Bálint Szabó is an archival assistant at the Institute for Musicology, HUN-REN Research Center for the Humanities. He provides research support within the Department and Archives for Folk Music and Folk Dance Research. His work encompasses the comprehensive archival care of folk dance films: from conservation to preparation for online dissemination, with a focus on digital restoration and color grading of the films. With a background in architecture, Bálint aims to create a value-enhancing fusion of art and engineering in archival work. As a practicing dancer, he considers it important for the documents preserved in his institute to reach a wide audience, while preserving their complexity and interconnections. He has applied to the ARP Ambassador Program to advance this goal.

In the program, Bálint undertakes the repositing of documentation from fieldwork research conducted in Kalotaszeg in 2020. This endeavor that he considers a pilot project has a dual purpose: on one hand, it serves as a starting point for further research and communication with the locals, and on the other hand it is an attempt to determine the optimal parameters and methodology for the interconnected repositing of films, audio recordings, photographs, and paper-based documents preserved in the Archives.