Kata is based in the Trinity Longroom Hub and her work is focused on questions that consider technological developments from the humanistic perspective. She will work closely with her academic mentors Prof. Jennifer O’Meara (School of Creative Arts) and Prof. Aljosa Smolic (School of Computer Science and Statistics) to study the effects of augmented reality on user behaviour.

Kata’s project builds on her previous cross-disciplinary research in cognitive media studies focusing on audiovisual experiences on smartphones and in virtual environments in terms of comprehension, attention, and emotions. Augmented reality (AR) offers interactive content that integrates real-world and digital objects and bodies. Kata’s work focuses on AR experiences in which users interact with digitally created or modified human bodies on mobile devices. Reflecting on the relocation of social experiences into digital spheres, she explores social behaviour and identity. First, by analysing the effects of AR on the sense of social belonging and mental well-being and by measuring users’ reactions to AR experiences that display human bodies besides their own. Second, by studying how AR experiences that display modified self-images impact social identity, behaviour, and prejudices towards digital avatars with different body types and demographic characteristics, such as gender or ethnicity.

Kata is a proud daughter of Budapest, Hungary but has also lived, studied, and worked in Sweden and Finland. Outside of her academic life, she is a singer and a music enthusiast who can be spotted in concert halls, music venues, theatres, and wherever music is played.