My fascinations (or one could also say research interests): digital and popular culture, film and new media. I’ve also done some artistic work relating to such things, like a video installation I exhibited a few years ago that brought together (digitally, for the most part) Barbie dolls, Mary and Eve. I do a bit of photography, with one longer-term project of photos taken with my camera phone. I’m fascinated by the idea of creating small private spaces amidst our urban mobilities with our gadgets. That, and a wonderful book of early, extremely small-format photographs by Andre Kertesz were the starting points for that ongoing project. The intersections of art, science and engineering research are also things I care deeply about – see, for example: Art of Science Competition and exhibition, which I co-founded. I got my Ph.D. last May (I suppose that means my baby will really be my second child, to be born one year after the first), though now that I have my degree I’ve decided to say goodbye to academia.
My background: I was born in Hungary, which is also where I – mostly – grew up. ‘Mostly’ because in my family also traveled a lot, settling here and there for a while. Which is how I ended up learning to speak English and German (in addition to Hungarian, of course).
In other lifetimes I’ve done things like work for the mayor of Budapest and as a freelance translator and interpreter and – briefly – tour guide, then later in educational technology and non-profit management. I’ve also danced flamenco semi-professionally for a couple of years, and have what some consider very peculiar musical tastes.
