Lens That x Dubai Design Week: Blending Culture And Innovation With AR
For a decade now, Dubai Design Week has held the tradition of bringing together some of the most creative minds in the region, sharing their passion for art and innovation. This year, with the 10th anniversary of the event, was no different. Over 500 talented designers came together to push the boundaries of design through installations, exhibitions, talks and workshops.
As always, creativity, sustainability, and innovation remained at the core of the event.
The highlight among this year’s incredible exhibitions was the Neo-Majlis by Future Bedouin, aiming to manifest the region’s culture through imaginative, contemporary installation. Its translucent, inflatable, pink structure invited attendees to experience Middle Eastern culture, reimagining familiar traditional spaces to suit modern audiences’ needs.
Neo-Majlis Snapchat AR Lens
Building on the event’s innovative theme we collaborated with Future Bedouin to create a dedicated Snapchat Lens for Neo-Majlis, allowing attendees and users worldwide to experience the art themselves.
Accessible via a simple QR code, the AR experience enhanced the Neo-Majlis installation with floating, glowing elements that responded to users’ head movements. The 3D shapes invited users to actively engage with its story and symbolism, merging heritage with innovation.
Over six days, the filter reached nearly 100,000 people and recorded over 150,000 plays, boosting the installation’s reach beyond the limited space of the festival.
AR’s ability to merge the physical and digital worlds offers unique opportunities for artists and cultural institutions to make the learning experience more appealing to users, encouraging building heritage awareness. Technologies like AR make culture more accessible, too.
By attracting new audiences with interactive, playful features, Augmented Reality can not only create new aesthetic possibilities for artists but also reach wider audiences, thanks to the easily available social media platforms like Snapchat.
AR supports honouring heritage, and inviting global participation in traditions that might otherwise remain local.
