California Migration Museum Tours
Turning a neighborhood into an immersive history experience
The California Migration Museum (CMM) was founded in 2021 to build hands-on, immersive content that tells the rich and complex story of how migration has shaped California.
Process:
I had created a mobile application from a prior project, Before the Bulldozers for the Smithsonian, which was used as a framework for the CMM application. I also made several physical artifacts to create “trigger” objects to launch short video stories or augmented reality experiences.
Team:
The Walking Cinema team comprised a Director responsible for the audio and film production, a producer who recorded and gathered stories, a mobile app developer, voice actors and historians and a junior designer who focused on the augmented graphics production.
I was the lead designer responsible for the application design, visual design, and set design for installations throughout the city.
The CMM team designed their website.
Outcome:
Four mobile apps, three immersive stories and several installations.
Migrant Footsteps is a series of free, immersive audio stories that help you discover how migration has shaped every corner of the Golden State. Walk directly into San Francisco's migration stories, guided by audio, music, and augmented reality. Migration is California's story, and Migrant Footsteps brings this history to life.
Tapestry
I created this tapestry hung in a window of Old Shanghai Chinese gift shop in Chinatown. When a user points their camera at this tapestry while using the app, it triggers an augmented reality overlay thats shows what the street looked like in 1890 Chinatown.
Mobile Application
Screen shots from the Chinatown Town mobile application
Cinema Box
I created this installation in a cafe in the Mission District that shows a video on the Columbian immigrants who came to San Francisco in the late 1950s and started the coffee roasting business that fueled the West Coasts cafe culture.