06-30 Haziran 2023
Merdiven Art Space

curated by Ekmel Ertan

Bir görüntü ne anlatır?

 

 

[6] a.g.e., s.35

[7] a.g.e., s.34

Curious Objects

The Curious Objects exhibition refers to the Cabinets of Curiosity (Wunderkammer) that emerged in the 16th century with the idea of ​​the Renaissance. Cabinets of Curiosity were private collections that combined extraordinary natural or man-made objects as an effort to classify the knowledge of the things in the age of discoveries.

In today's technological twilight, while our knowledge and objects multiply exponentially, our need to understand, make sense of, and our curiosity increases exponentially.

Three connected exhibitions titled “Thought Objects”, “Memory Objects” and “Objects of Desire”, which will take place throughout the year at the Goethe Institute, invite artists to objectify their curiosity today.

Memory Objects

Eda Soylu

17 Eylül 2020 – 8 Ocak 2021

Eda Soylu's series of works exhibited in different contexts and times come together in Memory Objects and touch our common memory with a new fiction. Common memory is selective, it consists of forgetting as well as remembering. Who tells the narratives that shape our memory; what does he remember and what does he forget? In order to overcome the fears and anxieties of herself and her generation, Soylu creates a subtle game between forgetting and remembering by transforming evidence of violence into colorful, soft, flawless objects; she creates her own objects of curiosity to reproduce the life energy.

watch the opening video: https://fb.watch/33LDfz6LKQ/
and another where I talked about Curious Objects exhibition; a panel titled "Nadire Kabineleri ve Şeyler Üzerine (On Cabinets of Curiosity and Things)" curated by Sarı Denizaltı, with the contribution of Sezgin Abalı and me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1lE-hhamQo&t=20s

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Meraklı Nesneler

Meraklı Nesneler sergisi, Rönesans düşüncesiyle birlikte 16. yüzyılda ortaya çıkan Nadire Kabinelerine (Wunderkammer) gönderme yapar. Nadire Kabineleri, ‘şeylerin’ bilgisini sınıflandırma çabası olarak, doğal veya insan yapımı olağanüstü nesneleri bir araya getiren özel koleksiyonlardı.

Bugünün teknolojik alacakaranlığında, bilgi ve nesneler katlanarak çoğalırken yeniden anlama, anlamlandırma ihtiyacımız ve merakımız da katlanarak artıyor.

Yıl boyunca Goethe Enstitüsünde yer alacak olan “Düşünce Nesneleri”, “Bellek Nesneleri” ve “Arzu Nesneleri” başlıklı üç bağlantılı sergi, sanatçıları bugüne dair meraklarını nesneleştirmeye davet ediyor.

Bellek Nesneleri

Eda Soylu

17. September 2020 – 8

Eda Soylu’nun farklı bağlamlarda ve zamanlarda sergilenmiş bir dizi işi Bellek Nesneleri’nde bir araya gelerek yeni bir kurgu ile ortak hafızamıza dokunuyor. Ortak hafıza seçicidir, hatırlamak kadar unutmaktan da oluşur. Belleğimizi biçimlendiren anlatıları kim hikaye ediyor; neleri hatırlıyor neleri unutuyor? Soylu kendisinin ve kuşağının korku ve kaygılarının üstesinden gelmek için, şiddetin kanıtlarını renkli, yumuşak, kusursuz nesnelere dönüştürerek unutma ile hatırlama arasında ince bir oyun kuruyor; yaşama enerjisini yeniden üretmek için kendi nadirelerini yaratıyor.

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[de]
Neugierige Objekte

Die Ausstellung „Neugierige Objekte“ bezieht sich auf die Wunderkammer, die im 16. Jahrhundert mit der Idee der Renaissance aufkam. Wunderkammern waren Privatsammlungen, die außergewöhnliche natürliche oder vom Menschen geschaffene Objekte zusammenbrachten, um das Wissen über die Dinge zu klassifizieren.

