The Black Monuments Project
Publication/Creation Date
2018Media Type
Graphical ImagePersuasive Intent
InformationDiscursive Type
InventionsDescription
The Black Monuments Project that was launched for the Black History Month in 2018, and it responds to the process of removal of confederate monuments in the US, which begun in 2017. The project aims to celebrate Black heroes and to achieve this goal, fifty-four historical black figures have been selected. Some figures, such as Michelle Obama, the Lawyer Anita Hill, social activist Madam CJ Walker, and the NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, have had their 3D digital monuments produced and they are accessible via the Snapchat Lens app. Users can place the digital monuments in their own environment, thus reimagining their immediate landscapes as being inscribed with silenced alternative histories.This app demonstrates the AR category of Repressed Past. In this category, digital content is used to enliven and geo-locate actual, repressed narratives. The goal here is to include new narratives as a valid form of heritage and thus to imagine another, virtual but possible, future.
Read more:
Alison Durkee, “Users erect monuments to heroes like Colin Kaepernick with Mic’s Black Monuments Project lenses”, Mic. Feb 4, 2018.
Cheney-Rice, Zak. "America Is Covered in Confederate Statues. We Can Do Better — and Here's How." Mic, 2018.