'Evolution in Air, Sand and Water', Workshop by Department of Site-Specific Art and Scenography, Vilnius Faculty of Vilnius Academy of Arts

Students from various specialisations – set designers, animators, cinematographers and sound directors – come together for a collaborative creative project, during which they create short animated stories united by the common theme “Evolution in Air, Sand and Water”. These creative workshops aim to reveal the uniqueness of the Curonian Spit ecosystem through two-dimensional animated storytelling. A key requirement is that only natural materials from the environment are used to create the film’s scenography and characters.

The ten-day creative workshop is dedicated to hands-on learning of stop-motion animation techniques, set design, light modelling and the role of lighting, the interplay of color and texture and frame composition as well as the creation of a soundscape. The creative process begins with educational excursions and a lecture at the Lithuanian Sea Museum, where students become familiar with the Baltic Sea ecosystem. This is followed by an intensive creative phase involving scriptwriting, storyboard development and gathering of visual material through sketching, photography and filming. Another group of students focuses on sound – recording natural sounds and creating atmospheric music to accompany the animation. In this way, students draw visual inspiration from nature, seek a cohesive visual style and plasticity, create initial animation tests and combine all elements into a unified audiovisual narrative. Students will work in the workshops and with the equipment available at the Nida Art Colony.

The project also aims to develop teamwork skills among students from different specialisations – promoting collaboration, active listening and the ability to present and defend one’s creative ideas within a group.

The final animated works are presented to the Neringa community in three locations: the Nida Art Colony, the Curonian Spit History Museum and the Liudvikas Rėza Cultural Center in Juodkrantė.

Lecturers: Assoc. Prof. Giedrė Brazytė (Department of Monumental Painting and Scenography, VAA), Assoc. Prof. Jurga Gerdvilaitė (Department of Monumental Painting and Scenography, VAA), Lecturer Antanas Skučas (Department of Photography, Animation and Media Art, VAA), Simas Glinskis (LMTA), Assoc. Prof. Antanas Jasenka (KTU), Daina Ališauskaitė-Zinovičienė (Head of the Monumentalists’ Laboratory, VAA)