Raudondvaris Manor took a challenge to resurrect Juozas Naujalis himself with artificial intelligence
The Raudondvaris Manor recently hosted the Kaunas District Cultural Workers’ Awards and astonished the guests: with the help of an artificial intelligence, Juozas Naujalis himself – the famous Raudondvaris-born composer, organist, conductor, and the patriarch of the Song Celebration – addressed the audience from behind a screen. The Lithuanian start-up Wisit last autumn presented an audio guide for visitors to Gediminas Castle created with the help of AI and this time helped to Raudondvaris manor to realise this J. Naujalis related idea. According to the creators, he is the first historical cultural figure to be embodied by AI tools in Lithuania.
Snieguolė Navickienė, the director of Raudondvaris Manor, says that the idea of using artificial intelligence in the museum’s exhibitions has been around for a long time, but first she wanted to test how it works and what its possibilities are. The Kaunas District Cultural Workers’ Awards provided a great opportunity to do so.
“While preparing for this event, where we planned to remember the famous composer Juozas Naujalis, who worked in Raudondvaris and was patronized by the Tiškevičiai counts, we were considering how to create a lively and interesting event, and how to surprise the cultural workers. Since the Renaissance manor has always been a place where innovation comes first, we decided to experiment with modern technologies during this event. So, instead of the faded textbook photograph of the composer, together with a team of professionals, we presented Juozas Naujalis in a new way and even created a sense of communication with him for the audience,” reveals S. Navickienė.
(Short extract of english version)
“Digital costume” on a professional actor’s body
In order to recreate the most realistic incarnation of Naujalis, the team of the Lithuanian start-up Wisit used several photographs of the composer provided by the Raudondvaris Manor and scanned from historical sources.
“Using AI tools, we created a ‘digital suit’ of this historical figure. To make everything look as natural as possible, we invited a professional actor to help us, both to voice and to convey the movements and emotions of Naujalis’ body. With the help of technology, we managed to combine the actor’s acting with the aforementioned “digital costume” and get a convincing result. In the past, this would have required much more time and expensive motion capture suits,” says Simonas Mozūra, co-founder and creative director of Wisit.
Sakalas Uždavinys, the actor who embodied Naujalis, says this was his first encounter with artificial intelligence in a working context. “I created the character of Juozas Naujalis using intuition and puppetry principles. I gave this character a certain outline, which was finally coloured by modern technology – the tools of the AI. Considering that we had little time and the filming itself was done with minimal technical tools, the result is stunning and creates an illusion of reality. In general, we are on the verge of a great change, but I am convinced that artificial intelligence will not replace human creativity, but will complement it and make it even more empowering,” the actor says.
The interior of the library, from which Naujalis is “addressing”, has been created with the help of AI visual applications and historical photographs of Raudondvaris Manor.
And how did the audience react to Naujalis’ performance from the Other Side? “There were certainly no indifferents in the hall. I saw that some of the guests were overwhelmed, moved – as if they had actually seen the resurrected Naujalis. For me personally, it was also a new and interesting experience – although various elements created by AI are more and more often used in events, this was the first time I had the opportunity to be on stage with a famous historical personality, albeit in a part-time way”, says Paulius Skučas, who was the host.
When asked if he is afraid that in the future, the event hosts created with the help of AI will compete with real people, Skučas smiles: “I think that no AI-created host can replace human contact, feedback, emotions, a specific personality, but we will certainly see more and more of such integrations and collaborations in the future. I see AI as a partner, a helper, not a competitor that can make an event more interesting and engaging. This was the case in this particular instance when Naujalis approached the cultural community.”
(Lithuanian version)
Ambitious plans for the future
The team of the startup Wisit says it was pleasantly surprised to receive an enquiry from Raudondvaris Manor with the idea of using AI to embody J. Naujalis. “This shows that our cultural institutions are also keeping up with global trends. In the future, we will see more and more museums and estates using AI and other technologies. Cultural institutions are not only competing with each other, but also with other forms of entertainment, such as cinema or computer games, and they want to be interesting and attractive,” says Simonas Mozūra.
S. Navickienė argues that it is very important for Raudondvaris Manor, which is located away from the major tourist attractions, to constantly offer something new to its guests. “Attracting and engaging visitors is a constant challenge, so we are looking for new ways to give visitors a better understanding of the history or the exhibition. The visitor wants to experience more than they can at home. So we will continue to work in this direction. We are preparing a special surprise for our guests for the 6th of July, but I won’t reveal all the secrets just yet,” says the manager of Raudondvaris Manor.
“Wisit” is a Lithuanian start-up that won the AI Lithuania hackathon in spring 2023. In autumn 2023, Wisit, together with the National Museum of Lithuania, presented for the first time in Lithuania an AI-powered audioguide, which was developed in partnership with the Lithuanian National Museum.
Organisers’ info. Published in 7md.lt (Nr. 17 (1509), 26-04-20 Chronicle)