Living Laboratory, initially applied by computer scientists, designers and psychologist to test user experience in collaborative environments, is an open exhibition space where artists working in public settings allowing the participant to not only interact with the artwork but gain greater accessibility to the artistic, technological and scientific dimensions of the work.

Through this, the proposed research addresses questions of digital works, their importance as cultural products, and, their place in the institutional settings of the cultural sector in the digital age.  This research will identify the need for revision of how contemporary venues engage audiences and proposes a hybrid model of  curation and production  that not only provides a dynamic environment for the audience but allows the constructive creation and maintenance of digital art work by the artists.

Besides other researchers’ work, my focus will be on the artist’s perspective and how such a model can provide more effective way of producing interactive art works.

(Brigitta Zics 2011)

Exhibitor at Data is Beautiful, International Symposium and Exhibition at Parthenón-fríz Terem, Hungarian University of Fine Art www.dataisbeautiful.c3.hu

Data is Beautiful Exhibitor: Universe Masat by Brigitta Zics & Pengfei Zhang 

This data visualisation artwork creates an imaginary universe to render the secret life of the satellite Masat-1 (which means ‘smudge’ in Hungarian) that was launched into low Earth orbit on 13 February 2012. Orbiting around the Earth three times a day,  the small cube sends nonstop telemetric data to a tracking centre in Budapest revealing information not only about his own state but about changes in the atmosphere.
Through the engaging visual display the aim of Universe Masat is to make visible and accessible complex mechanisms of a rather simple looking object ( a cube) that was tasked to orbit around our planet. While the visual elements of this universe dynamically transform, often displaying radical on-board changes of Masat (for example temperature of the on-board and outside solar panels)  it also shows any changes to the atmosphere (e.g, a high battery temperature suggests a proximity to the sun rather being in the shadow of the Earth).  Universe Masat  has been ‘visually expanding’ from the minute Masat’s was launched in February until its unavoidable end when it enters the Earth’s atmosphere. By shaking the visual display, viewers can access detailed information of the data to visualise the Masat’s universe.
The project is a collaboration between Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and Newcastle University, Culture Lab.  MASAT official web site: http://cubesat.bme.hu

 The screenshoot of Universe Masat.

More info on the DiB Exhibition: http://dataisbeautiful.c3.hu/exhibition/

Programme Director of Data is Beautiful, International Symposium and Exhibition at Hungarian University of Fine Art in Budapest. www.dataisbeautiful.c3.hu

Culture Lab @ Data is Beautiful from tom schofield on Vimeo.

Mission Statement of  Data is Beautiful Symposium & Exhibition by Brigitta Zics:

// Data Visualisations are new knowladge practices that aim to make complex information accessible through visual means and, discover new patterns and meanings in life.
// Whilst the data boom of recent years has brought huge amounts of unprocessed data, simultaneously more and more creative tools have emerged that make access to and working with digital data simpler.
// Bridging the arts, sciences and design, data visualisation has become one of the most prominent creative practices. With its origin in info-graphics and scientific visual analysis, this emerging crossdisciplinary territory presents us with new potentials that need to be tackled.
// Our aspiration is to accentuate the future facets of this rapidly evolving practice by bringing together creative communities and sharing inspiring ideas, new findings, critical theories and contemporary practices.
// Events and activities will create a diverse platform of knowledge exchange for artists, scientists and designer including symposiums, an exhibition, workshops, hacking events, demo talks and a concert.

 Photos by Szegedy-Maszak

DiB participants here: http://dataisbeautiful.c3.hu/people/
DiB …this happened documentation site here: http://dataisbeautiful.c3.hu/this-happened/
On Visualizing.org: http://www.visualizing.org/stories/happening-budapest-data-beautiful

Programme director, speaker and exhibitor at Data is Beautiful, International Symposium and Exhibition at Hungarian University of Fine Art in Budapest. www.dataisbeautiful.c3.hu

SYMPOSIUM TALK - Brigitta Zics:  Data is Beautiful: From Data Perception to Data Aesthetics
This talk explores data aesthetics and its role in constructing human knowledge. It explains beauty as an integral part of knowledge acquisition, which plays a crucial role in generating new, or enhancing existing, information. It  looks at the representation and abstraction of data in relation to embodied human experience and data aesthetics. The talk also touches upon (i) how the design of information spaces requires an understanding of  the limitations of human perception and (ii) how new motion and emotion aware systems can provide a new framework for aesthetics to enhance the acquisition of knowledge.

