Jesse James Bank Museum
Project Name
Jesse James Bank Museum
Type
Exhibitions & Experiences
Year
2023
Timeline
Project overview
I partnered with Illust AR to design and produce an augmented reality experience for the Jesse James Bank Museum in Liberty, Missouri. It is where the first successful daylight armed bank robbery in U.S. history took place.
The project, branded "Time Warp AR," invites museum visitors to point their phones around the historic bank and watch the space transform into a fully rendered recreation of the 1866 robbery, bringing the museum's exhibits to life in augmented reality.
The Story We Told
The experience walks visitors through the events and characters that that where there pivotal day:
The goal was to engage visitors in a more interactive and immersive way. Visitors were reading static placards to understand the events, and we used Augmented Reality yo allow them to stand inside the history itself. Turning the museum's physical rooms into a stage for a character-driven AR reenactment.
My Role
Collaborated with Illust AR on experience design and historical narrative structure
Helped translate archival research and museum source material into a script and pacing suitable for an AR walkthrough
Worked with the Jesse James Bank Museum and Liberty Arts Commission on-site to align the AR content with the physical layout of the museum
Outcome
The experience launched as a limited engagement at the museum (9/23–10/23) and was promoted as a first-of-its-kind way to engage with the site's history, letting visitors "witness" the robbery and the events leading up to it rather than just read about them.
It was a great opportunity to introduce living history to the community.
Location: 103 N Water St, Liberty, MO 64068
More info:
jessejamesmuseum.org