Snap Lens Academy: CHAZ AR

Project Description

In Summer 2022, I was accepted into Snap Lens Academy, where we were taught Lens Studio, Blender, Photoshop, and After Effects. As a way to demonstrate what we learned, we were split into groups and tasked with developing a Snap lens about racial justice. We wanted our lens to be impactful, and believe that focusing on positive things that come from communities brought together through hardship would be the way to go because it demonstrates how people uplift others and come together. We decided to recreate Seattle’s temporary Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, or CHAZ, of June 2020 through AR. We used waypoints as a means of movement through the Snap lens, where users tap floating cubes that pull them in front of specific areas that tell the CHAZ’s story. The areas we emphasized were a discussion spot, where volunteers discussed their next plan of action on couches placed in the street; a garden, where BIPOC people could cultivate and harvest fresh produce; the medic area, where volunteers offered medical help to protestors; the abandoned police station east precinct, as well as various art pieces placed throughout. To view our Final Showcase Presentation, please click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8eKGrSbkRk

Problem

How might we create a Snap lens about racial justice?

Insights

Topics that pertain to social issues can be easily taken out of context. Oftentimes, these misconstrued story pieces are used to push specific ideologies, and this was something we wanted to avoid at all costs.

Solutions

We decided to immortalize Seattle’s temporary Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, or CHAZ for short, of June 2020 through AR. We believe that focusing on positive things that come out of communities when brought together would be the way to go, because it demonstrates how people support and lift each other up when faced with hardship.