EARTH SPEAKR
OLAFUR ELIASSON x AKQA
Earth Speakr is a global participatory artwork by Olafur Eliasson, built as a cross-platform app and web experience. Children record messages that become animated AR characters — their facial expressions mapped in real time — and these appear on a global, interactive map. The full project consisted of a mobile application, website and a custom built content moderation system.
Over half a million people around the world have downloaded the Earth Speakr app. More than 70 languages have been spoken within the app, from more than 120 countries around the world. The messages have been listened to by the general public over 3 million times through the Earth Speakr app and website.
ROLES _
Technical lead
(mobile, AR, web, and backend)
Architecture and development
Functional prototypes
Release management
(app stores)
TECH STACK _
Mobile App
Android / iOS (Native)
Unity
Banuba framework (facial tracking)
Firebase (Functions, Firestore, Crashlytics, Notifications, IAM)
Mapbox
Cloudinary (DAM + on-demand transformations)
Websites
React, Gatsby
Firebase (Functions, Firestore, Storage, IAM)
DatoCMS
GraphQL
Mapbox
Cloudinary
Backend
React
Tailwind
Node.js
Express
Firebase (Functions, Storage, IAM, Firestore, Notifications, Hosting)
Cloudinary
