At a time when young Britons are questioning their colonial past more than ever, the Unfiltered History Tour is a secret tour of the British Museum’s stolen colonial artefacts, that makes use of a tool the young generation are familiar with - Instagram AR filters.

When visitors scan the museum’s stolen artefacts, geo-located filters are activated. AR was re-engineered to scan and identify life-sized 3D artefacts in differing light conditions throughout the day. They hear native experts narrate the true histories of how they were stolen, as first-ever visual depictions of scenes of crime form a subversive, contextual overlay over the artefact using AR.

While the British Museum’s narrative portrayed the colonies as helpless in the face of British aggression; AR in smartphones were used for the first time ever, to tell history from the perspective of the colonies, as formidable foes who fought to save their cultural treasures.

Touch points / Placement / Scale

Stolen artefacts at the British Museum across 990,000 sq. ft. activated via Instagram geo-located AR filters, to be shared on Instagram and a 10-part podcast series for global audiences hosted on the microsite.

Implementation

Instagram filters are not meant to scan life-size 3D objects, in our case, we had to scan 10 feet tall artefacts. A local team in London gathered data using LiDAR technology. Resulting in the disintegration of Instagram’s face filter technology and repurposing it to an entirely new use case, for the very first time.

AR technicians accounted for changing light conditions inside the museum by developing an Instagram filter based on real-time weather to dynamically adapt to the changing environment at the museum, in a first of its kind Instagram Filter that blends satellite data with Augmented Reality.

Brand Relevance

VICE World News provides news reporting for global youth audiences. We had to connect with a younger readership, for them to embrace Vice’s reportage on under-reported issues like colonialism. At a time when they were questioning their colonial past more than ever, we decided to enlighten them with an educational resource native to social platforms - to unlearn their cultural history from those most impacted by it.

Design Approach:

Each artefacts’ history has only been told from a colonial perspective. Our challenge was to give a first-ever visual depiction from a marginalised perspective while maintaining historical accuracy for young audiences.

Each frame (inspired by Kurusowa black and white mode) illustrates an accurate depiction of the unique connection each artefact had with its origin country, with an illustrative style that provides a visual experience instead of just a visual tour; that appreciated different cultures, instead of appropriating them.

Timeline

Launched in December 2021.