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An introduction to Beyond Data, a collaboration between two labs By Melinda Sipos and Angela Plohman
Writing the introduction to this publication provides us with the opportunity to re-think the Beyond Data project, and to try to capture and present the process involved in creating it. It is almost inevitable that in doing this we rewrite the past to a degree. In the here and now, everything seems to be logical and appears as a continuous flow of activities, but there were many cases of improvisation, risk and unpredictability. In January 2011, we were sitting on the stairs in the Haus der Kulturen der Welt during the Transmediale Festival in Berlin and decided that Baltan Laboratories and Kitchen Budapest should collaborate. It was a simple decision informed by personal and institutional interests, with the mutual assumption that our labs had much to share and offer each other.
As we ‘completed’ each step, the project took on a tangible form and it seemed worthwhile to continue working together, adding additional phases such as an evaluation meeting in Budapest in January 2012, and applying to lead a Beyond Data workshop at the Lift12 Conference, for which we were invited to participate. Furthermore, we felt that the entire process developed into a very strong personal and professional experience that we wanted to share and
BEYOND DATA
The ‘original’ scenography was that both labs would introduce new people and perspectives to a series of two workshops in Budapest and Eindhoven that would further develop and recycle elements from our collective toolboxes, creating new experiences and taking the knowledge, working methodologies and expertise beyond the two labs. This would lead to concepts and new knowledge that could be built upon and shared with a wider public.
INTRODUCTION
Our aim was to bring together our different working methodologies and networks to explore, exchange and build on a number of recent tools and projects developed at the labs. By simplifying the structure of the joint venture we can now identify three pillars: the goal was to collaborate; the tools were a temporary, ‘in-between’ lab and a specific method; and the content of the project centred on data embodiment. All elements developed gradually, shifting between the planning, preparation and realisation phases several times.