Chapter 54
From Walls to Worlds: Co-creating Heritage Narratives with AR Murals
Agnes Michalczyk
Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Abstract
Exploring the definition of heritage as a set of relationships with the past, this research looks at obstructions in equitable access to heritage. Recent decades saw heightened interest in intangible heritage, driven by digital media's use for transmitting heritage. Immersive technologies enrich on-site experiences and virtual tours, challenging narratives, power dynamics, and access to heritage sites.
In places like Egypt, local inhabitants are often excluded from economic gains from tourism and denied agency over heritage narratives, resulting in a loss of ownership.ss This research investigates how augmented reality (AR) murals can facilitate equitable heritage management through education, participation, and diverse discourse, while also evaluating the inherent technological risks. Methodologically, it defines tangible and intangible heritage notions for marginalised communities and frames IT's role through heritage theory and prototypes. A comparative analysis of AR projects in Cairo, India, China, and Europe informs solutions for participatory design.
Keywords: Augmented Reality (AR) Murals, Cultural Heritage Preservation, Intangible Heritage, Participatory Design, Digital Restoration
Introduction
Augmented reality (AR) murals stand at the intersection of street art, digital media, and heritage1,2 preservation, transforming static walls into interactive experiences through overlaid animations, sound, or narrative3. Heritage is more than monuments; it is a living relationship between people and the past, frequently reflecting unequal power dynamics4. In many developing nations reliant on tourism, communities are excluded from heritage narratives and economic benefits. Digital tools such as AR offer ways to document, share, and interpret heritage, but they also raise questions about representation, authenticity, and access. This article assesses how AR murals can serve as catalysts for inclusive heritage management, drawing on examples from Egypt’s Al Khalifa district and international initiatives (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Wings of Khalifa Mural.
Obstacles to Equitable Access
In historic districts like Cairo's Al Khalifa, residents frequently face displacement and exclusion from tourism and redevelopment, which favours outside interests. The area’s rich built heritage (mosques, mausoleums) is coupled with a vibrant intangible culture (festivals, stories)5, but communal practices like the Mawlid of al-Sayyida Sukayna6, are often curtailed, undermining their role as placemakers. Similarly, in India’s Shekhawati region, decaying nineteensth-century haveli murals are admired by tourists, but local communities see little benefit, contributing to neglect and damage7. These instances show heritage as contested terrain, where power determines which narratives are amplified and which communities are excluded.
Al Khalifa Murals
The Al Khalifa project, executed in collaboration with the Megawra Built Environment Collective, clearly demonstrates the capacity of AR murals to ssupport cosmmunity-centred heritage. Initial interventions near the Ahmad Bey Kohya Mosque involved painting four murals that combined local legends8 and scenes of daily life, which were subsequently activated via the Artivive app (Figure 2). The aim was to show that heritage belongs to residents and can be a source of pride and livelihood9. Feedback mixed enthusiasm and discomfort: some residents voiced discomfort with the focus on female figures10 or the monochrome palette—the project successfully engaged the community and highlighted intangible heritage. Building on this success, the participatory Wings of Khalifa mural (Figure 3) involved local teenagers in both the conceptualisation and painting phases11. Its accessibility through both Artivive and Instagram encouraged social media sharing, demonstrating AR’s motivational power for youth engagement and its role in fostering strong ownership while actively countering community tokenisation.
Maram Arafa’s work on the Mawlid of al‑Sayyida Sukayna illustrated the potential for preserving intangible heritage by using AR to vsirtually re-enact the discontinued al-Zaffa12 procession, with content from songs and memories recorded by teenagers (Figure 4). This capability to revive practices that have vanished from public space and educate new generations about cultural traditions is also evident in global efforts, such as the digital reconstruction of seventh-century murals at China’s Zhao Yigong Tomb using Adobe Aero, to document and reimagine the originals. Interplay of visual art, fashion, and ritual in Tang‑dynasty burials emphasised the artwork’s ritual significance and accessibility without endangering the originals13. In both contexts, AR becomes a bridge between tangible artefacts and intangible values14.
Figure 2: One of the AR murals in Al Khalifa and the AR view in ARTIVIVE on a mobile phone.
