"A Call from the Past": an audio guide to your own street, tested with the neighbours

"Skambutis iš praeities" (A Call from the Past) is an interactive audio guide along J. Basanavičiaus Street in Vilnius, made by Ieva from the Participio team and her fellow student Monika as a course project at VILNIUS TECH. At each stop a person from the past "calls" the walker and tells what happened on that spot a hundred or more years ago.

The route. Until 1939 the street was called Didžioji Pohulianka. The walk runs from the site of the former Trakai Gate to the Chapel of St Hyacinth: six stops, about 2 km, 35 to 45 minutes. The authors recommend headphones. Anyone can try it by scanning the QR code on the poster or opening the prototype in a browser.

Where it comes from. Ieva and Monika are master's students in Communication of Creative Society at the Faculty of Creative Industries, VILNIUS TECH. For the course "Miesto kūrybinės veiklos" (Creative Activities in the City) they chose to make something about their own neighbourhood. They write that making it taught them a lot about a street they walk every day.

Why it is on this site. It is a small, real example of step 5 done early. The guide is a prototype, and the authors took it straight to their neighbours and asked three plain questions: what did you like, what was unclear, what would you improve. Feedback comes in comments or private messages. No workshop, no budget, and the people who know the street best get to correct it before it is finished.

It began as a student project at VILNIUS TECH and is listed among our projects as an initiative of a team member.