For partnership and press inquiries, please contact the project director, Michael Epstein, michael@walkingcinema.org
articles on museum of the hidden city
2020 MUSE Award Winner - Gold
“This is a really effective use of AR, exploring the everyday world and seeing the echoes of the past brought to life with a compelling and interesting narrative. It’s a good use of the technology and the content is well-considered and delivered.”
Fillmore Redevelopment Recounted in Open Air ‘Museum’
“Museum of the Hidden City is a 75 minute academic and literary exploration of one of the darkest and most significant moments in San Francisco’s history. This tour is an engaging, novel way to learn about the city, all while keeping your distance from others. And the stories it tells — about racism, affordable housing, and the evolution of neighborhoods— feel profoundly relevant.”
-Benjamin Schneider, SF Weekly
Augmenting Reality, For Real
Museum of the Hidden City is “going beyond games to create compelling, outdoor AR projects.” It provides “powerful visual evidence of the way racist ‘slum clearance’ projects transformed a minority neighborhood.” - Wade Roush, Scientific American
Visit the Not-So-Distant Past with ‘Museum of the Hidden City’
“The experience of this first chapter of Museum of the Hidden City tells a small segment of the history of one community in a small slice of one neighborhood in a large city. And yet in many ways it changed the way I look at that city and the world. “ - Brian Resler, No Proscenium
Black History Month: The Heart of the Matter
“…an experience that truly gets into deeper layers of African American history in San Francisco…”
“Epstein has noticed something remarkable: ‘A number of people we talked to after a tour felt empowered. They felt like they understood a lot more about how gentrification happens…and potentially how to get involved in their own neighborhoods in ways that can be a lot more equitable.” -Luke Williams, SF/Arts
AR walking tour: Museum of the Hidden City re-imagines S.F.’s history of gentrification
“The intersection of racial justice and the coronavirus pandemic have also brought a new urgency to a narrative that, like augmented reality, enables us to change our perspective.” - Amelia Williams, Bay City News Foundation
Cool, Safe, Artsy Things to do in SF During the Pandemic
“…this wonderful walk through SF history, that takes you through the dramatic redevelopment of the Fillmore in the 1960’s. The tour’s narration by Oakland’s Poet Laureate Samuel Getachew is incredibly beautiful, sad, and eye opening. You get to see what the Fillmore used to look like using the mobile AR features, and meander through the neighborhoods present, with a view of the past.” -Alex Mac, Broke-Ass Stuart
Outside > Inside :
Outdoor Exhibitions in the Era of COVID and Black Lives Matter
“Such connections to the real world, to current issues, to our cities and civic duties, can only be enhanced as museums embrace the displacement of the gallery to the streets. And as they begin to work from a premise that outside is indeed greater than inside.”
-Article written by Michael Epstein
A New Wave of Interactive Art Is Taking Over San Francisco
“…Museum of the Hidden City takes the concept of immersive experiences even further, using entire neighborhoods to educate audiences about San Francisco’s history of affordable housing... With the app, users can hear personal stories from residents and see sketches of buildings that once stood on their tour route.” -Katie Hunter, The Bold Italic
How Laura Herman is Addressing the Affordable Housing Crisis
“The project had a profound effect on the participants. People were interested in learning more, they felt more engaged with their community, and they felt closer to the physical location that they were exploring.” -Adobe Life
Ten Stories About Non-Obvious Megatrends you Should Read
“A very cool new augmented reality experience called the Museum of the Hidden City which is worth checking out.”
Interview with Michael Epstein
“A lot of readers and people who follow the news are aware of these issues, but the solution seems so distant that they disengage. I think there’s an opportunity with location-based AR and location-based audio to give people a physical and first-person experience of an issue right in front of them. ”
-Michael Epstein, project director, interview with Halsey Burgund