Melinda Sipos
Hungary
May 2012

Melinda Sipos from Budapest (Hungary) is the second resident of Pixelache Micro-Residencies during 9-17-5-2012.

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BIO

Melinda Sipos is a Budapest-based artist and designer, cultural mediator and producer who works locally and internationally. She initiates, co-ordinates and participates in various projects and workshops at the intersection of art, design and technology. She studied glass design and new media design in Hungary and France and went on to hold various positions at Kitchen Budapest media lab, including programme director.

http://www.basedonpig.com/en

http://www.kitchenbudapest.hu/en/beyondata

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My micro residency falls in the middle of a busy time with full of great events in Helsinki including Camp Pixelache.During the one week I’m going to spend there, I’m aiming to contribute to Pixelache events and its networks in different ways. Since my current interest includes research on food and food culture, I’m going to test a sort of data-visualisation model on Camp dayat Arbis. Departing from Nathalie’s proposal we’ve developed ideas around catering. Usually catering is considered as a necessary element of an event, but we tend to take it for granted that we are served with food and drinks. This experiment focuses on two main questions: how catering affects the ecological footprint of the whole event (especially traveling) and can we balance this out with a joint effort? In addition the goal is also to raise awareness on what we eat by providing information on the ingredients (their “stories”) and through a special arrangement in the restaurant space.See the outcomes of my research here.

Besides, I’d like to introduce two of my current projects, both related to data in different ways: Beyond Data, a joint project betweenKitchen Budapest and Baltan Laboratories and Based on Pig, a research project about food and culture. Another important moment of the Camp Pixelache will be the creation of a 10 year anniversary cake for Pixelache, in which I’m also involved. During the other days I’m there to observe, participate, discuss and digest and of course meet people. I’d like to get to know the Restaurant Day team, and some socially engaged design teams.

I would be happy to initiate a rather informal discussion about the experience of leaving an organization after years, which something I recently went through. I’m curious to share mine and listen to others’ experiences and explore the different aspects of it.

It seems that there is a very intense and exciting week ahead