Parallel Stories

Parallel Stories Cultural Organization · Nonprofit · Budapest

We explore new ways of storytelling and co-create with local communities, bringing history and societal issues to new audiences.

Together with leading international experts, we use augmented reality to rethink how we connect with cultural heritage, and to shape public conversation.

Get in touch Planning an AR project, or want to support our work?
A visitor holds an iPad on a Budapest street. On the screen, two characters from the past stand in the same street.
A scene from the Two Breads prototype of If These Streets Could Talk, on a Budapest street. Photo: Parallel Stories
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professionals at the launch of our four-country EU project, with speakers from the MIT Open Documentary Lab, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum and UCL.

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AR storytelling class at Stanford University, co-created by our founder, Barna Szász. It has been our sandbox for years, and our methods grew out of that continuous experimenting.

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countries where we've given workshops and talks, including at the Warsaw Ghetto Museum, NYU and DOK Leipzig.

Supported by Co-funded by the European Union (These Streets Remember) Claims Conference U.S. Embassy Hungary Foundation EVZ All partners ↓

“I don't think I'll walk through these streets with the same lens on anymore. It's really vivid and moving to be on the exact streets where the Jewish ghetto was.”

Caroline SavageChargé d'Affaires, U.S. Embassy Budapest, after trying If These Streets Could Talk

About

Parallel Stories Cultural Organization (Párhuzamos Történetek Kulturális Egyesület) is a Budapest nonprofit that promotes new, story-based ways to understand and better our society. We work mostly with augmented reality, in education, cultural heritage and community engagement. An AR layer changes how we think, feel and behave in a real place. It also reaches new audiences in new ways.

We work hand in hand with the communities whose stories we tell, and we create with them. We care about what we tell, but just as much about how we tell it.

Our long-term partners are Prof. Victoria Grace Richardson-Walden, founder of the Landecker Digital Memory Lab, and creative producers Noémi Szakonyi and Máté Vincze of Match Frame Productions.

From single workshops to long-term international projects, we share what we learn. That includes our research, our upcoming guidebook, the EU co-funded These Streets Remember project, and workshops in Europe and the U.S.

Barna Szász shows an AR scene on an iPad to a group of people on a Budapest street.
Street testing with institutional partners and members of the public. Photo: Parallel Stories

Projects

Three projects: our flagship in Budapest, its European extension, and a community for immersive media in Hungary.

Video still: U.S. Chargé d'Affaires Caroline Savage tries the AR experience. Watch on YouTube · 2 min

U.S. Chargé d'Affaires Caroline Savage tries the prototype on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Video: U.S. Embassy Budapest

Key facts

  • Three prototypes: Vanczák Béla's Mission, Gingerbread and Two Breads.
  • Tested on the street with more than 200 people.
  • A research study with 60 participants, approved by the University of Sussex ethics committee.
  • Prototype filming at Origo Studios.
  • A team of more than 25: historians, visual researchers, a screenwriter, Unity developers, sound and costume designers, a project manager and a lead for education and impact measurement. Meet the team (in Hungarian) ↗
  • Selected for the IDFA DocLab Forum and the NewImages XR Development Market, and received a special mention at goEast (Merck Award for Innovation in XR), all in 2022.
  • The full experience is planned for 2027.

“I know these streets very well, or so I thought. But there's so much that I don't know.”

Tester who has lived in the neighborhood for at least 10 years
Volumetric filming on a green-screen stage at Origo Studios. A workshop early in the creative process, so that feedback could shape the project. A tester holds an iPad on a Budapest street. Screenwriter Dániel Daoud interviews a tester after the experience.
Filming, co-creation workshop, street testing and research interviews. Photos: Parallel Stories
Visit if-these-streets.org (in Hungarian) ↗

Extension of If These Streets Could Talk · Budapest · Kraków · Novi Sad · Riga · 2026–2028

These Streets Remember

We take our method to partners in three more cities, to bring local histories to light with AR. In each city, local teams take part in a workshop series and develop their own AR pilot for a neighborhood they know. Parallel Stories coordinates the project.

Barna Szász speaks in the Holocaust Memorial Center's former synagogue hall, with These Streets Remember banners and a scene from If These Streets Could Talk on the screen.
The opening conference of These Streets Remember at the Holocaust Memorial Center, Budapest, October 13, 2026. Photo: Dávid Szarka

Key facts

  • Partners: Galicia Jewish Museum (Kraków), Terraforming (Novi Sad), Žanis Lipke Memorial (Riga). Associated partner: Holocaust Memorial Center (Budapest).
  • Opening conference, “Ethical & Participatory Approaches to Holocaust Remembrance in the Digital Age,” on October 13, 2026, at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Budapest, with more than 140 professionals.
  • Runs from August 1, 2026, to July 31, 2028.
  • Results so far: the opening conference in Budapest. Next: workshop series in Riga, Novi Sad and Kraków, a local AR pilot concept in each city, and a closing conference in Budapest.
Co-funded by the European Union

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

A panel discussion in front of a These Streets Remember banner. Prof. Victoria Grace Richardson-Walden (Landecker Digital Memory Lab), Prof. Dr. Anja Ballis (LMU Munich, Germany), Paweł Sawicki (Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, Poland) and Dr. Anikó Félix (Haver Foundation, Hungary) at the These Streets Remember opening conference. Audience members listening at the opening conference. Speakers and partners of the conference on stage.
Panels, audience and speakers at the opening conference. Photos: Dávid Szarka
Conference page at the Holocaust Memorial Center ↗

TSR-BKNR · CERV-2025-CITIZENS-REM · Project 101297607 · Coordinator: Parallel Stories (hello@parallelstories.org)

Community · Hungary

XR Budapest

A community that connects everyone in Hungary's XR scene, from curious beginners to professionals.

