Practical lessons in location-based augmented reality projects about social justice

What is it about?

Dear Visitor and Charleston Reconstructed were location-based augmented reality (AR) experiences created between 2018 and 2020 dealing with two controversial monument sites in the US. The projects were motivated by the ability of AR to 1) link layers of context to physical sites in ways that are otherwise difficult or impossible and 2) to visualize changes to physical spaces, potentially inspiring changes to the spaces themselves. We discuss the projects’ motivations and designs, and deployments. We reflect on how physical changes to the projects’ respective sites altered their outcomes, and we describe practical lessons for future work in location-based augmented reality.

Featured Image

Photo by Valeriy Kryukov on Unsplash

Photo by Valeriy Kryukov on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Our practical learnings from two different location-based AR project deployments about social justice issues give concrete advice for AR projects in the future. For example, we give advice on where to place content and how long to make the AR experience for increased engagement. We also give advice on how to distribute and facilitate complex AR experiences. The paper also outlines open challenges for the field, like the issues of changing physical spaces that can radically shift the context of AR projects with a social justice orientation.

Perspectives