With Pokémon GO all the rage, the Open Design Cape Town festival from 10 to 21 August offers opportunities to get to grips with the augmented reality technology behind the latest craze. By Open Design Cape Town
The tech events are part of the 12-day Festival, which features over 140 events including talks, exhibitions, workshops, tours, activations and interactive experiences that explore how design and innovation can be used to add great value to our daily lives and create a more sustainable future.
The festival takes place in two stages, with events, expos and workshops at Cape Town City Hall from 10-16 August and citywide activations from 17-21 August. Open Design is open to everyone, whether they are new to design or already see design and innovation as critical to designing a better future world. While some festival events are ticketed, most events are free to attend.
Festival goers will be able to download apps enabling them to experience a range of different applications of augmented reality and will also be able to indulge in gaming.
“If you’ve heard of augmented reality but you’ve never had a chance to experience it, now’s your chance,” say the festival organisers.
Virtual reality will also feature strongly in the technology segment of the Festival and, with 3D scanning technology becoming more sophisticated and playing a major role in all sectors, festival goers will even be able to have a 3D scan done of themselves.
The augmented reality and gaming experience, and the virtual reality and 3D scanning events kick off in the City Hall from 10 August. The augmented reality and virtual reality events run at various times until 16 August and the 3D scanning exhibition ends on 13 August. However, Open Design Cape Town features numerous other tech exhibitions and events, including:
- A 24-Hour Game Jam enabling festival goers to witness gaming students honing their craft.
- Talk 100: A day of free talks by dedicated change-makers and local tech thought leaders working on ground-breaking projects that are all contributing to a better world takes place on Thursday 11 August from 11:00-16:00. They include Robyn Farah, founder of KAT-O and TECHTalk, and tech activist with Arduino Cape Town, Modern Alchemists and Women in Tech Cape Town; Lars Espeter: game developer, augmented and virtual reality fan and leader of the Game Graphics and Multimedia Entertainment course at Friends of Design; and Alan Ball, drone pilot and founder of Flying Robot.
- The Innovate the Cape workshop on 20 August from 10:00 to 16:00. Innovate the Cape competition finalists who are receiving funding and support to create tech and other solutions to problems they have identified in their communities will interact with each other and festival goers.
- Design by Numbers, a workshop on 15 August between 14:00 and 17:00, that creates a powerful connection between design thinking and numeracy.
- Brightminds Disassembly Workshops (13 August 10:00 – 16:00) in which children learn how to break apart and rebuild everyday appliances.
Official festival partners include the City of Cape Town, the Department of Arts and Culture, Red Bull, the Cape Craft and Design Institute and Cape Town Tourism.