„Since we have been working on virtual Vilnius projects for the past year already, it was very symbolic to choose the primary element of the city history – Gediminas’ dream. Especially because this historic moment is important to us for other reasons as well: the university is named after the Grand Duke's name. Moreover, the wolf has become a symbol of our university earlier this year. “ – said Eglė Girdzijauskaitė, Vice-Director at VGTU „LinkMenų fabrikas“.
Student workshops were led by the globally famous professional in the new media arts, architect, and professor of Turin Albertini Academy of Arts (Italy) – Franz Fischnaller. With his help, students created a virtual reality environment of the Duke Gediminas' dream.
„The one who puts on the VR glasses is watching the scenes of pre-Vilnius existence. Only the relief of current Vilnius city. The motives of the dream are revealed through an animated wolf gang, which is interactively chasing the viewer walking in VR environment. Finally, the wolves take him to the Gediminas castle, on the top of which stands a huge iron wolf from the iconic dream. The images of current Vilnius city are reflected on the wolf.“ – says Franz Fishnaller.
"We are very pleased that the joint efforts of VGTU, the Education Exchange Support Foundation, Gluk Media and VGTU „LinkMenų fabrikas“ have once again succeeded in enriching the VGTU multimedia studies with a world-class professional course. These two weeks have greatly broadened the students' perceptions of creative workshops, virtual reality projects and teamwork. It was like a scent of fresh air, not just for students, but for anyone who interacted with this wonderful artist." – said Rytė Žiūrienė, the student curator and lecturer at VGTU Department of Graphical Systems.
According to the legend, Grand Duke, Gediminas, was on a hunting trip in the forests around the mouth of the River Vilnia. After a long and successful hunt he decided to set up camp and spend the night there. While he was asleep, Gediminas had an unusual dream in which he saw an iron wolf at the top of the mountain where he had killed an European bison that day. The iron wolf was standing on the top of a hill with its head raised proudly towards the moon, howling as loud as a hundred wolves.
