Snapchat-powered augmented reality transforms the Indigenous “Three Sisters” story into a location-based AR exhibit, where visitors discover a living digital layer growing directly within the real garden environment.
Augmented Reality Development, Experience Design, 3D Animation, Interactive Design, Software Development
Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
Heartland Forest Nature Centre
2025
The Three Sisters Story and the Landscape
The Three Sisters—corn, beans, and squash—represent a traditional Indigenous agricultural system where three plants grow together in a mutually supportive relationship. Corn provides structure for climbing beans, beans enrich the soil with nitrogen, and squash protects the ground by retaining moisture and suppressing weeds.
The project was developed in collaboration with Heartland Forest Nature Experience in Niagara Falls and shares a Haudenosaunee perspective on the Three Sisters teaching through an interactive augmented reality experience.
Created in partnership with curator Louis Harris and Executive Director Elisabeth Graham, the project explores how augmented reality can help communicate Indigenous knowledge and ecological relationships within a living landscape. The goal was to create an exhibit where visitors could encounter the Three Sisters story through exploration rather than static interpretation.
A Digital Layer Embedded in the Garden
The project was designed as a location-based augmented reality exhibit where the physical environment becomes the anchor for a new digital layer of storytelling. In archaeology, landscapes are often understood through cultural layers that accumulate over time. In this project, augmented reality acts as a digital layer—one that reveals stories, characters, and interpretations that exist invisibly within the landscape until they are activated through technology. Using Snapchat augmented reality, visitors reveal animated characters representing corn, beans, and squash growing within the real garden environment. As visitors move through the space, the digital layer appears anchored directly to the physical landscape, allowing the story of the Three Sisters to unfold within the place where the plants themselves grow. This approach blends the real world with an interactive digital environment, creating a seamless experience where visitors move between the physical landscape and the augmented layer of storytelling.
Building a Snapchat AR Experience for Museums
The exhibit was developed using Snapchat augmented reality technology, allowing visitors to access the experience instantly using a platform many already carry in their pockets. The project demonstrates how a Snapchat augmented reality exhibit for museums can create engaging interactive experiences without requiring specialized hardware installations or dedicated mobile applications.
Using Snapchat as the platform provides a powerful strategy for museums and cultural institutions. Instead of asking visitors to download a custom app or interact with dedicated devices, the experience leverages technology already familiar to many audiences. Visitors simply open Snapchat to reveal the augmented reality layer of the exhibit, making the interaction immediate, accessible, and particularly appealing to younger audiences who are comfortable using mobile technology and social media platforms.
Developing the experience within Snapchat also introduced significant technical constraints. Snapchat lenses allow approximately 8 MB of core assets with an additional 25 MB available through server-streamed content, creating strict performance and bandwidth limits for real-time augmented reality projects.
Meeting these constraints required a highly optimized production pipeline. 3D models, textures, and animations were carefully designed for efficient real-time rendering while maintaining visual quality and expressive character animation. This process required deep expertise in real-time 3D asset production, mobile optimization, and AR performance design, ensuring the experience runs smoothly across a wide range of mobile devices while remaining within Snapchat’s platform limits.
A Location-Based AR Exhibit That Can Travel
The Three Sisters project demonstrates how Snapchat augmented reality can extend museum storytelling beyond traditional exhibits. Because the experience runs entirely on visitors’ mobile devices, the AR installation does not require permanent hardware infrastructure. The experience was first launched publicly at Multifest Toronto at STACKT Market, Toronto’s first experiential art festival. The festival debut allowed visitors to explore the Three Sisters story through a Snapchat-powered augmented reality lens, revealing animated characters and storytelling elements anchored within the physical environment. Following its launch at Multifest, the experience will become a permanent location-based augmented reality installation at Heartland Forest Nature Experience in Niagara Falls. A traveling version of the exhibit was also developed so the project can be presented at festivals, cultural events, and educational programs. The project was supported by the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), demonstrating how emerging technologies such as Snapchat augmented reality can support new approaches to cultural interpretation and public engagement.
