Introducing Maru: "I have two kids and no time for hobbies."
Sourcefabric’s ever growing team recently gained a new member in the Berlin office. In this blogpost we will introduce Maria Ituarte to you, a new addition to our product support team.
Maru, can you please introduce yourself?
I studied arts and philosophy in Mexico and Paris. During my studies I focused specifically on media art and analytical philosophy, and wrote my master theses on the influence of analytical philosophy on conceptual art.
How was your art career going?
I started producing art in 1998 and concentrated mainly on performance and video art. My work was mostly shown in the context of international group exhibitions in independent art spaces and contemporary art museums, art festivals, and international biennials in Mexico City, Miami, Vancouver, Madrid, Paris, Berlin and Moscow.
So you were a successful artist?
Success is relative... I continued doing my art after having kids. However, after several years of struggling to produce art, to maintain and to extend my professional network, to try earn a living as an artist and to sustain a family, it felt like I was ready for a change.
Tell us about how you dealt with the need to change your career path.
At this point I started to explore the Start-Up scene in Berlin, and ended up with an internship at an art television station. When the company was restructured I was lucky enough to land a project management position that allowed me to develop my skills in this direction, and to hone a more business-oriented mindset.
What exactly you were working on?
One of my projects was to set up a database for video content. It was at this point that I started to get really fascinated by databases. I can’t programme myself, but I’m very interested in how information is structured, its ontology and logic. I discovered that information management processes have a lot to do with some logical processes in analytical philosophy and linguistics with which I’m familiar with through my studies. I became very interested in structures and trying to figure out how these function and how they might be improved upon.
You mentioned that you are interested in neurophenomenology. Can you please briefly explain what that is?
I was already quite interested in artificial intelligence, again not in terms of technology, but in terms of philosophy. Among the wide range of conferences on different subjects taking place in Berlin, I discovered a series of conferences organised by the Berlin School of Mind and Brain at Humboldt University that were incredibly inspiring. Neurophenomenology combines neuroscience with phenomenology in order to study experience, mind, and consciousness with an emphasis on the embodied condition of the human mind.
How did you learn about Sourcefabric?
At the art TV station where I worked, we were looking for a system that could work as an interface for broadcasting. Something like Airtime, but for video. Unfortunately, the company took a different direction.
Later as I was searching for a new position, I visited the Sourcefabric website and saw there was an opening I could apply for. So I applied and happily ended up as a support team member. I immediately liked Sourcefabric’s culture, office environment, ambience and people working here.
Do you want to become a part of the Sourcefabric team and help us build open source tools for journalists? We'd like to hear from you, have a look at our job openings.