How to F**k (Funk) With Technology (and Get Away With It): Erasmus+ BIP Ignites Artistic Chaos in Vilnius
From October 27th to 31st, the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LMTA) transformed into a playground for future art-makers and digital dreamers as students, teachers, composers, and performing arts directors from Finland, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Latvia and Lithuania gathered for an electrifying Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme (BIP). The uniquely titled educational adventure — “How to F**k (Funk) with Technology (and Get Away with It)” — delivered exactly what it promised: a joyful, boundary-pushing exploration of art and technology.
The event was anything but ordinary: started with an AI-assisted opera premiere „Immaginary Čiurlionis‘ opera „Jūratė“ (produced by „Operomanija“) on October 25, followed by five days of creating, composing, and philosophizing – where technology wasn’t a mere tool, but a mischievous collaborator.
This international, interdisciplinary experiment united students from music, theatre, sound art and media, all armed with curiosity and a healthy disregard for creative conventions. Together, they bent, twisted, and subverted technology in ways that made even the algorithms raise an eyebrow.
“We wanted to see what happens when art stops using technology and starts arguing with it,” said one of the project’s mentors.
Throughout the week, participants engaged in workshops, lectures, and feedback sessions led by expert mentors- teachers Theatre director Žilvinas Vingelis, sound artist Roberto Becerra and composer Mantautas Krukauskas and supported by LMTA Music Innovation Studies Centre. They explored artificial intelligence, immersive media, and interactive systems — not as shiny novelties, but as provocateurs of meaning, resistance, and imagination.
By the end of the programme, students had not only gained critical insight into the marriage (and occasional divorce) between art and technology, but also developed digital prototypes, performance sketches, and concept pieces that redefined what “creative collaboration” means in the 21st century.
And while the official dates ran from October 25 to 31, the ideas sparked in Vilnius are sure to reverberate far into the future. There’s already talk of continuing this creative rebellion — and maybe arguing with a few more machines — next fall.
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