Choctaw Art Hike
Enhancing on-property experiences with cultural activations
Click Here Labs
Choctaw Casinos & Resorts
Background
Choctaw Casinos & Resorts wanted to create an experience that would honor and preserve their culture while utilizing modern technology. The Art Hike aims to educate visitors about Choctaw heritage in an engaging way, while carefully avoiding cultural appropriation and maintaining a respectful distance from gambling elements at Choctaw Landing.
The Art Hike
The Choctaw Landing Art Hike is a self-guided tour that allows visitors to explore Choctaw art through a mobile website, with guidance provided by an AI avatar of Chief Gary Batton. As visitors move through the new Choctaw Landing Hochatown property, they can scan QR codes placed near artworks to learn more about each piece and its significance, while Chief Batton’s avatar provides real-time insights and answers.
Interactive Map
The interactive map feature on the mobile website allows users to locate artwork throughout Choctaw Landing Hochatown. Users can select a specific piece to view detailed artist information or launch the gamified experience related to that artwork.
Artist Pages
The artist detail pages provide a biography, description, and visuals for each artist and their work. These pages include a button for interactive artworks to launch the game, inviting users to engage further with the art.
Gameplay
The game is initiated by scanning a QR code next to each piece of art, allowing users to earn a digital badge for each artwork they explore. When tapped, the badge reveals a flip card displaying the symbol and its meaning. The game incorporates culturally respectful gamification techniques that encourage exploration and learning while honoring Choctaw traditions.
Challenge
How can we create an interactive, AI-driven experience that authentically represents Choctaw culture, educates visitors, and remains culturally respectful, especially when dealing with the challenges of AI-generated content and language digitization?
AI Avatar Kiosk
The AI avatar of Chief Gary Batton serves as a knowledgeable guide for visitors during the art hike, offering insights into the artworks and answering questions with cultural accuracy. To create this avatar, training footage of Chief Batton was recorded to capture his authentic voice and appearance. This footage was then utilized on the HeyGen platform to generate videos of him speaking from a script or to connect with a language model like ChatGPT, enriched with a custom knowledge base tailored to the art hike experience.
Custom Knowledge
Visitors can interact with the AI avatar by asking questions related to the art hike or about the artworks themselves. The AI avatar provides contextually relevant answers, drawing from the comprehensive content of the art hike website. This knowledge base includes details on each piece of art, the artists, and the cultural significance behind them. Plans are in place to scale Chief Batton's AI avatar to enhance other experiences across Choctaw Casinos and Resorts, providing consistent and culturally respectful guidance throughout all properties.
Reflection
This project highlighted the challenges of combining advanced technology with cultural sensitivity. While AI facilitated the creation of an engaging experience, it required careful oversight to ensure it remained true to Choctaw values and accurately represented the language. Moving forward, we plan to scale the experience to more locations, expand cultural content beyond art, and continue improving the AI avatar as technology evolves. Additionally, digitizing and accurately pronouncing the Choctaw language will be a priority for future iterations.
