408 We Create Butterflies
Turning thousands of residents' drawings into a citywide AR spectacle
What if a city's public art were made by everyone in it? As part of San Jose's #WeCreate408 initiative, residents of all ages — kids and adults, crayons in hand at public events across the city — designed their own butterflies from a simple template. Each flat drawing was transformed into a dynamic 3D model and geo-located in the skies over San Jose, creating a citywide AR scavenger hunt in which participants discovered butterflies at public locations to qualify for prizes. The project converts a simple drawing activity into massive, immersive world-building, shifting citizens from passive observers to active co-authors of their city's digital landscape — with new "swarms" of community art taking flight each year.
