Vilnius Academy of Arts

Abstract The paper presents the material, design, and energy characteristics of cold-formed wood-based composite beams made of sawdust and veneer chips with varying PVAc adhesive content. The study aimed to determine the influence of the macrostructure of the raw material and the manufacturing technology on the fracture mechanism, energy dissipation capacity, and functional mechanical quality of the material. The experimental research included three-point bending tests and fracture surface analysis, supplemented by the evaluation of energy parameters, including fracture energy, specific energy absorption, fracture surface area, and cumulative dissipated energy. In parallel, numerical models were developed and calibrated using the XFEM method, enabling the description of fracture initiation and stable propagation in terms of energy. A significant nonlinear effect of binder content on fracture behavior and energy dissipation capacity was found, with an optimal range in which energy parameters are maximized. Sawdust composites were characterized by higher total energy dissipation and a more extensive fracture process zone, while wood chip composites showed clear gap bridging effects. The presented results provide a new basis for the design of low-energy, sustainable structural composites from wood waste, especially for applications requiring high fracture resistance and energy dissipation, such as sandwich panel cores and hybrid structural components.

The aim of this study is to theoretically substantiate the phenomenon of the human simulacrum as a stable anthropological type of postmodern and digital culture, as well as to identify its anthropological, spiritual, and moral consequences and the conditions for the formation of a simulacrum identity in the digital age. The article examines the phenomenon of the human simulacrum as one of the central crises of postmodern culture. Within the framework of the study, particular attention is given to the analysis of the anthropological and philosophical consequences of the transformation of human subjectivity, characterized by the displacement of the true Self by artificial constructions and simulation. Based on the works of modern scientists, the key problems of anthropocentrism and the crisis of humanity in modern society are considered. The cultural, spiritual, and religious aspects of this problem are also analyzed, demonstrating that even in the context of the postmodern paradigm, it is possible to find ways to overcome the crisis through philosophical anthropology, spiritual practices, the development of critical thinking, and an appeal to a culture of authenticity. The scientific novelty lies in substantiating the human-simulacrum as an objective anthropological type of the digital age. The research results show that simulative forms of identity lead to a crisis of authenticity, moral disorientation, and a loss of connection with the transcendent foundation of human existence.

The subject of the article is the earliest images of the Uniate martyr Josaphat Kuntsevych and their influence on the later development of the martyr’s iconography. The article considers what things were being emphasized in the earliest known of those graphic portraits of the martyr which included a coat of arms or scenes of martyrdom, what elements were used in his later images, and how these images related to Kuntsevych’s true likeness. The origin of these early images of the martyr is investigated by using the broader context of the images created in Vilnius at that time, and explored through an attempt to identify the wood carver who worked in Vilnius on Kuntsevych’s images during the first quarter of the 17th century. The later development of these works is examined through the copper engravings produced by Claes Jansz Visscher, an engraver and publisher who worked in Amsterdam, where these types of engravings attained the form of professional art.

This study analyzes clay sources, ceramic paste recipes, and technological choices in Neolithic pottery from west Lithuania, where local hunter–fisher–gatherer groups encountered incoming communities of the Globular Amphora (GAC) and Corded Ware cultures (CWC) during the fourth to third millennium BCE. Thirty sherds from coastal Šventoji and the inland Biržulis region were analyzed by optical microscopy and SEM–EDS, revealing that most ceramic pastes comprise variegated hydromicaceous clay with quartz and feldspar. In Narva Culture pottery, vessels from the Biržulis region (Daktariškė 5) are dominated by fine-grained clay, whereas Šventoji examples are more variegated and diatom-bearing; both assemblages show organic inclusions (mussel shell, bone, charred plant material) and very low firing temperatures (<650 °C). GAC exhibits cross-site coherence, characterized by crushed, deformed, cataclastic muscovite granite in fine lacustrine clay and low firing temperatures (~650–750 °C). CWC from Daktariškė 5 geochemically clusters with Narva and hybrid-type pottery, while CWC at Šventoji aligns with GAC; both show low firing temperatures (~650–750 °C). Ceramic pastes contain argillaceous clasts partly diffused or intertwined with the main matrix; only a few show traits typical of grog. All pottery was made from local Quaternary glacial sediments, with cultural traditions and environmental context shaping clay selection and manipulation.

In their collaborative work, artists Risk Hazekamp and Miki Ambrózy perform a simple formula for co-witnessing images and imaginaries from different yet related analogue image practices involving microbial life. Their process offers tactics for blurring the line between process and product, offering a photo series and a multivocal exposure text.

