Notes from Birds is an interactive augmented reality (AR) experience inspired by Priscilla Yu’s mural Heron’s Dreamscape. Drawing from Priscilla’s portrayal of the coexistence between birds and people in Vancouver, media artist Jiwon Ham and AR researcher Ana Cárdenas created a site-specific AR app that shares poetic and humorous stories from a bird’s perspective.

This web-based AR app, built with 8th Wall, is accessible on any smartphone. Using image tracking and interactive components, visitors on-site can scan a QR code, open the app,and point their phone at the mural to reveal hidden story blocks that unlock short, playful stories.

The narratives are inspired by Vancouver’s local birds—herons, geese, crows, hummingbirds—and were generated with AI to give each bird a unique voice shaped by its quirks, habitats, and interactions with humans.

Notes from Birds transforms the mural into a layered storytelling experience, inviting audiences to explore, imagine, and see the city as a shared space—one where birds and humans often cross paths, and sometimes even share the same stories.