We live in the age of information – there is so much to know and so much to discover! Yet most information comes in text form, and this means that people need to read quickly and efficiently. If you have dyslexia this is difficult. So Latvian Dyslexia Association encourages you to create a solution that could added value for any text and ease the reading process. Where to begin? Let us outline the needs! The form of this potential reading tool has to be light and mobile – easy to use. Also, it would be a gain, if this tool (or a mobile app?) would allow enlargement the size of text. Some fonts such as Arial are more friendly for dyslexics, unfortunately not all texts are written, using it –so being able to change the font would also come in handy! Changing the spacing and limiting 60 characters per line also makes the reading easier. The app should allow the reader to speed up and slow down the pace easily and also allow the reader to easily point at individual words or phrases and have them re-read. The app should link seamlessly with existing tools like e-thesauruses or grammar checks to allow the reader to easily answer text based questions. Nearly as important is to make reading a pleasant experience for the person with dyslexia. Think about how to create a Virtual Environment that would put a reader at ease and make them forget that they are doing what, for them, is difficult. Is it the right room? Giving the sound of pages turning? What options can you give that would make reading more pleasant?

Exact sciences can be compelling and comprehensible, if explained in an efficient way! DELFI Campus invites you to create VR experience in order to explain the exact sciences to students, so that they can have a first-person experience and a clear understanding how the laws of physics and chemistry work. The best way, in our opinion, would be to allow students to step into the shoes of a physicist or a chemist and to carry out experiments in VR environment. Imagine this experience as an entertaining lesson, which kicks off with a warning, which could sound something like this: “When diluting concentrated acids with water, the acid has to be added to the water, not the other way around!” The student then has to follow the virtual lesson in a gameplay way – trying not to explode the virtual lab by misinterpreting the laws of physics and chemistry. If the concept of this task is clear, students can carry on, choosing different levels of complexity. They may start from solving problems that require fairly basic knowledge of physics, for example “why it is not wise to extinguish a fire on an electric device by pouring water on it” and then advance to more complex situations. For example, figuring out all the necessary steps in order to avoid a chemical or physical reaction that could lead to a nuclear catastrophe. The goal of this tool would allow to demonstrate the importance of understanding the exact sciences and seeing what disastrous consequences can cause the lack of knowledge. Given the appeal of virtual reality, we believe that an experience like this could motivate children and youth to learn exact sciences. The creation of an experience like this could, in turn, encourage transdisciplinary co-operation among developers and physicists / chemists.

Weekly magazine IR encourages you to formulate a VR solution that would give a clear and absorbing insight into political decision making in Latvia. The main motivation of using VR in explaining these mechanisms is to put to use the medium's first-person experience, thus showing that political decisions concern everyone, despite the popular misconception that “politics doesn't affect me”. This type of experience could be very useful in schools as well in summer camps, where materials concerning this topic are scarce. Political involvement in the Western world, including Latvia, is diminishing – many choose not to vote, only a small number of people are ready to join political parties, there are very few activists that take part in protests or other civic activities. The perception of politics as something complex and remote from everyday experience has become alarmingly popular. Especially young people tend to think that politics does not concern them. But it does – laws and decisions taken by the members of the parliament affects us all. Countless aspects of our lives depend on the decisions of politicians – how large part of their salary will my parents have to pay in taxes? Will my granny's pension will be raised? Will there be free meals at our schools? For how many students the state will cover the tuition fees? It is us who choose and elect politicians who decide these matters. The VR experience has to explain the mechanisms of our political system in a neutral way and show what we can do, in order to render these decisions more righteous and augment their positive impact on society. After all, the Greek philosopher Aristotle has said that a man is a “political animal” and this thesis is still relevant today. Only our opportunities to impact our lives and the surrounding world have become greater. This means that the responsibility surrounding the decisions we take individually and collectively is greater as well. Therefore it is important to be fully aware of that.

