Kosmos App

KOSMOS APP is a digital audio-performance broadcasting platform that lets its users travel through the sound-based historical and cultural memory of particular public spaces. Tracking the phone's GPS location, the application offers the chance to physically walk through a geography of sounds and stories. The first edition consists of four programmes (stories) created by professional theatre, literature and music artists in collaboration with scientists and researchers of history and culture.

The audio collage The Crossroads of Four Confessions, set in the Park of Peace in Kaunas, is built from several dozen authentic documentary recordings and park stories recorded by professional actors. Accompanied by music and sound design, it leads listeners through the religious and cultural traditions of all four confessions present in the park, the famous events of All Souls' Day in 1956, the memory of the Lithuanian resistance held in its monuments, and the stories of today's residents.

The audio composition RECONCILIATION is a musical memory trail, which connects the Museum, the Ninth Fort and the Monument. It invites you to take a walk and experience the emotional transformation of the noise of the past — to feel the cultural traumas caused by the dramatic political changes of the 20th century. The symbolic buzzes of the World Wars, totalitarian regimes and crimes against the humanity encourage to imagine a person in an insecure buzzing environment. Noisy, intense and intermittent sounds ultimately seek harmony, stimulate the reflection on society's relationship with history, and lead to the recognition and reconciliation of historical traumas.

The audio composition Absolute World, set in the Aleksotas and Old Town districts of Kaunas, immerses the listener in the intellectual world of the world-famous scientists Oskar and Hermann Minkowski, who spent their childhood years in Kaunas, and explores the links between the city of that time and their discoveries. The brothers' daily childhood walk across the Vytautas the Great Bridge to the Kaunas Governorate Gymnasium becomes the starting point of the programme. At that time, however, it was a bridge not only between two banks, but between two calendars.

Piligrimai is an audio route that invites you to extend the experience of the film Piligrimai (dir. Laurynas Bareiša) by walking through its filming locations in Karmėlava and meeting the film’s main characters. Paulius and Indrė arrive in Karmėlava, where exactly four years earlier Matas — Paulius’s brother and Indrė’s boyfriend — was murdered. At first glance they seem to have no particular purpose. Soon, however, the local residents realise who these newcomers are. Paulius tries to uncover the circumstances of what happened, while Indrė tries to keep him from acting rashly, yet she herself begins to doubt the meaning of the journey. In the end, they will have to answer for themselves why they came here and what this journey has changed. Piligrimai had its world premiere at the 2021 Venice Film Festival, where it was awarded a Lion in the Orizzonti programme.

In the second edition, NEPTUNE, the sound-based augmented reality was developed into a tool for artists. GPS tracking was expanded with multiple smartphone sensors such as motion sensors: from a location-based audio-performance the platform transformed to an engaging and interactive experience through the movement of the user's phone. A data-driven creative tool was developed: by gathering and managing complex motion tracking data, filtering and combining it into different variations, responsive outputs of sound are created that seamlessly interact with users. The single player was expanded by integrating multi-player features, allowing users to impact the composition, interact with one another and engage as a group.

The platform thus combines a creative tool, a data managing system and a user engagement enhancer, capable of creating interactive and engaging storytelling for cultural heritage and historical venues and for museums without physical interventions, as well as immersive, engaging and interactive performances, audience-dependent installations and art pieces.