Figure 3: Implementation of the Wings of Khalifa mural with local youth.
Figure 4: Mural marker for the Mawlid of al‑Sayyida Sukayna’s Zaffa experience.
Remembering and Reactivating
Beyond Cairo, AR is established as a tool for urban revitalisation and conservation, primarily through the capacity to reclaim and reactivate place. The Augmenting Angri project in Italy15 employed AR to digitally restore and tour 20 decaying murals, stimulating interest in neglected neighbourhoods and initiating dialogue on local identity, including contentious social issues like organised crime16. Similarly, the digitisation of the fragile Shekhawati murals in India, utilising open-source tools to create AR overlays, helps democratise access to this open-air gallery. This initiative highlights the efficacy of low-cost technologies in contributing to preservation and attracting donations for conservation, thereby offering a replicable model for cash-strapped communities globally17. Collectively, these diverse projects underscore AR's significant potential in education, conservation, and comparative research on mural traditions.
Ethical and Technical Imperatives for Sustainable AR
The effective and ethical deployment of AR in heritage requires rigorous consideration of both technical choices and ethical governance. Technical decisions fundamentally impact project sustainability, notably the ongoing shift from marker-based AR—which relies on physical tags and can be impractical on fragile surfaces, as observed in projects like Al Khalifa and Angri—to marker-less, geospatial approaches that utilise GPS and computer vision. Future research, such as Bauer et al.'s Augmenting Murals18, suggests that marker-less AR is achievable, thus eliminating the need for intrusive signage, a necessity in sensitive archaeological sites.
For long-term sustainable AR projects, one must simultaneously address critical ethical issues. Foremost is inclusive representation: projects must mandate the involvement of local stakeholders in content creation to ensure narratives accurately reflect their lived experiences and avoid exoticisation. Workshops like those run by Michalczyk and Arafa serve as successful models for amplifying marginalised voices. Relatedly, the ease of digital creation introduces the risk of low-quality replicas and misinformation, which can trivialise cultural assets19. Therefore, maintaining scholarly rigour demands a careful balance between creativity and accuracy, supported by transparent curation of sources. Critics also caution that excessive or entertainment‑driven overlays turn historic sites into theme parks, undermining their cultural significance.
Beyond content, structural issues of digital equity must be addressed. Although commercial entities often promote AR as an engine for tourism, the expense of professional infrastructure and reliance on proprietary platforms create significant barriers for developing nations20. Exclusive corporate projects risk widening digital divides and marginalising local voices in governance.
Consequently, exclusive corporate projects risk widening digital divides and actively marginalising local voices in governance. A further threat to sustainability is platform obsolescence: dependence on proprietary platforms (e.g., Meta’s Spark AR, Adobe Aero) creates a critical vulnerability where their discontinuation21 results in the loss of AR experiences and their data. Since big tech companies often retain ownership of user content, this structural reality raises concerns over cultural sovereignty, necessitating that practitioners favour open-source or locally hosted solutions and advocate for protective regulations. Finally, ethical implementation requires strict moderation and contextual respect to prevent excessive, entertainment-driven overlays from transforming historic sites into themed environments, which would fundamentally undermine their cultural significance22.
Conclusion
AR murals offer an innovative fusion of visual art and digital storytelling for heritage preservation, enabling the visualisation of marginalised narratives and the creation of digital surrogates. To harness this potential, practitioners must couple technical ingenuity with ethical sensitivity, requiring them to center local voices, ensure accuracy and transparency, plan for platform obsolescence, and advocate for supportive legal frameworks.
This methodology respects the theoretical understanding that heritage is lived, not merely preserved in stone23, as rituals and memories provide monuments with their meaning, allowing AR murals to weave narrative threads between physical and digital spaces.
Future development must therefore commit to addressing pressing issues: resolving technological challenges by implementing hybrid AR models in dense districts24, assessing and mitigating the environmental footprint of AR infrastructure, and conducting empirical studies to ensure accessibility for diverse demographic groups, including seniors and the disabled. Thoughtfully implemented, AR murals serve as powerful tools for equitable and integrated heritage management, moving decisively beyond mere digital spectacle.
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