Our latest cultural storytelling project and our visit to Big Bend field-testing the future of AR
When we first started augzoo, we didn’t know we were developing a methodology. We just knew we needed to test in the wild.
Since 2016, we’ve built and stress-tested our augmented reality platform in live environments—city parks, museums, cultural festivals, historic landmarks, and now, the deserts and canyons of Big Bend National Park. Each time, we rolled out features in the field. We carried gear across uneven topography, debugged code in 100°F heat, survived on grant budgets, and partnered with artists and communities.
That scrappy, field-based approach now has a name:
The Overland Method.
What is The Overland Method?
It’s part research, part road trip, part survival tactic. At its core, it’s how we build our AR platform while deploying it—creating, testing, and refining in real places with real people, not in a lab.
Every location-based experience we’ve launched has been both an event and an experiment—whether in Wooldridge Square’s bowl-shaped terrain for “History All Around Us,” or deep in Dog Canyon, hiking an hour in to capture animations mid-desert.
It’s about meeting the technology where it breaks, so we can build what holds.
Why Bilingual Dinosaurs?
Our newest project—Bilingual Dinosaurs—is a natural next step.
Set in the fossil-rich terrain of Big Bend, we’re imagining what it means to bring extinct beings back to life—not just in visuals, but in language, humor, and perspective. These aren’t just dinosaurs, they’re cultural mirrors, voiced in bilingual tones, reacting to environmental shifts that, frankly, don’t feel that prehistoric anymore.
We’re collaborating with cultural leaders, bilingual storytellers, and educators to imagine:
“If you were a bilingual dinosaur 70 million years ago, what would you say?”
Some answers will be thoughtful. Some will be hilarious. All will be recorded, animated, and walked along digital paths using our new augzoo Storyboard tool—a feature we’re developing in tandem.
Why This Matters
In a time when XR can feel extractive or escapist, we’re forging something different:
AR rooted in place, story, and community.
The Overland Method is not about scaling fast. It’s about scaling right—by learning from the terrain, the tech, and the voices we meet along the way.
This summer, we take that journey even further with Bilingual Dinosaurs, and we invite you to come along.
Stay tuned—and stay weird.
📍 Want to participate?
If you’re a bilingual speaker, cultural leader, or just someone with something to say about what it might mean to be a dinosaur with two languages and one churning planet—STAY TUNED.
Follow our journey on Instagram, LinkedIn, or on Substack.
Augment the World®, one step at a time.