The MTL Urban Museum App (or MUM App for short) was an augmented reality mobile application that displayed historical photographic collections from the McCord Museum’s Notman Photographic Collections. This innovative augmented reality app was first made as the Streetmuseum App for the Museum of London in the UK, and later remade as the MUM App for the McCord Museum in Montreal Canada.

The MUM App showcased over 100 photographic images of Montreal in augmented reality view. The App used an integrated GPS-driven map to indicate the locations where augmented reality superimpositions would occur. By holding the mobile device up in particular locations of the city, the MUM App would superimpose historical photographs onto city views using the camera of the device

The MUM App is the topic of my forthcoming book Reconfiguring the Museum: The Politics of Digital Display which will be published in 2023. In the book, I explore how practices (such as design, exhibition, visiting and management) changed in relation to making the App – and I discuss their cultural and political implications.