Virtual as Vilnius: Imaginaries and Technologies Shaping the City

Virtuality is much more than just a by-product of digital fictionalism, but the realm of ideas that actively shape our reality. The city of Vilnius, which is celebrating its seven hundred (700) years anniversary, is itself a notable example of a virtual project. Established with the letters promising an inclusive and open city for everyone: to this day the city is still being created by the power of narrative and collective imaginaries.

Based on the "Virtual Space" talk series the team of Architektūros fondas, partnering with The Bartlett School of Architecture, present a symposium dedicated to exploring the importance of virtual and emerging technologies in shaping our daily habits and quotidian environments. The event will include virtual excursions and screenings of city symphonies, which will allow visitors to experience the transformations of Vilnius through times and ideologies. Equally, curated talks with local experts aim to enrich our understanding of how digital tools both influence, and make-over, the twenty-first century city.

Event Participants
- Justinas Dūdėnas, Povilas Vincentas Jankūnas and Adomas Žudys will present National Gallery of Virtuality, which you can visit at nacionalinevirtualybesgalerija.lt.
- Rasa Antanavičiūtė will present research of unrealised architectural and urban projects in Vilnius from the twentieth century and the ideas still haunting our reality.
- Polly Hudson will present the multidisciplinary knowledge sharing project on building stocks called Colouring London which addresses Computer Vision and Digital Heritage.
- Sandra Youkhana and Luke Caspar Pearson (You+Pea) will give a talk about video games as an enabling tool in creating and communicating urbanism and architecture.
- Dian Joy, Lucy Wheeler, Max Percy and Tatiana Collet Apraxine (Cohort of Immersive Assembly Vol 3) will briefly present their works exploring the new affordances immersive media offers for autonomous interrogation and interpretation of flows of information through Extended Reality (XR), and other hybrid encoded spaces.
- Alan Zucconi will join the concluding discussion, bringing his expertise as a Video Game STEM Ambassador, with a strong focus on intersectional feminism and the support of underrepresented groups in the game industry.
- Will Jennings is going to moderate the concluding discussion.