In the week of Liepāja’s 398th birthday, two new installations will enter the Nature House – “Exploration of the Underwater World” and “Kaleidoscope”. Exploring the underwater world with the help of virtual reality allows visitors to look into Lake Liepāja. On the other hand, in the second installation, visitors are able to see nature scenes typical to the Latvian environment in four seasons, which, thanks to the specificity of the Kaleidoscope with several reflective surfaces, create a fragmentary visual experience.
In the Nature House, since 2020, as part of the implementation of the project “Development of the Innovation Center in Liepaja City”, active work has been going on in the development of the content of environmental awareness raising installations in cooperation with the specialists of the Art Research Laboratory of the Faculty of Humanities and Arts of the University of Liepāja. The result of the collaboration can be viewed in such installations as “Bird development”, which depicts the development of a bird in an egg with the help of a holographic method, “Nature and biodiversity” in the “Liepiņa” section, which is home to 2D animated and interactive insects, and “Aquaponics system”, which demonstrates the irrigation of plants with organic nutrients.
“In the implementation of the project, active cooperation was formed with the employees of the Liepaja Municipal Education department involved in the project, who were highly motivated and provided valuable advice on various natural phenomena and animal anatomy and behavioral peculiarities, so that we, artists, could develop not only visually interesting, but also educational and realistic content for Natural House installations. As an art teacher and mother, I am pleased to work in a project that complements the educational ecosystem of Liepāja with exciting opportunities for children, especially in the field of nature and technology, which cannot be learned only from books while sitting on a school bench. In the installations, with digital technology tools, we depict those processes in nature, which are unarmed and often remain unnoticed by humans,” reveals Anna Priedola, head of the Art Research Laboratory of the University of Liepāja, project coordinator at the University of Liepāja.
During the development of the installation “Exploration of the Underwater World”, cooperation with the University of Liepāja has been going on for two years. Unique content has been created that depicts the synergy of the Liepāja lake ecosystem and its inhabitants. The installation has both an educational significance and it includes game-specific elements that encourage students motivation to get to know the environment of Lake Liepāja. Virtual reality specialists Patriks Borža and Kaspars Lēvalds developed five playgrounds, multimedia design specialist Uldis Hasners created 3D visual environments corresponding to the ecosystem of Lake Liepāja, while Krista Dinter created compositions and underwater sound recordings.
“When creating a soundscape for the underwater world of Liepāja Lake, I used both my imagination, imagining what it would be like to feel like a perch and swim underwater, meeting the animals living in the lake, and authentic sounds recorded in Liepāja Lake with a hydrophone. When you go out into nature with a sound recorder, you can feel like a discoverer – with the help of technology, a new perspective opens up, because you can hear the tiniest sounds, in addition, it is possible to listen in unusual places and environments, finding out what is going on under the surface of the water” says the assistant professor of the University of Liepāja, sound artist Krista Dinter.
The content for the installation “Kaleidoscope” was created by Liepāja University lecturer and audio-visual art specialist Pēteris Riekstiņš in cooperation with the Nature House team, developing the audiovisual content that demonstrates natural landscapes corresponding to the nature of Latvia, which change according to the seasons.
“The developers of the project had a clear vision of the most significant scenes and processes of changes of the seasons of the year in Latvian nature, which they successfully managed to depict in a video installation. In developing the content of the installation, I also involved the most motivated students of the bachelor’s study program “New media art”, thus providing an insight into the specifics of creating installations for permanent, wide-audience educational centers, not only temporary art exhibitions,” emphasizes Pēteris Riekstiņš.
The installations are of great importance in the process of implementing the lessons of the interest education programs “Environmental Management” and “Environmental Management II” realized in the Nature House. During the lessons, students get to know the interactive installations and students have possibility to develop an interest in studying natural processes, thereby promoting the development of these skills and a common understanding of the importance of the environment.
Nature House exposition has been developed within the project “Development of the Innovation Centre in Liepaja City” that is funded by the EEA/N grant programme “Research and Education”. Its total cost is EUR 986 049.00, of which EUR 754 327.40 is co-financing of the Norwegian Financial Instrument, EUR 133 116.60 is co-financed by the State budget of Latvia and EUR 98 605.00 by Liepaja City Municipality.
For additional information:
Liepaja Municipal Education department
Science and Education Innovation Centre (ZIIC) Project “Development of Innovation Centre in Liepaja City” manager
Laura Grundmane
Phone nr.: 0037126464841,
E-mail: laura.grundmane@liepaja.edu.lv
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