Our research lead us to the insight that although there were many famous women of note throughout history there were very few statues and/or monuments erected in their honor, in comparison to their male counterparts. In fact, 92% of US statuary commemorates men, while just 8% commemorates women. Of 29 statues in Central Park, 0 commemorate women. Of 48 in Chicago, 0 commemorate women. Of 11 in London’s Parliament Square, 0 commemorate women. Of 270 in Halifax, 0 commemorate women. And so on and so on. So, we set out to tell the whole story using data as our jumping off point to create parity in statuary.

We launched the program’s app in iOS and Android , amplified through social and digital channels, and then invited world-renowned media mogul Tina Brown to break ground on the project by placing the very first virtual statue at the Women in the World Summit.

The Whole Story Project launched with great social buzz at the Women In The World Summit. The buzz lead to an invite to become the app of record for The National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites, unfolding now through 2020. The UN has also expressed interest in setting up international hack-a-thons to be held throughout 2017 and beyond. Organic statue submissions have begun to roll in through the open, collaborative platform.

Data

Gathering and Interpretation: We sourced parks and city data to identify absence of statuary and opportunities for expansion.

Insights and targeting: We targeted key locations, cities and parks in which to design and place specifically curated statuary.

Integration and impact: We seamlessly integrated our AR maps layer over real geography, changing the landscape forever.

The Whole Story Project engages and utilizes the social media platforms based in Google Maps and social gaming, offering an accessible, strategic, educational and cultural program, designed to augment history through a creative use of media and technology. It uses new and emerging technology to create media channels that are layered on top of existing and traditional media and OOH channels, creating a first of its kind mixed-reality media platform.

We developed a strategy that would allow us to identify parks and missing history (female statuary), before collaborating on designing and developing additional 3D statuary that we would “place” in an AR layer, making history whole.

Situation:

92% of US statues commemorate men and the numbers aren’t much different, globally. Further, gender bias continues to create major barriers for women all over the world.

Brief: Design an inclusive, open-source platform that connects women via technology, allowing them help create the past, present and future with a toolkit that lets them identify, design and place AR statues of historic women, all over the world.

Objectives  

1. Develop a digital toolkit for persons aged 7-97, allowing them to augment a currently one-sided/male narrative on an emerging tech platform: shared AR.

2. Invite and excite females from every background to become collaborators in (re) writing their own history and bridging the gender gap.

3. Engage accredited sources in history, political science, gender studies, art, design and tech to collaborate in making these stories.