“Stories from the Circle" : The Possibilities and Limitations of Augmented Reality as a Tool for Decolonization View Digital Media

Innovation Showcase
Rebecca Pelky  

This innovation showcase features a new augmented reality application, “Stories from the Circle,” which is site-specific to the contested Christopher Columbus monument in Syracuse, New York, USA. The application encourages users to explore diverse geolocated viewpoints through interview clips and three-dimensional objects, like a Haudenosaunee longhouse, that offer alternative perspectives on the use and history of the monument and surrounding space. The presentation will focus on the uses and limitations of augmented reality in addressing questions of decolonization and land equity facing Indigenous populations in North America and globally. However, more broadly, this basic model can be reproduced at any contested site to educate users on that site’s specific complexities. Interdisciplinary in nature, this project bridges the fields of digital arts and humanities, Indigenous studies, and history. Completion of the application relied on various methodologies, including stakeholder interviews, the application build, user testing, and researching historical data. Presenters will overview the project and methodologies, while focusing on the application’s ability to re-center Indigenous perspectives in colonized spaces. While augmented reality can offer a platform to peoples historically underrepresented, it is limited by the very there-but-not-there nature of its construction, and cannot, therefore, replace efforts to create physical spaces for underrepresented or colonized populations. While it has limitations, an augmented reality application like “Stories from the Circle” can still begin the work of decolonization, for example, by creating virtual spaces for real-world dialogues.