EKSIG 2025
Budapest
12-13 May 2025

Data as Experiential Knowledge and Embodied Processes

Over the centuries our understanding of what constitutes data has – and continues today – to shift. In the 18th century, datum, the singular of data, referred to a piece of information through which inferences could be drawn. For the scientific community, the focus shifted from receiving what is given to extracting what is not. Data transitioned from an entity that was previously unknown or unexplored to being the epitome of what scientists strive to uncover via systematic investigation and observation.

More recently, the art and design community’s engagement with data has once again shifted understanding of the term. Data became an experimental medium for artists and designers and data literacy of general audiences began to emerge. These changes have prompted a more nuanced understanding of the term. Beyond the purely quantitative, data are now recognised to carry temporal and emotional qualities that can be meaningful, malleable and evocative.

Making with data is no longer exclusively digital. Data appear in hybrid and physical forms that invite various perspectives, interpretations, and reflections. For example, data can be found in physical forms like 3D-printed models, sculptures, or even tactile exhibits in museums. In addition, users can explore the embodied nature of data in virtual environments, offering unique perspectives on data's virtual materiality and influencing our perception of scale, complexity, and interconnections between humans and data. Data are no longer exclusively a scientific output either, but instead appear in art and design accessible to entirely different publics. The growth of self-tracking technologies now allows anyone to track, experiment with, and explore data in ways that extend what is known about the self and decision-making in everyday life. More recently, artificial intelligence has once again contributed to shaping our understanding of the term through the use of generative technologies. Even design education has shifted in recent years, using data to inspire, support, and expand students' projects.

Thus, the idea of data has expanded beyond its conventional scientific boundaries and has become a versatile and ever-changing medium that influences how we see the world, stimulates creative expression, and enhances our daily lives in new and remarkable ways.

Topics of Interest Include, But Are Not Limited To:

  • What constitutes making when designing with data at various scales?
  • How do the cultural, social and contextual influences of data affect design processes?
  • How might engaging with data shift our understandings of space?
  • What role does data play in speculation?
  • Are data and material practices antithetical?
  • At what points in the design process does data provide inspiration?
  • How can data take the form of new materialities?

Programme

Monday, 12 May 2025

  • 8:30

    Registration

  • 9:00 – 9:15

    Welcome and Conference Introduction

    Location: Auditorium

  • 9:15 – 10:00
    Keynote 1

    Miriah Meyer Professor, Linköping University

    Location: Auditorium

  • 10:00 – 10:15

    Break

  • 10:15 – 11:35
    Track 1

    Data in Education

    Chair: Mary Karyda Researcher, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design

    Location: M_019

    Track 2

    Crafting with Data

    Chair: Jessica Hemmings Professor of Craft, University of Gothenburg

    Location: M_012

  • 11:35 – 12:35

    Lunch

  • 12:35 – 13:55
    Track 3

    Data in Health

    Chair: Renáta Dezső Researcher, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design

    Location: M_019

    Track 4

    Data as Process

    Chair: Borbála Tölgyesi Doctoral Candidate, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design

    Location: M_012

  • 14:00 – 17:00
    Workshop 1

    What people do with data physicalizations – Flow State, Play Moods, Small Beginnings

    Workshop Organiser: Jacob Buur

    Location: M_014

    Workshop 2

    Health Self-Revealed: Exploring Self-Narratives and Data Physicalization Practices Towards a Shared Design Vocabulary

    Workshop Organisers: Ginevra Terenghi and Sara Lenzi

    Location: M_018

    Workshop 3

    Transforming Physical Movement into Digital Interaction and Puppetry Control

    Workshop Organiser: Kálmán Tarr

    Location: M_016

  • 17:00 – 18:00

    Exhibition & Data Beads Event

Tuesday, 13 May 2025

  • 8:30

    Registration

  • 9:00 – 10:00
    Keynote 2

    Andrew Vande Moere Professor in Design Informatics at the Department of Architecture at KU Leuven

    Location: Auditorium

  • 10:00 – 10:15

    Break

  • 10:15 – 11:35
    Track 5

    Sensing Data

    Chair: Giorgia Burzio Doctoral Candidate, Politecnico Milano

    Location: M_019

    Track 6

    Data Cultures

    Chair: Damla Çay Researcher, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design

    Location: M_012

  • 11:35 – 12:35

    Lunch

  • 12:35 – 13:20
    Keynote 3

    Minkó Mihály Data Visualization Expert, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design

    Location: Auditorium

  • 13:20 – 13:35

    Break

  • 13:35 – 14:55
    Track 7

    Data Futures

    Chair: Samuel Chovanec Researcher, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design

    Location: M_019

    Track 8

    Transformative Data

    Chair: Ágnes Bakk Researcher, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design

    Location: M_012

  • 14:55 – 15:10

    Coffee Break

  • 15:10 – 17:10
    Workshop 4

    Framing Generative Waste as Multi-Layered Interpretive Data Towards Sustainable and Reflective Design Practices.