In der technologischen Dämmerung von heute, in der sich Wissen und Objekte exponentiell vermehren, wächst auch unser Bedürfnis, zu verstehen, Bedeutungen zu ergründen und neugierig zu sein, wieder exponentiell an.

Die drei miteinander verbundenen Ausstellungen „Gedankenobjekte“, „Erinnerungsobjekte“ und „Objekte der Begierde“, die im Laufe des Jahres im Goethe-Institut ausgerichtet werden, laden Künstler dazu ein, ihre Neugierde von heute ausdrücken.

Erinnerungsobjekte

Eda Soylu

17. September 2020 – 8

Eda Soylus Werkreihe, die in verschiedenen Kontexten und Zeiten ausgestellt wurde, verdichten  sich zu der Ausstellung Erinnerungsobjekte. Sie wendet sich an unser kollektives Gedächtnis mit einem neuen Narrativ. Das kollektive Gedächtnis ist selektiv, es besteht sowohl aus Vergessen als auch aus Erinnern. Wer erzählt die Geschichten, die unser Gedächtnis prägen? Woran wird erinnert, und was wird vergessen? Um sowohl ihre eigenen Sorgen und Ängste zu überwunden als auch die ihrer Generation, schafft Soylu ein subtiles Spiel zwischen Vergessen und Erinnern. Spuren von Gewalt werden umgewandelt in farbenfrohe, weiche, makellose Gegenstände; Soylu erschafft Objekte der Neugierde, um Lebensenergie zu reproduzieren.

 

"Bugünün Tarihi" projesi, Ekmel Ertan’ın yaşadığımız günün tarihini tumak amacıyla üç bölümde kurduğu, her bölümde yeni bir yerleştirmeyle tamamlanacak çok disiplinli bir kurguyla sunuluyor. Seramik, 3d lazer print, video ve ışık yerleştirmesinden oluşan sergi seyirciye bire bir deneyim sunuyor."

https://www.facebook.com/medyascopetv/videos/1040161959672052/

Curious Objects

The Curious Objects exhibition refers to the Cabinets of Curiosity (Wunderkammer) that emerged in the 16th century with the idea of ​​the Renaissance. Cabinets of Curiosity were private collections that combined extraordinary natural or man-made objects as an effort to classify the knowledge of the things in the age of discoveries.

In today's technological twilight, while our knowledge and objects multiply exponentially, our need to understand, make sense of, and our curiosity increases exponentially.

Three connected exhibitions titled “Thought Objects”, “Memory Objects” and “Objects of Desire”, which will take place throughout the year at the Goethe Institute, invite artists to objectify their curiosity today.

Thought Objects:

Esîr (Ether)
Buşra Tunç

February 13 - September 3, 2020

Moving from the aesthetics of rare cabinets and storage spaces such as laboratories, this site-specific placement consists of glass bottles and fluorescents of different sizes.

The idea of ​​displaying light and emptiness, as well as fluorescence being an ordinary industrial object, conflicts with the Nadire Cabins' tradition of collecting and storing unique and valuable objects. The light directed to objects under ordinary conditions turns into a form that manifests itself, not objects while scattering out of the source in this study.

Watch the closing video: https://fb.watch/33R5f_OQru/
 and another video where I talked about Curious Objects exhibition; a panel titled "Nadire Kabineleri ve Şeyler Üzerine (On Cabinets of Curiosity and Things)" curated by Sarı Denizaltı, with the contribution of Sezgin Abalı and me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1lE-hhamQo&t=20s

---

[tr]
Meraklı Nesneler

Meraklı Nesneler sergisi, Rönesans düşüncesiyle birlikte 16. yüzyılda ortaya çıkan Nadire Kabinelerine (Wunderkammer) gönderme yapar. Nadire Kabineleri, ‘şeylerin’ bilgisini sınıflandırma çabası olarak, doğal veya insan yapımı olağanüstü nesneleri bir araya getiren özel koleksiyonlardı.

