The Interdisciplinary Research Projects Program promotes collaboration across various artistic and scientific fields. It provides a platform for artists, researchers, and technologists to work together on projects that combine creative practice with academic research.
These projects explore how performance, sound, design, and digital media interact with social, cultural, and technological changes. By promoting experimental methods and cross-sector partnerships, the program expands the possibilities of artistic research and fosters dialogue across disciplines.
The project “Posthumanism and Contemporary Art Practices” (research supervisor Audronė Žukauskaitė; researcher Denis Petrina) aims to investigate contemporary art practices through the lens of posthumanist theories. The project will focus on the concepts of cognition and affect in order to understand how human and non-human forms of cognition – both organic and technological – interact within the field of the artwork. The research is based on the premise that both human and non-human intelligence function as self-organizing recursive systems that actively transform their environments.
The aim of the project “The Recital in Contemporary Context” (research supervisor Lina Navickaitė; researchers Neringa Valuntonytė and Marta Finkelštein) is to examine the conditions, sociocultural contexts, and potential developments of the piano recital as a canonized concert format and a distinctive platform for pianistic self-expression in contemporary culture. To achieve this goal, the following objectives are formulated: 1. To analyze the (socio)cultural connotations of the piano recital and the premises of its canonization, mythologization, and stereotyping, drawing on cultural studies, semiotics, gender studies, and other relevant approaches; 2. To reveal trends in the programming of recital repertoire among Lithuanian and international pianists and to examine prominent case studies; 3. To analyze the principles behind the construction of the stage persona of a classical music performer and apply them to the study of the piano recital as a form of identity construction; 4. To explore the potential of curatorial practices for the development and contemporary relevance of the piano recital; 5. To develop concepts for contemporary extensions of the piano recital through interdisciplinary practices, visual elements, technological solutions, and stage direction; 6. To summarize and disseminate the results to the academic and artistic research community as well as to the wider public.
The aim of the documentary film project (research supervisor Lina Kaminskaitė-Jančorienė; researchers Natalija Arlauskaitė, Zane Balčus, Audrius Dambrauskas, Narius Kairys, Mantė Valiūnaitė) is to examine Lithuanian documentary cinema and documentary films screened in Lithuania from the margins of the national cinema and cinematic narrative canon. Rather than focusing on major names and dominant directions – such as poetic documentary cinema – the project investigates specialized forms of documentary and documentary filmmaking, including ethnographic documentaries and newsreels. The focus shifts from the center of national film schools to filmmakers who crossed the boundaries of national cinematographies. The research also considers not only films preserved in archives but also those that have not survived yet were seen by audiences, as well as projects conceived by various institutions but never realized. Such an approach makes it possible to reconsider the history of Lithuanian documentary cinema, the premises of its construction, and the diverse forms of documentary representation and documentary poetics that are important not only for national but also for international film studies.
The project “On the Way with the International Musical Avant-Garde: Projections of Microtonal Music in the Works of Contemporary Lithuanian Composers” (research supervisor Rima Povilionienė; researcher Vytautas Germanavičius) seeks to conceptualize, within the history of Lithuanian music, the sequence of modern compositional intentions and outcomes related to the field of microtonal music as a direct or indirect response to the phenomena of the international musical avant-garde. The project traces these developments across different historical periods: beginning approximately in the 1930s with the works of J. Kačinskas; later continuing in émigré contexts with the ideas of V. Jančys; the integration of quarter-tones as a coloristic device in the music of V. Juozapaitis, V. Barkauskas and others in the 1970s–1980s; and extending to the systematic approach of R. Mažulis, as well as to recent examples in the twenty-first century, such as the creation of original sound worlds in the music of J. Repečkaitė and V. Germanavičius, among others.
Ethnographic films have been made since the 19th century. However, for a long time, filmmakers questioned their cinematic value, and ethnographic films were typically evaluated based on their scientific merit and informational content. The perception of ethnographic films as being “interesting only from an anthropological perspective” has shifted dramatically in recent decades. Anthropologists who have turned to filmmaking, such as V. Paravel and L. Castaing-Taylor, increasingly experiment with cinematic strategies traditionally associated with artistic filmmaking. In Lithuania, ethnographic films have been produced since the early 20th century (e.g., the works of A. Račiūnas), continuing through the Soviet era (e.g., H. Šablevičius) and into the period of independent Lithuania (e.g., Šarūnas Bartas). However, a paradigm shift in Lithuanian cinema—one that can be described as an “ethnographic turn”—occurred in 2011 with the release of anthropologist Mantas Kvedaravičius’s debut film “Barzakh”. Today, an increasing number of Lithuanian films, ranging from fiction films to video art, incorporate ethnographic elements as a key dimension (e.g., M. Survila, R. Barzdžiukaitė, among others). Despite this, the term “ethnographic cinema” in Lithuania remains largely associated with folklore or various ethnic traditions in public discourse. Even within academic discussions, ethnographic cinema is still often regarded merely as a cinematic representation of culture. This perspective contrasts sharply with global trends in ethnographic filmmaking. Thus, the project “Between Science and Art: The Past, Present, and Future of Ethnographic Cinema” (implemented by Narius Kairys) is an interdisciplinary study in film studies and visual anthropology. Its goal is to present the history of ethnographic cinema, its current state worldwide and in Lithuania, with a particular focus on the work of Mantas Kvedaravičius. The research findings will be published in a monograph dedicated to ethnographic cinema.