On the top: Dazzle Comuflage Ship by Norman Wilkinson , on the bottom: Screen Shoot of the affective visualisation of the Mind Cupola. Both of the visual techniques aim to chllange humann perception.

Brigitta’s presentation, rather unconventionally, focuses on a critical investigation of technology and its practice and not on the decsription of the technological development process.  It looks at  the philosophical concept of interactivity and its application in contemporary technology-based art and design. Through examples of her practice she explains how she aims to challenge purely scientific or social approaches to technology and introduce new aesthetic frameworks for technology-based practices.The presentation hopes to generate open discussion and exchange.

More info: http://www.dorkbot.org/dorkbotcardiff/

About dorkbot: The dorkbot global network is made of groups of people “doing strange things with electricity”. There are more than 100 groups worldwide, who meet at various intervals and present work in progress, experiments, hacks and other unexpected uses of technology. Members of dorkbot groups include artists, engineers, designers, musicians, hackers, curious types, no robots yet. http://www.dorkbot.org/

This TechTea talk at Create Technology Lab,  Moholy-Nagy Művészeti Egyetem Budapest  considers the philosophical concept of interactivity and its application in contemporary technology-based art and design. Through a critical theoretical framework the talk investigates novel potentials of technology and, how non-conventional and affective approaches to  user’s experience might challenge current trends and applications of interactivity. Through examples of  practice the talk  explains how it  aims to challenge purely scientific or social approaches to technology and introduce new aesthetic frameworks for technology-based practices. The talk also illuminates how emerging technological mediums transformed creative practices and their production/distribution places, and how this calls for a new type of exhibition and production space.

keywords: creative practice & technology, affective art,  affective computing, data visualisation, Living lab

17.00 4 April 2012
Create Technology Lab
MOME,  Room A104
Zugligeti út 9-25.
Budapest

The keynote talk at Culture Hack Scotland in Glasgow appealed to artists, producers and technologist to  move beyond the purely technology driven approaches and aim to activate users’ imagination. It also raised awareness to the importance of aesthetics in technological production and how such approaches enable an access to human factors facilitating more effective user experiences. //April 27-28th//SocietyM, Glasgow

To read more on the concept of Aesthetic Interaction click here.

CitizenM / SocietyM Glasgow

Culture Hack Scotland is a fast-paced and highly creative event that challenges designers, technologists and artists to make innovative new culture-related projects in just 24 hours. Culture Hack is inspired by the hacker ethos of doing things in the simplest way possible with the maximum effect. Culture Hack enables technology, creative and cultural sectors to try new things out in the short space of time, creating experimental products and ideas away from day-to-day business pressures and agendas.

More info on Culture Hack: http://culturehackday.org.uk/

The 2-weeks  workshop Visual Systems, Interactivity and Human Perception: Practice-based Research Strategies, Methodologies and Applications at Hungarian University of Fine Art Budapest. aims to bring cutting-edge critical thinking and practice to artists and researchers engaging with practice-based research. It explores new types of practices, techniques, methods and technologies. It aims to generate a platform for exchanging good practices, developing novel theoretical frameworks, gaining new technological skills and to facilitate critical exchanges.

Perception+ Arduino Workshop

Workshop Programme
Seminar: Practice-based Research in Art and Technology
Seminar: Visual Systems 1 – Eye Tracking Research and Artistic Practice
Workshop I: Data Visualisation with processing / Eye-Tracking
Seminar: International Publication of Art Research
Seminar: Visual Systems 2  – Philosophy and Contemporary Art&Technology  / Art&Science Practice
Workshop II: Physical Interaction with arduino: Spectrum of Perception

Perception + Processing Workshop App.

Workshop contributors: Tom Schofield, Jamie Allan and David Gauthier. The workshop was part of  New Interfaces, Interactive Technologies and Stereoscopic Real-Time imaging Founded by the European Social Fund and implemented in the framework of the Hungarian Social Renewal Operational Programme at the Doctoral School, Hungarian University of Fine Art Budapest.

Reference
Massumi, B. 1987. Notes on the Translation and Acknowledgements. In: Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F., A Thousand Plateaus. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, p. xvii.

This text might be referenced as following:
Zics, B. 2011. Toward an Affective Aesthetics: Cognitive-driven Interaction in the Affective Environment of the Mind Cupola, 2011, Leonardo Journal, The International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology, 44/ 1. USA: The MIT Press, pp. 30-37.