We Stand On Their Shoulders

We Stand On Their Shoulders uses augmented reality to turn a public gathering into a place of shared remembrance. At its music-festival debut, friends and descendants of the Black San Diegans honored in the work were moved by seeing the wider community recognize their contributions. People shared memories and introduced others to histories they already knew. Through that encounter, an ordinary field became a meaningful place where a community could acknowledge the people who helped shape it.

As I argue in my manifesto, AR works through the meaning of place and the experience of being there together. My immersive experience design brings the museum’s research into that shared space, while movement around each figure connects past contributions with future possibility. The social exchange is part of the work’s form, alongside its images and spatial arrangement. The project continues to expand, with a community oral-history feature in development to bring recorded recollections into the experience.