Techies in for a treat with festival featuring history of gaming, podcasting, AI and VR

Techies are in for a treat over the next two weeks, with a range of events taking place as part of the Dublin Festival of History focused on gaming, the use of AR and VR in history education, and how podcasts are making history more accessible.

The Festival runs from 24^th September until 7^th October, and features 140 events in total, all of which are free to attend.  Highlights for techies include:

• ‘The Historical Impact of Gaming: from BC to PC’

This talk will explore the development of the video game industry and its inclusion and digital development of historical battles, characters and mythologies. It will also discuss how video games can be used a teaching tool for history in the classroom with reference to developments in AR and VR technologies. (Ballyfermot Library, Ballyfermot Road 25th September at 6.30pm)

• ‘Hi-Fidelity History: Exploring the History Podcast’

As podcasts enjoy an upsurge in popularity – with ever-growing numbers of niche podcasts emerging – this talk will explore how the history world has taken to the podcast phenomenon. How can you listen to history podcasts or become a practitioner in the field? The panel including Gillian Colton, Finbar Dwyer, Conor Mulvagh and moderator Jennifer Redmond will consider the issues. (Dublin City Library and Archive, Pearse Street, Dublin 2; Tuesday, 25^th September, 1.10pm)

The Dublin Festival of History will also focus on how technology is impacting on and being applied to history studies.  An event at Richmond Barracks on 1^st October, for example, will examine how digitising archives can help new stories to emerge, and act as a “belated form of witnessing”.  The event, ‘The Witness and the Archive: Digital responses to Ireland’s institutional history’ (Richmond Barracks, Inchicore; 1st October, 11am), will take the 2009 Ryan Report as a case study to see whether one of the most important, but little read publications in the history of the Irish state can be made accessible through digitisation.

The full programme for the Festival can be found at www.dublinfestivalofhistory.ie.