Mobile Museum of Muncie
Community-guided WebAR storytelling that makes downtown Muncie histories and places erased from the contemporary landscape visible again.
Downtown Muncie contains histories that are difficult to see because many of their physical traces are gone.
The Mobile Museum of Muncie began from a simple spatial problem: important pieces of twentieth-century local history had been demolished, paved over, or otherwise disappeared from the contemporary streetscape. Working with DWNTWN Muncie, students and community stakeholders identified sites where a location-based layer could make those histories present again.
A community-facing student project combining stakeholder research, production, development, and evaluation.
I directed a six-student team, managed the community partnership, and contributed as project manager and developer. The project moved from stakeholder conversations through archival and site research, filming and photogrammetry, WebAR production, usability testing, and public launch.
My role
Faculty Lead · Project Manager · Developer. I managed the community relationship, directed the student production process, contributed to implementation, and supervised usability evaluation and refinement.
Site selection began with local knowledge rather than a preselected technology demo.
Students met with roughly ten local business leaders at a town meeting, two representatives from DWNTWN Muncie, and a local historian. These conversations helped identify sites, histories, and community priorities before the experience was built.
One particularly strong story is the Royal Skating Rink, which re-presents the 1887 Emancipation Day celebration through the perspective of “Virginia Williams,” foregrounding performances, community gathering, and Frederick Douglass’s speech at a site whose historical significance is no longer materially obvious.
Historical storytelling was attached to contemporary place through browser-based AR.
The team combined archival material, site-specific storytelling, filming, photogrammetry, and WebAR. Browser delivery reduced the friction of requiring a dedicated app while allowing stories to be encountered at the places they described.
Twenty external participants tested the experience before public use.
The project included usability testing with 20 external participants. Feedback informed interaction and presentation changes before release. Since launch, the experience has recorded approximately 500 or more story launches.
A public-facing cultural-heritage experience built for the streets where the stories happened.
Community knowledge shaped the project.
Primary partner: DWNTWN Muncie. Additional input came from local business leaders and a local historian, with development through Ball State University’s Emerging Media Design and Development program.