Bugünün teknolojik alacakaranlığında, bilgi ve nesneler katlanarak çoğalırken yeniden anlama, anlamlandırma ihtiyacımız ve merakımız da katlanarak artıyor.

Yıl boyunca Goethe Enstitüsünde yer alacak olan “Düşünce Nesneleri”, “Bellek Nesneleri” ve “Arzu Nesneleri” başlıklı üç bağlantılı sergi, sanatçıları bugüne dair meraklarını nesneleştirmeye davet ediyor.

Düşünce Nesneleri:

Esîr
Buşra Tunç

13 Şubat – 3 September 2020

Nadire kabinelerinin ve laboratuvarlar gibi muhafaza mekanlarının estetiğinden hareket eden bu mekana-özgü (site-specific) yerleştirme, farklı boyutlarda cam şişeler ve floresanlardan oluşur.

Floresanının sıradan bir endüstriyel nesne olmasının yanı sıra ışığı ve boşluğu sergileme fikri Nadire Kabinelerinin biricik ve kıymetli nesneleri toplama ve saklama geleneğiyle çatışır. Alışıldık şartlarda nesnelere yöneltilen ışık, bu çalışmada kaynağından dışarı doğru saçılırken nesneleri değil kendini gösteren bir forma dönüşür.

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[de]
Neugierige Objekte

Die Ausstellung „Neugierige Objekte“ bezieht sich auf die Wunderkammer, die im 16. Jahrhundert mit der Idee der Renaissance aufkam. Wunderkammern waren Privatsammlungen, die außergewöhnliche natürliche oder vom Menschen geschaffene Objekte zusammenbrachten, um das Wissen über die Dinge zu klassifizieren.

In der technologischen Dämmerung von heute, in der sich Wissen und Objekte exponentiell vermehren, wächst auch unser Bedürfnis, zu verstehen, Bedeutungen zu ergründen und neugierig zu sein, wieder exponentiell an.

Die drei miteinander verbundenen Ausstellungen „Gedankenobjekte“, „Erinnerungsobjekte“ und „Objekte der Begierde“, die im Laufe des Jahres im Goethe-Institut ausgerichtet werden, laden Künstler dazu ein, ihre Neugierde von heute ausdrücken.

Gedankenobjekte

Äther
Büşra Tunç

13. Februar – 3. September 2020

Ausgehend von der Ästhetik von Präsentationsräumen wie Wunderkammern und -laboren besteht diese ortsspezifische Anordnung aus Glasflaschen und fluoreszierenden Stoffen unterschiedlicher Größe.

Die Vorstellung, Licht und Leere sowie fluoreszierende Stoffe als gewöhnliches industrielles Objekt darzustellen, widerspricht der Tradition der Wunderkammern, einzigartige und kostbare Objekte zu sammeln und zu präsentieren. Das Licht, das unter normalen Bedingungen auf Objekte gerichtet wird, verwandelt sich in eine Form, die sich manifestiert, statt einfach in ein Objekt, das von einer Quelle gestreut wird.

Akbank Sanat, İstanbul
9 September - 18 November 2017

Burak Arıkan, Servet Cihangiroğlu, Didem Erk, Richard Jochum, Mirko Lazović, Cengiz Tekin, Anna Vasof

curated by Ekmel Ertan, Işın Önol

Black Noise

In fields such as audio engineering, electronics and physics certain signals of noise are referred to with names of colours. White, pink, blue or black noises have different characteristics; the colour of noise refers to the spectrum of energy that it carries. Black noise is a type of noise where the dominant energy level is zero throughout all frequencies, with occasional sudden rises; it is also defined as silence.

In choosing the title of the exhibition as Black Noise, we aimed to make use of its meaning in physics as well as the contradiction created by the name, but were also interested in the associations of each of these two words: black and noise. These two are words that both have negative associations or connotations. While black implies darkness, the concealed, and the one playing the bad, noise suggests a disturbing situation, a set of circumstances that obstructs communication. The combination of these two words, with negative associations that are more pronounced, provides an account of silence, which might be considered to be negative, but is also identified with peacefulness and tranquillity, or understanding and wisdom. The silence that is the golden while speech is silver – quietude.