    Workshop Organisers: Alice Mioni and Antonella Autuori

    Location: M_018

    Workshop 5

    Space Oddities - Societal Effects of Phygitality

    Workshop Organisers: Romi Mikulinsky, Aya Bentur and Micaela Terk

    Location: M_016

  • 17:30 – 20:30

    Closing Remarks, Artistic Performance & Social Dinners

    Location: Gondűző

Keynote Speakers

Miriah Meyer

Miriah Meyer is a professor in the Department of Science & Technology at Linköping University, supported through the WASP program. Her research focuses on the design of visualization systems for helping people make sense of data, and on the development of methods for helping visualization designers make sense of the world. She obtained her bachelors degree in astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State University, earned a PhD in computer science from the University of Utah, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University. Prior to joining the faculty at LiU she was an associate professor in the School of Computing at the University of Utah and a member of the Vis Design Lab in the Scientific Computing & Imaging Institute. Miriah has received numerous awards and recognitions for her work including being named a University of Utah Distinguished Alumni, both a TED Fellow and a PopTech Science Fellow, a Microsoft Research Faculty Fellow, and included on MIT Technology Review's TR35 list of the top young innovators. She was also awarded an AAAS Mass Media Fellowship that landed her a stint as a science writer for the Chicago Tribune.

Andrew Vande Moere

Andrew Vande Moere is a Professor in Design Informatics at the Department of Architecture at KU Leuven (Belgium). He conducts design-oriented research investigating the designerly potential of various emerging technologies. By combining the methodologies from design science with computer sciences, his research contributes to the fields of human-computer (HCI), human-data (HDI), human-robot (HRI), and human-building (HBI) interaction. As such, he was one of the very first researchers recognising the creative potential of: 'designing' rather than 'developing' data visualisations (i.e. 'information aesthetics'), visualising data in a physical rather than digital formats (i.e. 'data sculptures'), and locating visualisations in the actual physical environment that the data was originally sourced from (i.e. 'public visualisations'). His current research around data work focuses on revealing the uncertainties in data through visualisation, and on uncovering the power imbalances within various data visualisation activities. Several innovations from his academic research have been valorised, among which the university spin-off "Citizen Dialog Kit" (CDK), which allows governmental organisations to open up their collection and presentation of data in any public environment.

Mihály Minkó

Mihály Minkó is a lecturer, design researcher and practitioner at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. Mihály investigates the outer reaches of data visualisation. In addition to visual representations of data, he also creates physical art installations. In these, he often goes beyond the use of conventional materials, and experiments with biodegradable, renewable biocomposites. He regularly holds R&D courses, including on the framework of the Balatorium project, students’ work on which he has also presented in an exhibition. In addition to delivering courses and lectures to MOME students and researchers, Mihály is also the professional course leader of MOME Open, specifically of a successful data visualisation training course that has been running for several years. He is a regular speaker at business intelligence conferences in Hungary. Relying on his network of contacts, he also facilitates collaborations between industry players and the university.

Workshops

Jacob Buur

What people do with data physicalizations – Flow State, Play Moods, Small Beginnings

This workshop invites designers of data physicalizations to make sense of how people (‘users’) actually engage with their designs: What kind of discussions and actions can data physicalizations trigger? What rests on the designs, and what depends on facilitation?

In the workshop we will observe people interacting with data physicalizations on video and apply Dimensional Analysis as a (fun!) method of comparing and making sense of engagement. As a starting point my colleagues and I have developed a framework that helps identify engagement as ‘Flow State’, ‘Play Moods’ or ‘Small Beginnings’. From there we’ll discuss what it takes to design engaging data physicalizations.

See more...

Expected duration: 4 hours

Kálmán Tarr

Transforming Physical Movement into Digital Interaction and Puppetry Control

This workshop will explore the gradual process of understanding how physical movement can be digitized, transformed into data, and manipulated to bring a puppet to life.

