Origins AR
Point a phone at a label in the Rock Engraving Archive or the Spirit World gallery. The animals in the engravings come to life.
Wits Origins Centre
The engraving stays. The animal moves.
Origins AR is the free app for the Origins Centre at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
The app launched in April 2021. Worldbuild delivered the Unity work in 2021 and 2022, and returned in 2025.
- Museum
- Origins Centre, University of the Witwatersrand.
- Launched
- April 2021.
- Where it works
- Rock Engraving Archive and the Spirit World gallery.
- Worldbuild
- Unity AR in 2021, 2022, and 2025.
- Stores
- Free on the App Store, published by Dale P. Deacon, and on Google Play as OriginsCentreAR.
In the galleries
What it had to prove
Attention stays on the rock.
Rock art is fragile and still. The app asks whether animation on a phone can deepen attention to an engraving, rather than pulling the eye away from it.
Visitors aim at a label. The animal appears next to the stone. The engraving is still the object in the room.
Credits
- Museum
- Wits Origins Centre
- Unity AR
- Worldbuild
- App Store publisher
- Dale P. Deacon
Open the app
The stores and the museum page are the public record.
To talk to Worldbuild about the build, write to Dale.