A first of its kind, the African XR Realities Lab took place over ten days in residence in Cape Town, South Africa from 23 June – 2 July 2023.
Eight participants were selected to the lab, all with various creative backgrounds, some well versed in creative technologies for VR production and others with minimal experience but all possessing a willingness for experimentation and readiness to learn new digital tools in game engine software and reality capture.
The continent was well represented in its diversity with participants from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, South Africa and Zimbabwe respectively. We had an equal number of women and men participants with 4 women and 4 men.
The focus of the lab was to incubate eight XR prototypes that range in scope from 3DOF – 6DOF and use a range of immersive technologies and workflows, including volumetric capture, photogrammetry, and game engine world building for VR.
The central question of the lab asked throughout the planning and delivery was: What do African realities look like now and how do we facilitate XR projects from Africa, for Africa?

Photo Credits: 400seats
Video Credits: 400seats