Contrary to general consideration, sound and silence are not each other’s opposite, but they are mutually inclusive. Their complex relationship becomes visible in this impossible set: sound is a superset of silence, and silence of sound; and both are contained by that which they contain. Silence has a sound, and with it, a measurable, transformable power. The opposite of this proposition is also possible: when sound loses its content, context, and meaning, it is transformed into noise, and noise into silence. Becoming silent and silencing do not point to a loss of power, and neither does the presence of noise refer to the existence, or the acquisition of power.

Sessizlik in Turkish, created by a negative suffix denoting a lack of sound, is synonymous with the word “silence”, which is also used as a verb in western languages with the meaning of “causing to become silent; prohibiting or preventing from speaking”. Although often used in expressions that imply a tense and passive period of anticipation before and/or after an event, such as the silence of death, silence of the lambs, silence before the rain; silence, in fact, is loaded with sound and action. On the other hand, while sound is a representation of expression, action, co-existence, and nature, sometimes it is not more powerful than its absence.

Parallel to the developments in the world, Turkey too is becoming more silent entrapped in the claws of an increasingly escalating noise. We imagine the silence that is caused by the noise of neoliberal capitalism, which is feeding off of the “post-truth” discourse and violence, to be the quietude that is “golden”. The noise nurtures the voice, which we shall hear when the time comes, that will convey a genuine and sincere communication when it is heard.

In contemporary music, black noise finds a counterpart within the alternative and political music discourse, such as rap and hip-hop that provides a voice to the black communities. On the other hand, the famous composition of John Cage, 4’33” could also be considered as a composition of black noise. It requires patience, empathy and attention on the part of the listener. Otherwise, what is heard and seen would disappear amongst the movement and noise already present in the space, and the audience/listener would not be able to delve deeper.

The works in the Black Noise exhibition are turning into a ritual based on repetition, into a meditative practice on digesting, comprehending, embracing and expressing a certain experience both for the artist and the viewer. The contemporary art project, Black Noise, explores the complex relationship between sound and silence; it focuses on the transformation, the function, the functionlessness, the poetry, the occasional meaninglessness, and sometimes on the power of sound, as a means of artistic expression, in various different spheres. By activating the wide range of associations created by sound and silence, the exhibition encourages the works that carry social references to communicate with one another and with the viewer.

Burak Arıkan

In his work, Arıkan applies the laws of physics to the proximity/distance relationship between the nodes of a network structure:

This software executes a dynamic network structure by utilising a physics-based simulation. As new nodes and relationships are added, the network expands, as they are removed it contracts. During the process of expansion and contraction, the tension behaviours within the network goes through changes. As nodes within the network push and pull one another, the degrees of tension between the nodes change dynamically. The tension assigns a colour to the points and lines. High tension generates saturated colours and low tension generates darker colours. When the tension reaches a state of rests, nodes and lines turn into black.

The network simulation that Arıkan implements by making use of the laws of physics is reminiscent of the present-day media. In our post-digital era the media constitutes a different meaning and a context.

When we speak about the media of our present-day, we no longer talk about the one-way, single-channel communication or relay of information that we know and were accustomed to until the ’90s. There are no “reliable” or “knowing men” in today's media. Neither universities, nor press monopolies, nor government institutions are reliable sources of information. The field of information has already abandoned the routine and static structure of the ’90s; we are struggling to cope with all kinds of information bombarded in a continuous manner and with a varying tension, through a relentless process of contraction-relaxation, about subjects that are everyday or assumed to be universal. Every piece of information, every narrative, every expression is in fact a sound, and with new sounds constantly added to the field, the old ones are falling out of our area of interest or comprehension through being forgotten.

