Project Overview
Get prepared for extreme weather and discover the roadmap to our future. Inspired by the very best climate and resilience research, Mt Resilience is an innovative, interactive experience about how everyday Australian towns can survive intense bushfires and severe storms.
Project Commissioner
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
Project Creator
Team
This AR experience was brought to you by:
ABC & PHORIA
Key Partners:
Bureau of Meterology & CSIRO
Narrated by:
Ursula Yovich & Nate Byrne
ABC Executive Producer & Director:
Emma Morris
PHORIA Director:
Samuel Tate Goudie
ABC Immersive Producer:
Nathan Bazley
PHORIA Producer:
Dean Kominek
PHORIA Producer:
Gemma Hannan
ABC Science Reporter:
Genelle Weule
Visual Artists:
Blak Douglas
Reg Mombassa
Developers:
Sana A. Siddiqui, Dante Cazley-Coldwell
3D Artists:
Hoa Thi Thanh Bui, Aileen Bayaca, Aleksei Bachinskii
Designers:
Jesse Harrison, Sam Donaldson
Sound Designer:
Josh Mitchell
In close consultation with:
Bureau of Meteorology:
Diana Eadie, David Grant
CSIRO:
Tim Muster, Deborah OConnell, Guy Barnett, Veronica Doerr, Brian Walker, Justin Leonard, Alessio Arena, Erin Bohensky, Simon Toze
ABC:
Kath Earle, Janet Gaeta, Claudine Ryan, Jonathan Webb, Stephen Oliver, Teri Calder, Natasha Banks, Theresa Rockley-Hogan, Solua Middleton, Luke Gibbs, Michelle Frampton, Hannah Laxton-Koonce, April Chan, Carly Mooney
PHORIA:
Trent Clews-de Castella, Rayyan Roslan, Steven Kounnas, Antoine Macia, Angelia Cuaca, Ian Ulpiano, Ben Ferns
With thanks to our experts:
Mick Angus, Mark Crosweller, Oliver Costello, Amanda Cahill, Sarah Bekessy, David Bowman, Sarah UBrien, Jess Miller, Lesley Hughes, Deo Prasad, Peter Newman, Barbara Norman, Tessa De Josslin, Brent Jacobs, Rebecca Cunningham, Mitra Anderson-Oliver, Lane Crockett, John F. Richardson, Katie Vines, Kate Charlesworth, Berry Lieberman, David King, Korah Parackal
A further thanks to:
Firesticks Alliance & Red Cross
Project Brief
WebAR, or WebXR experiences, are quickly emerging as a popular way for brands and businesses to create engaging marketing campaigns. But in the right hands this groundbreaking medium is capable of a lot more. Users all over the world are craving more socially-conscious, narrative-driven experiences that can inspire real societal change.
Rising to that challenge, the ABC and PHORIA have pioneered a world leading WebAR experience, designed to empower educational storytelling about climate change and resilience.
Project Innovation/Need
All the research behind Mt Resilience was gathered in close consultation with CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology, Firesticks Alliance, and more than 35 leading experts in climate and resilience. So Mt Resilience needed a way to present complex, scientifically accurate information to everyday Australians, with the lowest possible barrier to entry. The aim was to make education about disaster preparedness more engaging than ever before.
As the result of an impressive collaborative approach between scientists, writers, artists and developers, Mt Resilience delivers a highly detailed 3D model of a town that has realistically adapted to extreme weather, thriving on innovation, Indigenous knowledge, and community spirit.
One challenge was representing Indigenous knowledge in a way that respected the traditions and rich history of storytelling amongst First Nations peoples. So all Indigenous visual references and artwork were developed with artist and Archibald finalist Blak Douglas, capturing just how important artistic expression and Indigenous knowledge are to community resilience.
Another challenge was maintaining the quality of the stunning 3D art and animations, while making the experience robust enough to run on various web browsers devices. Mt Resilience uses a 3D web viewer called AFRAME, which allows content to be viewed from any web device, mobile to desktop. This truly lowers the barriers to entry, as users no longer have to download an app to access the experience. Further, all the animated sequences are meticulously optimised to ensure that users have the most stable AR experience.
Design Challenge
Users simply need to open the Mt Resilience URL on an AR-compatible device and follow the easy onboarding instructions to play. Once they align the experience with their real world environment, a gorgeous introduction sequence takes them to the hero menu - the town itself.
From there, users can engage with the town however they choose. There are two main weather events to activate: Bushfires and Severe Storms. There are also 5 adaptations that show how residents of the town could adapt to the weather events, and even more tooltips to expand on these disaster preparedness concepts. There is even a History sequence created with Blak Douglas that explores the backstory to today’s climate issues.
Throughout every part of the town, the content is both informative and emotive. Users can immerse themselves in audio stories of survival from the series Big Weather (and how to survive it), as well as uncover artwork by Reg Mombassa and Blak Douglas.
Users don’t need an app to visit Mt Resilience. This simultaneously makes Mt Resilience one of the most technically difficult and most accessible narrative experiences built for AR.
With over 33,000 users to date and an average session time of over 5 minutes, Mt Resilience increases engagement by 3x when compared to traditional 2D educational content: achieving a more enticing and comprehensive user experience.
User Experience
Mt Resilience was named a Webby Honoree for the Best Use of AR in 2021. It also won Best Interactive Documentary at the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) 2021.
At the time of launch, Mt Resilience was featured in ABC TV’s three-part series Big Weather (and how to survive it) presented by Craig Reucassel. It also appeared on ABC News Breakfast and Behind the News (BTN), along with several editorial features in ABC News Online.
Mt Resilience was also showcased by Storybox Parramatta.
Digital Experience - AR/VR
This award celebrates innovation and creativity in design of a unique user experience in the combination of text, audio, still images, animation, video, and interactivity content for an augmented reality experience. Consideration given to clarity of communication and the matching information style to audience.
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