#Pages of Victory: drawings of children of the besieged Leningrad come to life in virtual animation

For many decades, the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg has kept about 700 unique children's drawings that were created during the siege of Leningrad (September 8, 1941 - January 27, 1944). Drawings collected by workers of kindergartens, orphanages and schools, recorded a direct look of children at wartime events, reflected their feelings and ideas. Almost every drawing has an accompanying text - a short story by a child about what he drew. Educators often recorded such stories and pasted them into albums, carefully preserving them as a document of the era.

The team of the #Pobedy Victory project decided to revive these drawings using VR animation technologies.

“The series“ War: Children's drawings in VR animation ”is probably a project of mixed times and mixed eras. The history of the war, seen by the children of besieged Leningrad, their children's drawings, which have been kept so carefully in the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg for decades, find new life through virtual animation, ”says the author of the idea, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of RT Kirill Karnovich-Valois.

The video series will consist of 20 episodes. Each of them will be devoted to a new drawing and its interpretation by modern digital artists who will create voluminous illustrations - each in its own style.

“Virtual art and new media technologies open up almost limitless spaces for creative realization. Today, not a single large film festival can do without an exposition of films and projects created thanks to immersive technologies. We are very pleased that such masters of XR-art as Sutu, VRHUMAN, Denis Semenov take part in our project. Technology has given us many new realities: mixed, virtual, augmented, ”says Karnovic-Valois.

The artist Denis Semyonov, known under the creative pseudonym Sa1ntdenis, also produces the series “War: Children's drawings in VR animation”.

“The plots of children's blockade drawings are very sincere, so I could hardly imagine how to work with them in virtual reality,” says Semyonov. - I looked at the whole album and selected 20 works that are suitable for virtual animation. Then the idea came to ask artists from different countries to depict their vision of this topic. ”

Denis previously became a director and producer of the Auschwitz Lessons VR project. Denis Semenov's VR / AR projects were selected to participate in international festivals such as the NEXT Marche du Film, European Film Market (Berlinale), and received a number of prizes, including the Open Frame Award (Germany), Epica Awards and New York Festivals TV & Film Awards.

One of the artists in the series is Stuart Campbell from Australia, known under the creative pseudonym Sutu Eats Flies. He has worked with studios and brands such as Disney, Marvel, Google, and on VR projects for films such as Doctor Strange and First Player Get Ready.

He also created three VR documentaries: Inside Manus for Australia's SBS national public television network, Mind at War for Ryot Films, and Battle of Hamel for the Australian war memorial. Sutu is also known for its interactive comics, including Nawlz, Neomad, Modern Polaxis, and These Memories Won't Last. He holds an honorary doctorate in digital media from the University of Central Queensland, is a 2017 Sundance scholar and co-founder of EyeJack AR.

The project also involves an artist from Germany Vladimir Ilych, known under the creative pseudonym VRHUMAN. He has worked with brands such as Google, Samsung, Sony Pictures, Microsoft.

“The children's point of view is one of the brightest prospects that helps us see reality as it is,” says Ilic. “The interpretation of children's drawings, especially in virtual reality, is perhaps the purest form of art that we as humans can comprehend.”

“I hope to see more of these projects that will inspire both adults and children to re-open themselves to the perception of reality and history,” he adds.

The team of VR-artists of the project will grow, and the participation of new masters of this genre is expected.

Follow the series “War: Children’s drawings in VR-animation” on Facebook # Victory Pages.

The #Policies of Victory project, launched by RT on five social media platforms in January in honor of the approaching 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, will last until May 2020. Follow the “Endless Letter” on Instagram, watch mini-documentaries on YouTube, listen to podcasts on “VKontakte” and follow the hourly chronicle of the last months of the war on Twitter.