Technology Pilot
Kuenta
Papiamento for “story”
Kuenta is our proof-of-concept for a different kind of heritage experience — one that meets visitors exactly where they are, at the physical site, with the story of that place told in narrated chapters, illustrated, and grounded in real history. No app download. No QR-code landing page. Point your phone at a marker and the story begins.
A note on what this is: Kuenta is a working prototype, not a finished product. Two sites are live and testable on any smartphone browser today. The photography is illustrated rather than archival — real historical photography is the next step, pending rights conversations with Coleccion Aruba and Monumentenfonds Aruba. We say this plainly because the distance between a working prototype and a finished product matters.
Why AR, why monuments
Most of Aruba's protected monuments tell their story through a plaque, if anything at all. The history that belongs to a place rarely reaches the person standing in front of it — not because the history doesn't exist, but because there is no mechanism to surface it at the right moment. Kuenta is that mechanism.
The gap is at the site itself
The history that belongs to a place rarely reaches the person standing in front of it — not because the history doesn’t exist, but because there is no mechanism to surface it at the right moment.
No install, no friction
Kuenta runs entirely in a phone browser. A visitor points their camera at a printed marker and the experience begins. There is no app to download, no account to create. That frictionless entry is not a technical detail — it is the difference between something that gets used and something that doesn’t.
Honest about the hard history
Fort Zoutman’s chapter on forced labor and the slave trade is told directly, not softened. The fort holds UNESCO recognition as a Place of Memory of the Slave Trade Route in the Latin Caribbean. Kuenta treats that recognition as a responsibility, not a footnote.
Two sites, live today
Alto Vista Chapel
Noord, Aruba
5 chapters
From the 1750 mission founding, through the 1816 abandonment, the 1950s rediscovery by schoolteacher Francisca Henriquez Lacle, to the 1952 rebuilding.
Fort Zoutman & Willem III Tower
Oranjestad, Aruba
5 chapters
From the 1796 forced-labor construction, through a century of civic reuse, to the 1983 reopening as the Historical Museum of Aruba and today’s weekly Bon Bini Festival.
Project Phases
01
completeSingle-site proof
Built and tested the core experience format: AR marker detection, narrated chapter playback, illustrated imagery, per-chapter quiz, badge, and passport.
02
in progressTwo-site proof
Both Alto Vista Chapel and Fort Zoutman live. Partnership conversations underway with Stichting Monumentenfonds Aruba and Coleccion Aruba. Meeting with Monumentenfonds planned for July 2026.
03
plannedPartnership formalization
Convert warm institutional relationships into documented content partnerships. Replace illustrated artwork with rights-cleared archival photography. Add Papiamento narration alongside English, Dutch, and Spanish.
04
plannedCommercial model
Three paths under evaluation: grant/sponsorship funding aligned with ATA’s 2026 Corporate Plan; direct visitor payment (free first site, paid unlock); B2B licensing to hotels and tour operators.
How This Connects to Advisory
Kuenta tests something the advisory model has always argued: that the gap between heritage and visitor experience is a design problem, not a content problem. The history exists. The interest exists. What is missing is the mechanism that puts the right story in front of the right person at the right moment. Every decision in Kuenta's design — frictionless entry, site-specific narration, honest treatment of difficult history — is a hypothesis about how that mechanism should work. The results feed back into how we advise clients on experience design.
Current Institutional Conversations
—Stichting Monumentenfonds Aruba — monument content and archival context
—Coleccion Aruba / Biblioteca Nacional — historical photography rights
—Departamento di Cultura Aruba — cultural policy alignment
Interested in supporting this project?
We are looking for archival photography partners, institutional collaborators, and pilot sponsors for the commercial phase. If you work with Aruba's cultural heritage in any capacity, we'd welcome a conversation.