German occupation, persecution of Jews, burning down of the Great Choral Synagogue on Gogoļa street, imprisonment of families in the ghetto, mass killings of people in Rumbula on the 30th of November and the 1st of December in 1941 proved to what unfathomable cruelty men are capable of. Whereas the actions of the Lipke family proved how magnanimous human behavior can be. Even before the start of mass killings Žanis Lipke and his wife Johanna secretly went to ghetto to bring food to the people imprisoned there. Žanis Lipke organised and helped the escape of numerous Jews from Riga ghetto, Whilst working at Luftwaffe warehouses (Maskavas 9). With the help of chauffeur Jānis Briedis, Žanis Lipke brought out of Riga ghetto a group of approximately ten people, starting from december, 1941. These people were then located in different hiding-places located in the centre of Riga: — Lāčplēša 103 and Brīvības 11 (in the basement under cafe Flora, in the leather processing workshop of Bernets Rozenbergs); — Peldu 4 (in the basement, at the workshop of Bernets Rozenbergs); — Avotu 75 (in the basement of janitor Andrejs Graubiņš and in the back-up hiding-place on Stabu 75); — Miera 15 (in the apartment of Eduard Zande); — also in the back-ip hiding-place on Stabu 72; — Marijas 101 (together with Marija Lindenberga and Kārlis Jankovičs and garages on Marijas 104; — and in numerous places around the city (see pagridesriga.lv). In January 1942, Žanis Lipke created a bunker underneath the barn, in the yard of his Ķīpsala home (Mazais Balasta Dambis 8). The bunker accommodated up to 12 people simultaneously until the end of the Second World war. As a result of Žanis Lipke's and his helpers' actions, more than 50 people were saved from death in Riga ghetto and nazi work camps. Choose which side you would like to accentuate in your project and set in motion the time machine by using VR, in order to immerse the contemporary viewer in the events and choices of the time of Žanis Lipke. What would you do? Would you save yourself or would you try to save your peers and neighbors in seemingly impossible circumstances? How would you look for your friends and convince them to do the same? How could you not give into fear? There are no “black and white” answers in this story!

How can we make cinema understandable, relatable and useful for the viewers of the younger generations and why do that? The answer to the latter question is easy – the youngest generation is a target audience that can grow up to become avid cinema goers, and then again – they might not, if cinema will continue to exist in the periphery of their interests in outdated forms and limited availability. Perhaps the word about cinema has to be spread not only by using the educational system, where films are included as an addition to the curriculum or used as a learning tool? Perhaps we need to move the conversation about cinema to new grounds and new mediums, such as virtual reality? Therefore the National Film Centre of Latvia would like to encourage you to explore the ways in which cinema as an independent medium and film – as an autonomous work of art – could be intertwined with virtual reality and the way our perception works in this medium. Both mediums – film and VR – are immersive in their own ways. Film, for example, can thoroughly capture the spirit of an era, it also can capture the smallest details of an epoch, in order to preserve it for the future. In this sense, a film is a window to another time. For example, two of the most popular feature films of the National Film Centre's programme “Latvian films for Latvian Centenary” are based on classics of Latvian literature. – Homo Novus, directed by Anna Viduleja is an adaptation of the well known novel by Anšlavs Eglītis. It transports the viewer to Riga of the thirties, which is a thriving European metropolis with a lively cultural life and stormy boheme. The film is an impressive look at the Latvian art history, as it contains some of the most important paintings, done by Latvian artists. – Another facet of Riga in the thirties is shown in “Bille” – directed by Ināra Kolmane and based on the popular autobiographical book by Vizma Belševica. The city we see in “Bille” is not so shiny at all – the film shows how the city looks like from the perspective of workers, who dwell in Grīziņkalns – area defined by modest wooden houses and dusty courtyards. Children like the title hero Bille, who is growing up there, spend their days daydreaming and playing with self made toys. What can virtual reality do to help the youth discover these films and times they refer to? Is it in VR's power to extend the marvel of cinema?

Biodiversity loss – the silent death How to make it clear for everyone that we are in great trouble? Today we are facing an unprecedented crisis of the natural world. The Earth’s species are vanishing with speed never seen before in human history. This year the groundbreaking global assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services presented a grim conclusion: health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life. Human actions have impacted most of our Earth, and the impact on the diversity of the natural world has been severe. With losing our biodiversity we are losing such important ecosystem functions as pollination, food security, soil building, water and air purification. Species extinction and loss of our “safety net” provided by nature happens in silence and many species disappear, unnoticed by humans. The loss of nature is happening gradually and we don’t notice the lack of one bird species, or one bee, or two bird species, or three. Not until one day we realise that we don’t hear as many bird songs as there used to be and that our garden is empty of bees. France has experienced this silence in 2018 and called it a “silent spring”. Unfortunately, when we start to notice the loss of biodiversity in our daily lives, it might be already too late. The task is to develop a tool that would help everyone to understand what could be the impacts of biodiversity loss – what would our future look like without nature? How the species are interconnected in forming the ecological “safety net” for humans, and what consequences would we face with the loss of it? How the loss of one insect or bird can trigger a change in a whole ecosystem? This understanding should be the first step towards a transformative change of our societies and economies that is the only scenario in order to save our nature and ourselves. For further information: ipbes.net/news/Media-Release-Global-Assessment

Imagine how cool it would be, if going to school would mean only experiencing nice, predictable environment, welcoming attitude and interesting lessons? But reality, unfortunately is far from this – every day thousands of children in Latvia experience stress and other aspects of behavioral disturbances, not being able to swiftly adapt to the new environment. Not only going to new places, but simply attending school is a huge problem, especially for children in the Autism Spectrum. The Autism Society of Latvia is aimed to encourage the design of a new approach, that would aid to get used to new environments though immersive tech – virtual reality headsets with specific social scenario, teaching how to overcome stress in a fun and entertaining way.