The spicy innovation lab / KIBU
November 21, 2007
Kitchen Budapest, opening in June 2007, is a new media lab for young researchers who are interested in the convergence of mobile communication, online communities and urban space and are passionate about creating experimental projects in cross-disciplinary teams.
Research fields
What happens to the net once it meets the urban space? How does private space relate to the saturating wireless networks? Where does user created content gain authority? How does our use of cities alter as we get more and more real time feedback of its dynamics? What makes a home smart? Street-smart?
We would like to rethink and remix the possibilities of new media in our everyday lives and to augment connections between new technologies and our society.
Lab
KIBU offers a research lab space downtown Budapest, a basic grant for a dozen researchers, some equipment, and a dynamic workflow where sharing and helping is essential , and the freedom to capitalize any good idea.
Being sponsored by Magyar Telekom(MT), the leading Hungarian Telco, there is a direct path where ideas and prototypes get reach larger audiences, in case MT and the project group finds ways to do so. Our aim is build a platform where ideas are materializing and some end up in cultural context, some in the market.
Art and technology
Kitchen Budapest regularly organizes exhibitions to present our prototypes, as well as works or projects from related institutions and professionals.
Project sharing
We have set up a somewhat unique working model, where remixing and sharing and content generated by the researcher community are the key pillars.
Every researcher at KIBU has to have a passion about a specific subject, and have many ideas on how to experiment with that, however, it is important to get 2-3 other researcher on boards, and team members. This also implies that one has to spend some time helping out others in their darling projects.
The last type of task is he intense community generated project period, where in 1-2 weeks, the hole team of KIBU comes up with interesting new projects, and makes them happen.
