Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

The Unfiltered History Tour uses Augmented Reality in Instagram Filters to challenge imperial narratives. Visitors to the British Museum can scan disputed artefacts, teleporting them back to their homeland, as experts from their country of origin, play tour guide in an immersive audio-visual experience. The Tour was developed right under the Museum’s nose and visitors can take the Tour by connecting to its WiFi. Worldwide, people enjoyed extended podcasts showcasing the same experts. The Tour established VICE as a thought-leader in postcolonialism, showcasing its commitment to highlighting marginalized colonial voices, and built equity from its series ‘Empires Of Dirt’.

Background

Situation The British Museum is the world’s largest receiver of stolen goods with over 8 million objects - that’s a lot of potentially looted artefacts. But for centuries, we’ve only heard the imperialist version of how they got there. An equitable environment can only be created when silenced voices express the intergenerational trauma caused by colonial loot. Brief To place VICE World News at the forefront of conversations around colonialism and challenge dominant cultures by opening up dialogue to countries around the world to create a balance in the way history has been told. Objectives 1. Give a platform to underrepresented voices to share their accounts of artefacts that belong to their country. 2. Re-ignite the ongoing conversation on repatriation & post colonialism with VICE championing marginalised voices. 3. Educate young people about the untold side of history using a tool as accessible as Instagram filters to tell unfiltered stories.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

The Unfiltered History Tour is a guerrilla tour of the British Museum carried out via Instagram filters by making use of Augmented Reality that the internet is no stranger to. However, instead of adding dog ears to a selfie, the same technology was re-engineered to scan and identify life-sized 3D artefacts in differing light conditions throughout the day, to unfilter centuries of colonial narrative. In this alternative interactive tour, visitors can scan 10 disputed artefacts of the museum and see them being teleported back in time to their home countries, with experts from their homelands playing tour guide by narrating the true story of the loot of these treasures, with Augmented Reality being used as a subversive contextual overlay. Those who aren’t at the British Museum can unfilter history from wherever they are in the world, with immersive audio-video experiences and extended podcasts hosted on the Unfiltered History Tour website.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Through an exhaustive selection process in consultation with an art historian, disputed artefacts with an imperialist narrative were chosen, with equal representation across continents and cultures - Jamaica, Easter Island, Egypt, Greece, Nigeria, Ghana, Iraq, India, China and Australia. Authenticity was at the forefront of the project, in collaboration with native experts from 10 countries who presented a side of history never seen or read in textbooks or by the Museum. This approach went against the mainstream narrative around colonial artefacts pushed by major publications and the Museum itself. We went social-first and spoke to young people on platforms they were most likely to take notice of - Instagram, Tik Tok, Spotify, Apple Music and other audio platforms.Visitors to the British Museum were invited to experience another side of history by taking the Unfiltered History Tour. And people across the globe could unfilter history through an immersive podcast episodes.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

The Unfiltered History Tour was developed remotely over 18 months, with a local team in London gathering data on measurements and placements. To account for changing lighting conditions in the Museum and ensure a seamless user experience, AR technicians employed LiDAR (Light Detection Ranging) data integration, developing a first-of-its-kind dynamic auto adapting Instagram Filter that blends satellite data with Augmented Reality. The Instagram filters faced multiple rounds of rejection by the Spark AR team for being ‘shocking, sensational, excessively violent. However it was reviewed out of context, without the overlay of native representation. After nearly 20 design iterations, the Instagram filters were approved and ready to deploy at the Museum. During development, our biggest ally was ironically, the Museum’s layout on Google Earth.

List the results (30% of vote)

n its first month, the campaign has seen Earned media worth $631K 32 million social impressions 40% rise in TikTok followers and 49% increase in total impressions on Instagram 21,583 podcast downloads and 5,200 filter uses (in 30 days) Change in behaviour According to a 2014 survey, 59% of Britons were proud of the British Empire. In a poll conducted weeks after the Tour was launched, 59% of Britons said they believed the Parthenon Marbles (part of the Tour) belonged in Greece, a sharp turn in the opposite direction. The podcast series let us go a lot deeper with the project and give audiences something heavily educational, not found in British history textbooks. What some users had to say after taking the tour: “Clever and a brilliant way of teaching historical reality” “Confronts and challenges colonial origins.” “Hearing the past told by multiple perspectives gives depth.” “A much needed resource.”