On the other hand, each individual is a node within the network of media, everyone is their own media. Therefore, the media is everywhere and in everything at every single instant: the information sent by the refrigerator, informing you that you are out of milk is now a part of this network, part of the media, so is the photograph of the accessory that your friend wears, or her smile, captured pouting, uploaded onto facebook.

This situation is a post-digital era phenomenon; the proliferation of the channels of communication and their increased accessibility has created this phenomenon. It took us quite some time to realise that this proliferation and increased accessibility were not a guarantee for democracy. There is a constant stream of new sounds being added to all the information and communication channels established on the internet infrastructure, the web sites; facebook, twitter, instagram and so forth, and all of the social media, the television channels broadcasting over the internet, institutions of the press, as well as YouTube and other similar individual channels. In the face of every voice, each word uttered, every piece of new information – be it true or false – we have to constantly re-orient ourselves, rearrange all our knowledge, and redraw our conclusions; we are in a perpetual state of tensing up and relaxing. There is a turbulence similar to the one visualised by Arıkan in each and every one of our minds, which persists almost without subsiding. Each piece of information and every voice added on necessitates the reformulation of all existing relations, and to recompose our perception concerning the whole or its parts over and over again until arriving at a balance. But it seems that balance could never be attained in this hasty climate of speaking, saying, calling and forgetting/being forgotten.

In fact, this set of circumstances shows us that we need a paradigm change, that we cannot continue with our old habits. How could we manage to maintain our critical point of view and attain a holistic perception within this ceaseless movement, this constant change?

Servet Cihangiroğlu

This, you could see from the foggy panes of the wide window in the spacious room of my mother’s half stone and half concrete house;

The whole city stretches forwards and downwards along the slope. First, there are the various kinds of plants, vegetables, herbs, trees lining up in the tiny garden; then begin the houses, buildings, constructions, new constructions, coops, stables, water reservoirs, poles, minarets… After that you see the roofs of several neighbours’ houses; beyond that are the houses and buildings of relatives and acquaintances; and among them are dirt roads, pathways, asphalt… Still further are a few neighbourhoods with people she knows and loves, and in those neighbourhoods schools, government buildings, multi-storey buildings, work places, groceries, repairers, painters, car body shops, yoghurt vendors… As you glide downwards and forwards; pits, mines, soot-black plains, fields of coal… And straight ahead… This is called Cudi, starting from the depths, the blackest places, the pits; a giant curtain that rises to the highest point there is. Apparently, Noah tied the ship here and took pairs of each living thing, and he took people in larger numbers than any other living thing; so that they could live, or devour each other in pairs.

In his seven minute long, fast motion video, which, although speeded-up shows nothing other than the evening setting in, Servet Cihangiroğlu transforms silence into a plain, as well as a heavy image. With an amateur video camera set in his mother’s room the artist is looking at one of the central neighbourhoods of Şırnak from a distance, a neighbourhood that has faced destruction and has been transformed. In this scenery, where the snow has blanketed everything, except for a few small movements silence dominates; the silence that lasts until nightfall is buried into the darkness of the night along with all those that could not be told. When the video is over we know that we now carry that silence inside us. We continue to stand there and look for a while longer as the closing credits roll, but now we know that what we are gazing at is our own silence.

The optical zoom-in and zoom-out motion caused by the video camera as it tries to focus while it is getting dark, adds a new dimension to the work through an unexpected glitch – a digital flaw. As this – almost – implies that there is a flaw, an unnatural mistake, through the alienation effect that it creates it also reminds us – heedlessly – of our own position: The silence that the artist “shows” is our silence! 

Didem Erk

Didem Erk’s painstaking and laborious action of “striking through” by stitching over the words in books that were banned sometime in the past bears reference to censorship while also underscoring the mentality that tries to destroy words one by one, and the issue of self-censorship created by this mentality. In a sense, this implies the fact that self-censorship has transformed into a painstaking and meticulous form of expression in our present-day life, almost becoming a means of resistance.