Participants will delve into the concept of physical interaction data—the translation and transformation of threedimensional movement into mechanical actions—and experiment with creating tangible, interactive systems. Unlike traditional lectures with slides and theoretical discussions, this workshop will prioritize hands-on experience and experimentation, enabling participants to feel and engage directly with the technology. The goal is to bridge the gap between artistic expression and technical innovation, fostering collaboration and creativity. It is ideal for those interested in bridging the fields of robotics, interaction design, and performative art, while gaining hands-on experience with emerging technologies.

Objectives:

  • Direct Interaction: Participants will manipulate puppets or other objects both in traditional ways and through data-driven control systems.
  • Understanding the Transformation: Explore how movement becomes data and how data drives movement.
  • Collaborative Building: Participants will construct and experiment with the mechanisms.

See more...

Expected duration: 1.5 hours

Ginevra Terenghi and Sara Lenzi

Health Self-Revealed: Exploring Self-Narratives and Data Physicalization Practices Towards a Shared Design Vocabulary

Have you ever considered symptoms as material signs of dysfunctionalities self-inscribed in your body? Inspired by autographic visualization (Offenhuber, 2023 and 2020), this workshop suggests data physicalization and sonification to represent symptoms while also exploring material properties for personalized data communication.

While data physicalization typically encodes information through geometry and material properties (Jansen et al., 2015), and sonification relies on non-speech audio (Kramer, 1994), this workshop aims to combine these techniques to explore how the sound produced by materials can influence the representation of data, and symptoms specifically.

Working in groups, you will be asked to associate common symptoms (e.g. headache) with physical variables (e.g. shape), sound variables (e.g. rhythm, pitch), and the interventions needed to produce a sound (e.g. scratching). Different materials will be available to test, and some labels will facilitate the association. The purpose of the activity is to create a multi-sensory vocabulary for symptoms representation and explore the combination of physicalization and sonification modalities.

Design researchers in the field of healthcare, health communication, patient-doctor relations, personal data, and self-narrative, but also, information designers interested in multi-modal data representation are invited to join. By participating, you can contribute to exploring and defining new rules for data translations that will contribute to the definition of shared design guidelines for multi-modal data representations. At the same time, you will acquire new communication skills they can integrate into their design research activities, in health-related research and beyond. Everyone can join, no specific requirement or prior knowledge required.

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Expected duration: 3 hours

Romi Mikulinsky, Aya Bentur and Micaela Terk

Space Oddities - Societal Effects of Phygitality

The forthcoming wide scale use of smart glasses and mixed reality (MR) devices has already begun to transform uses and understandings of public space. In this forthcoming era, lines between physical and digital realms are blurred. Smart glasses are designed to collect vast amounts of data about users' surroundings, behaviors, and interactions, introducing potential risks of biometric surveillance and privacy violations, but also inviting new and creative ways of interweaving physical locations and digital interactions.

By going beyond screen-based interaction, smart glasses are poised to redefine our interactions with technology and one another, shifting social norms and altering shared perceptions of reality.

In this gamified workshop, we will navigate some of the social, ethical, and legal questions that the rapid adoption of immersive technology raises. After a brief overview on the techno-social aspects of immersive environments, we will use a toolkit of speculative design and roleplay techniques to craft near-future scenarios, explore interactions, blindspots and frictions, and uncover the ways smart glasses will shift relationships with one another and affect public space. We will experiment with near-future “phygital” interactions, mapping data collection processes and the entanglements between human and non-human agents in public space. This workshop was co-developed by designers and policymakers to raise awareness around the societal effects of the phygital era, using play as a tool for informed public engagement.

This workshop is open to participants who are interested in the societal impacts of phygital technologies. We invite you to come with an open mind, and no previous familiarity with the field is necessary to join.

The workshop consists of a theoretical part dedicated to the techno-social aspects of phygitality and to speculative design. The game is followed by a discussion by the participants.

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Expected duration: 3-4 hours

Alice Mioni and Antonella Autuori

Framing Generative Waste as Multi-Layered Interpretive Data Towards Sustainable and Reflective Design Practices.

As Generative AI transforms design workflows, it also generates vast amounts of discarded visual data—what we define as generative waste—which consumes energy, storage, and other resources involved in the generative AI production process, while remaining creatively untapped and forgotten.

This workshop addresses this dual challenge by raising awareness of its environmental impact and introducing sustainable design methodologies. Participants will engage in hands-on exercises to re-think, re-code, and curate abandoned generative images, enriching them with subjective and objective tags. Through remixing and reassembling those visual fragments, participants will uncover latent narratives and transform ephemeral digital traces into meaningful visual artefacts.

