant impact on law and liberty in the United States.

Oral Arguments

One of the most unique ways the applications augment the exhibit, is allowing visitors to listen to actual recordings of oral arguments that occurred before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Many of the audio recordings came from the 1960’s,” said QuietPixel President, Kevin Kunze, “which made it difficult to hear the lawyers and Supreme Court Justices debating the cases. The background noise in the room, and the hiss of magnetic tape, made some of the recordings almost unusable. QuietPixel delicately filtered the audio to reduce noise and pull these important historical voice out for modern visitors to clearly hear.

NY Times vs. Sullivan (Raw Recording)
NY Times vs. Sullivan (Improved)

Rapid Development and Delivery

To make development as quick as possible, QuietPixel took designs provided by Backstory and created a template project with all the interactive features working. We then worked with Backstory Media to tweak it to the client’s needs. This made it easy to add all the text, photos and oral argument recordings for each of the 8 Supreme Court cases. With review and final changes, the entire process took about 3 weeks to create and deliver all the apps.

Grand Opening at Vulcan Park and Museum

The exhibit formally opened at Vulcan Park and Museum on February 21st, 2019 in Birmingham, AL. The opening was attended by Dr. Brown, members of the Alabama State Bar Association who funded the project, and other notables. The exhibit will remain at the Vulcan Museum for several months, and then move to other locations around the state as part of Alabama’s bicentennial commemorations.