I was commissioned by the American Latvian Association to create three projects for the Latvian Museum in Rockville, MD. One of them being an animation using 18. century drawings by Johann Christoph Brotze, from his book "People and Transportation on the Streets of Rīga" to portray the multi-layered and dynamic society of those times. I wanted Brotze's characters to feel like passers-by to the viewer; people they would casually encounter if they were transported to 18. century Rīga. 

To achieve this immersive effects, we had to find paintings from around that time period and placed the character cut-outs inside them. This allowed me to move the virtual camera through each scene.

The character descriptions are Brotze's own, just lightly edited. I worked closely with Ann Clausen and Pēteris Dajevskis to bring the narrative together.

Sound design was another important aspect of creating this illusion so I had to find street sounds that would suit the setting.

The final animation is 22 minutes long and will be part of the new permanent exhibition which opens in the Spring of 2022 after renovations.

Having grown up in Riga allowed me to draw my own parallels between the old and the modern day city. It had me thinking about how a future society might interpret the current city through the lens of the many who will have encapsulated its history.

This animation project was created alongside two other short documentaries about the Latvian independence movement of the late 1980' s and early 1990s, and the 30-year period after regaining independence, but those projects I'd have to cover separately. A lot of archival material had to be used.

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Created by me

Produced for the Latvian Museum by Lilita Bergs,  Ann Clausen, Pēteris Dajevskis

Animation Assistant: Kinga Ločmelis

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The Johann Christoph Brotze collection “Monumente” is held at The University of Latvia Academic Library. 

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Archival materials for animation backgrounds from:

Museum of the History of Rīga and Navigation, Rīga, Latvia

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Birmingham Museums Trust, Birmingham, England

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Ambient Sound Sources: Epidemic Sound, BBC Sound Effects, Freesound.org 

Sound Design by me