EyeJack, The Dream Machine Team and Lincoln Center breathed new life into EX VANDALS’ hand-painted San Juan Hill mural by layering eight animated AR vignettes over the 100-foot artwork. Visitors point a phone at the wall and watch the neighborhood’s story spring to life—swing-era jazz clubs glowing after dark, Thelonious Monk riffing beside Zora Neale Hurston, and the bustling streets that once filled the Upper West Side before “urban renewal” erased them.
The Stories
The mural’s AR stories sweep you through time: bustling block parties of the early 1900s, the late-night spark of Jungles Casino where the Charleston was born, and smoky jam sessions with jazz giants like Thelonious Monk and Benny Carter. Hovering bricks reveal hidden heroes—from author Zora Neale Hurston to scholar Arturo Schomburg—while Caribbean rhythms and Southern gospel pulse through street-corner scenes of everyday life. As the decades turn, bulldozers arrive under the 1949 Housing Act, and vibrant homes dissolve into blueprints for Lincoln Center. The final vignette overlays today’s arts campus in vivid color, inviting viewers to reckon with loss—and celebrate the enduring cultural heartbeat that still echoes from San Juan Hill.
The App
Delivered entirely in WebAR—no app download required—the experience launches in any mobile browser and instantly locks digital content to the hand-painted mural via precise image-target tracking. As visitors raise their phones, the camera recognises the mural and anchors six animated vignettes in place, so stories unfurl exactly where they happened. A short, swipe-through onboarding explains the safety tips, highlights the “six unique stories” to discover, and prompts users to simply point your device at the mural and watch history come alive.
The Mural
Hand-painted in a seven-day sprint on Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, the 100-foot mural was led by NYC graffiti pioneer Gary “Wicked” Fritz—founder of The EX VANDALS—joined by RESA & MENACE, RENARD KELLEY, REE, KEON, NOIR, and WG – WICKED GARY. Working assembly-line style, the crew blocked in broad color fields by day and layered fine aerosol line-work by night, blending classic graffiti technique with brushwork. Once complete, the artwork was captured in ultra-high-resolution, printed on weather-resistant composite panels and re-assembled on Lincoln Center’s Amsterdam Ave & 62nd St façade. Commissioned by composer Etienne Charles as part of his San Juan Hill: A New York Story project, the mural stands as a vivid, durable monument to a community erased by mid-century “urban renewal.”
