skidshackAR 4+

SkidshackAR provides a storytelling experience through AR

SkidshackAR is an app that shares stories through augmented reality, presented alongside an exhibit at the Canadian Energy Museum in Devon, Alberta. It is part of Rethinking Roughnecks: Gender and Energy in 20th and 21st century Alberta, part of the Energy Stories Lab at the University of Calgary.

In Alberta the ‘roughneck’, or male oil rig worker, has been a persistent archetype. This project rethinks our view of gendered oil labour by highlighting the often-invisible labour of women and their active role in Alberta’s energy industries. In partnership with the Canadian Energy Museum, we have completed a pilot project AR experience that uses community-authored oral histories to re-narrate the transition to oil in Alberta, specifically the 1947 Leduc oil discovery.

Through the 3D model of an 8x16 foot skidshack, a mobile home brought to drill sites by truck or train, we provide an experience of being inside a typical family oilfield dwelling. Through AR you can view the building from the outside or scale it larger to go inside, where there are several objects you can activate to hear oral histories derived from community resources at the Canadian Energy Museum.