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Expected duration: 2 hours

Attend

Dates

Monday-Tuesday, 12-13 May 2025

Venue

Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest
9-25 Zugligeti Str., H1121, Budapest, Hungary

Registration

Please note that each accepted paper to be published needs to have one paying author. Below are the registration fees. The registration link and more details will be announced soon.

Early Bird Registration (3 March – 31 March)

  • Regular for Paper Presenter: 390 EUR
  • Concessions for Paper Presenters*: 320 EUR
  • Guest**: 220 EUR
  • Workshops participation only***: 13 EUR

Standard Registration (1 April – 21 April)

  • Regular: 490 EUR
  • Concessions*: 420 EUR
  • Guest**: 320 EUR
  • Workshop participation only***: 23 EUR

* Concessions are available for confirmed students, PhD students, and DRS members. Upon arrival at the conference, you must present a document or student card along with your ID to verify your status.

** The Guest ticket is available for attendees who are not paper presenters but would like to participate in the conference.

*** Workshops are free to participate for attendees who have paid the fee for the full conference. Those are the Regular, Concessions or Guest tickets. This ticket is for individuals who would like to only participate in one or more of the selected workshops.

The Regular, Concessions or Guest tickets will give you access to the following:

  • Digital Full Paper Publication for presenters
  • Paper Presentations
  • Keynote Speeches
  • Opportunities for Networking and Discussions with fellow researchers and participants
  • Exhibition
  • Free Participation in two workshops
  • Closing Event
  • Complimentary Conference Materials e.g., welcome bag
  • Lunch, Refreshments and Coffee Breaks throughout the conference

You are welcome to attend the conference without presenting a paper; in this case, please select the Guest ticket option.

If, as an author, you have several papers selected for publication, please note that for each paper to be published, it needs to have a unique paying author. This may be one of your co-authors.

If it is the case that no other author is on the second paper or co-authors are not attending, please get in contact with us (mail to: eksig2025@mome.hu) to discuss second paper rates.

BUY TICKETS

Accommodation recommendations

To help you plan your stay in Budapest, we have curated a list of recommended hotels and accommodations located conveniently in the city. Our selection includes a variety of choices to suit different preferences and price ranges. We suggest booking early, as May is a popular time to visit the city.

★★★★

Hotel Castle Garden

Location: In the 1st district of Budapest, right next to the Buda Castle, in a quiet green area.

Description: Elegant, modern-style hotel with a high-quality restaurant and a cozy terrace.

Highlights: Ideal for couples or anyone seeking a peaceful stay; easily accessible yet quiet.

Special Feature: Includes a sauna and a lovely inner garden.

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★★★★

Hotel Tiliana

Location: In the 2nd district, near Budaliget, surrounded by forest and greenery.

Description: Recently renovated hotel with a large garden, swimming pool, and playground — perfect for families.

Highlights: Wellness facilities, outdoor pool, modern design.

Special Feature: Tranquil, nature-filled environment that’s still easily reachable by car.

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★★★

Beatrix Hotel

Location: In the green area of Budapest’s 2nd district, near Budakeszi Road.

Description: Small, family-style hotel with friendly service and a homey atmosphere.

Highlights: Free parking, garden area, pet-friendly.

Special Feature: Great for guests looking for a quiet stay with easy access to downtown.

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★★★

Hotel Rose City Budapest

Location: In the 2nd district of Budapest, close to Rózsadomb, in a calm, green residential area.

Description: A modern and friendly hotel featuring spacious rooms and a private garden.

Highlights: Free parking, on-site breakfast, and excellent public transport links (close to the H5 suburban railway and local bus stops).

Special Feature: An ideal choice for relaxation or business trips for those looking for a peaceful stay near the city center.

See more...

Organizing & Program Committee

Mary Karyda Moholy-Nagy Universtiy of Art and Design
Jessica Hemmings University of Gothenburg
Renáta Dezső Moholy-Nagy Universtiy of Art and Design
Damla Çay Moholy-Nagy Universtiy of Art and Design
Ágnes Karolina Bakk Moholy-Nagy Universtiy of Art and Design
Nithikul Nimkulrat OCAD University, Canada

Mihály Minkó exhibition chair
Ádám Szabó exhibition chair
Natália Pass project manager
Dr. Judit Kollár event manager
Vivien Andavölgyi project manager
Márk Gelley graphic designer
Gábor Réthi media designer

Budapest
12-13 May 2025