Motives: Public participation in urban planning is institutionalized and generally regarded as good practice that should be promoted and implemented beyond the legal procedures for participation. A participatory approach is seen as the opposite of a hierarchical top-down approach and as a tool for achieving spatial justice. However, participatory urban planning poses numerous challenges in terms of both fundamental issues, such as superficiality and a threat to the genius loci of a place and process-related problems, such as technologies, methodology, and trust issues. Aim: This research aims to demonstrate the importance of participatory urban planning as a means to achieve spatial justice, and to present and test participatory planning tools – the Urban Vision Creation Workshop Approach. Results: The research has shown that the Urban Vision Creation Workshop Approach can improve citizens’ participation experience, provide more comprehensive data for urban vision development, and contribute to achieving spatial justice.

We are living in times of data-driven selves and data-defined artistic personas, an age in which the action of border-crossing has become a normative within an artistic work and an artist's life. We might cross the physical borders or the borders of our normatives. Each case of border-crossing awakens our awareness. The question of how an artwork is made is now as sharp as ever before. Contemporary technologies involving AI are opening a wide spectrum of possibilities for enhancing creativity and sustainability within the creation of performance artworks, which is traditionally seen as an individual process of a human creator. The main research question within this study is as follows: How can performance and workshop creation through collaboration between humans and AI and humans and technology be understood as post-humanist artistic research? The sub-question is: How is such a creation process different from artistic creation using traditional tools associated with artistic work? These questions are answered by investigating a case of Techno-Lab in Sapmi and a performance artwork creation process through the method of post-humanist artistic research. The key findings outline the main differences of post-humanist vs. anthropocentric artistic research and art production. The findings can be used to change the current normatives and enhance the radical transcorporeality through interconnections between humans and non-humans—in particular, technology and AI. The findings are relevant to art education and artistic practice representatives.

Maurice Blanchot is a 20th century French philosopher who was one of the few philosophers who started to write on death. Death has a special role in Maurice Blanchot’s philosophy, he understands death from two points of view: existential death and death as a metaphor, which is mainly investigated among side the process of creation and literature. The aim of this work is to present philosophy of Death in Maurice Blanchot’s philosophy. The presentation aims to present that death is understood from two points of view in his thinking. First, death is understood as the existential drive for living and creation; secondly death is also understood as a metaphor in the process of creativity, in this sense, death plays a crucial role in Blanchot’s thinking. The article also aims to explain such Blanchotian concepts as death’s space, death’s transmutation and two kinds of death. Death’s space is understood as a creative space of creation in which the representations and information is converted in the process of creation. Death’s transmutation is the process of transmuting certain material (whether its painting or words) into the new form. While two kinds of death refer to two types of death: the first is the death that persons can comprehend, while the second is the death that is experienced unexpectedly. Lastly, the work also aims to talk about the relationship between death and literature as death becomes an existential and creative force that sparks novelty.

The rapid advancement of innovative technological processes necessitates the fashion industry to contemplate novel perspectives it can offer. Additionally, the industry is progressively reducing its reliance on natural monofilaments and transitioning towards synthetic fabrics with new characteristics, employing intricate composites. The emergence of smart materials incorporating microencapsulation, shape-memory materials, and sensors responsive to external stimuli further contributes to this trend. Efforts are being made to incorporate wearable electronics in the form of flexible multifunctional devices. However, the creation of such novel materials/structures and their integration with traditional fibres present numerous challenges, urging the industry to explore new manufacturing methods. This review primarily focuses on actively developing types of passive intelligent structures discovering their properties and advantages in relation to future clothing. Given that progress is achieved through programming and modifying the structures themselves using new materials/composites, prototyping plays a pivotal role as a problem-solving process. It involves searching for new production methods that can rapidly and cost-effectively help achieve desired outcomes. Presently, additive technologies represent one of the most successful and rapidly advancing alternative manufacturing methods. Consequently, they have been widely applied and actively developed in fields such as soft robotics, biomedical devices/sensors/fabrics, flexible wearable electronics, 4D printed structures, and other clothing components and accessories. The applicability of these technologies is illustrated in creating each specific type of smart structure under consideration by briefly describing 3D printing methods and providing examples of their usage. This serves to demonstrate how effectively and qualitatively they enable the prototyping of various multilayered structures and composites. Furthermore, these technologies hold the potential for integrating dissimilar processes, thereby facilitating the development of new smart fabrics with a significantly greater range of variations in the future. Overall, this article aims not only to demonstrate the suitability of additive technologies for smart structures but also to identify technological trends for future research in the fashion industry.