Key facts

  • In-person gatherings that show new Hungarian XR projects, where visitors can try the demos.
  • Online channels that share news, events and opportunities, and connect people in the field.
  • The Hungarian representative of Euromersive.
A talk at an XR Budapest event. The audience at an XR Budapest event. A participant of an XR Budapest meetup tries AR glasses on a city street at night.
Talk and audience at an XR Budapest event. Photos: Adaptér
Visit xrbudapest.hu ↗

Partners and funders

Co-funded by the European Union (These Streets Remember) Claims Conference U.S. Embassy Hungary Foundation EVZ German Federal Ministry of Finance Bethlen Gábor Alapkezelő Holocaust Memorial Center Budapest University of Sussex Landecker Digital Memory Lab Foundation for the Jewish Heritage of Elizabethtown Museum JDC Mozaik Jewish Community Hub Match Frame Productions Origo Studios Marom Budapest Propclub GIFF GDM IDFA DocLab Forum, official selection 2022 East Doc Platform NewImages Festival XR Development Market 2022, selected goEast 2022, special mention, Merck Award for Innovation in XR

Sharing what we learn

As a nonprofit, we publish openly: each project becomes a method others can use.

Students in a Stanford classroom, with AR whales floating above the desks.
AR class at Stanford University. Photo: Barna Szász

Open-access guidebook · Winter 2026–27

Ethical, site-based AR

A free, open-access two-volume guidebook by Barna Szász and Prof. Victoria Grace Richardson-Walden, based on If These Streets Could Talk.

  1. Volume I: the ethics. Why AR, how to co-create with communities, and what 60 user interviews tell us.
  2. Volume II: the craft. How to find the story in the streets, write for a visitor who walks and chooses, and test until it works.

Want a copy when it comes out? Write to hello@parallelstories.org with “Guidebook” in the subject.

Selected workshops and talks

Full list of talks ↗

Work with us

Bring augmented reality to your institution.

We help museums, memorial sites, universities and festivals use AR and other immersive technologies well. We work in English and Hungarian, in person or online.

  • Workshops

    Hands-on, from one day to a full series. Your team leaves with a concept for your own site.

  • Consulting

    For anyone considering immersive media, from small organizations taking their first step to foundations and public bodies that fund this work. We know what makes these technologies meaningful, so resources go into work that engages and resonates with its audience.

  • Talks

    On AR, storytelling and memory, for conferences and classrooms.

  • Partnering

    We coordinate and join international projects in memory, heritage and education, such as These Streets Remember.

Planning something? Write to us.

hello@parallelstories.org
Barna Szász shows a participant an AR scene on a phone during a workshop.
Hands-on AR workshop, Budapest. Photo: Adaptér

Support

Help us launch If These Streets Could Talk in 2027.

If These Streets Could Talk is in main production for its 2027 launch. Our main supporter matches the gifts we raise, so your support counts twice.

  • Gifts fund concrete parts of the work: research and 3D reconstruction of individual addresses, further LiDAR scans of the quarter, the education program, the open AR platform other cities can use, and the volumetric shoot that brings the characters to life.
  • Donors in the U.S. can give tax-deductibly through our fiscal sponsor, Edge of Discovery, a 501(c)(3) public charity.
  • Considering a larger gift? Meet Barna Szász for 30 minutes, in person or on Zoom.
Write to us about giving

hello@parallelstories.org

Támogassa munkánkat adója 1%-ával!

Kedvezményezett adószáma: 18264038-1-42

Hungarian taxpayers can give 1% of their personal income tax to us.

Founder and producers

Portrait of Barna Szász.
Photo: Barna Szász

Barna Szász

Barna Szász works with new media and the social impact of new technologies. Since 2019 he has taught augmented reality courses at Stanford University, where he co-created the university's first AR storytelling class. In Budapest, he is developing a large-scale interactive AR documentary experience in the streets of the Jewish quarter.

After graduating from the University of Theatre and Film Arts, Budapest, he worked as a video journalist and later Head of Video at Index.hu. He moved to the U.S. in 2017 on a Fulbright and earned an MFA from Stanford University in 2019, focusing on documentary and interactive media. His work has been acquired by PBS's POV Shorts and The Guardian, Staff Picked at Vimeo, and screened at DOC NYC, DOK Leipzig and CPH:DOX. He has taught video journalism at MOME Budapest and given guest lectures at Rutgers and NYU.

barnaszasz.com ↗

Creative producers

Noémi Szakonyi and Máté Vincze work with us on our projects as creative producers.

Portrait of Noémi Szakonyi.

Noémi Szakonyi

Director and producer, and co-founder of Match Frame Productions. She studied film at the Beijing Film Academy, the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest and NYU Tisch. A three-time Sundance Documentary Film Program grantee, she has produced documentaries that premiered at Sundance, Hot Docs and CPH:DOX, including Agent of Happiness and Her Mothers.

Portrait of Máté Vincze.

Máté Vincze

Director and producer. He graduated from the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest and earned an MFA in filmmaking at NYU Tisch. In 2014 he co-founded Match Frame Productions with Noémi. Their documentary Agent of Happiness premiered at Sundance in 2024, and their Missing 10 Hours, the first large-scale narrative VR work made in Hungary, won Best International VR at Doc Edge in New Zealand.

Photos courtesy of Match Frame Productions