The strands of thread hanging beyond the bounds of the pages are like the tips of new layers of meaning that censorship adds to the utterance – to the word – multiplying and inevitably enriching the censored material; it is like placing a bookmark onto the word as well as on censorship, which shall never disappear, and always remind us of both the word and the act of censorship...

Didem Erk’s D., on the other hand, confronts us with a vocal and personal expression of self-censorship. This time Erk renders her own utterance meaningless and incomprehensible through the use of other words of her own. On the one hand, through the two voices physically effacing, disrupting one another, and on the other, through that sense of uncertainty, the constant feeling of doubt that the words we manage to catch from time to time in pursuit of a meaning leave us with.

The two similar but also very different works of Erk point to different forms of silence and becoming silent, and in fact, what they both present is the question about what it is that silences. Silence – perhaps, in a way – is a question that unites through a common answer...

Richard Jochum

Jochum portrays a moment stuck in memory with a sound, perhaps almost with a cacophony. The barking in Jochum’s work is not a direct or crude signifier; it does not point to power or the beholder of the power! On the contrary, with the help of the participants he had invited, in a very subtle manner, he creates a silent cry through the act of barking. He transforms some sort of helplessness, anger, an inability to express into a meaningful expression by making use of the “absurd”. He shoves silence into our ears!

Entering the room where the installation is set, the viewer is confronted with 12 monitors arranged in a circle with faces of people barking on each one of them. These faces, all very different from one another in terms of sex, age and style, have a very familiar, but at the same time very foreign expression. Jochum has asked the participants to concentrate on and think about something that enrages them; then, he only allowed them to bark! Each bark is actually the sound of an inability to express; hence, silence! He brings these silences together, and presents a kind of symphony of silence. A silence that surrounds the viewer in all its diversity, meaningfulness and despair!

Mirko Lazović

In Lazović’s installation that extends over the entrance floor of the exhibition hall, the amplified sounds of drops from an invisible source dripping into a black liquid in a black space create an uncanny feeling. Although these drops that transform the exhibition space into a damp cave would continue their journey between the ceiling and the water below indistinctly due to their obscure source and the black liquid they drip into, they become visible once again with their reflections on the wall and the amplified sound of them dripping onto the water.

Water dripping from the ceiling not only constitutes a contrast with the clean, well-maintained “white cube” of the exhibition space, but also with the meticulously prepared installation itself. However, the rhythmic dripping and the reflection of the ripples created by the drops visible on the wall are clear indications that this is a composed set-up. The black floor and the black walls that were prepared, and the ripples projected onto the wall with the aid of spotlights, transform the white cube of the exhibition space into the black box of a performance space.

And the silence is neither absolute nor perfect. Every sound created by the falling of a new drop increases the sense of uncanny, and leaves us in anticipation: what will happen next? The silence and the sense of uncanny persist with the next drop; we hold our breaths. Another drop! If we were to ignore the noise, our breathing nowadays is a silence much like this; a black noise! We hold our breaths.

Cengiz Tekin

This incredibly simple video, created by Cengiz Tekin, showing the repetitive, fast-paced movements of men who pace up and down on a construction site where almost nothing other than the iron reinforcement mesh appears in the frame, takes its power from rhythm: The rhythm of the ceaselessly repeated movements of treading and turning around performed by the men walking! The rhythm is transformed into an element that bears the image; it adds a new layer of meaning and expands the field of expression. What makes this video fascinating is the sharpness, speed and hastiness of the rhythm established by the movements of the walking men, as well as the energy, far more fierce than what is exposed, that is, the energy still left within those bodies that move, much more powerful than what that movement can express, an energy, despite that swift rhythm, that does not come out, that does not flow, does not drain out. This is just like an image of a scream; silent. In Tekin’s work we are looking at the moving image of a silence that bears, or perhaps that can no longer bear, a tremendous sound, a scream.

While the rhythm creates an impartation, therefore a moment of transference, of draining out, on the other hand it also renders that moment into an impossibility; neither the transference nor the draining out is completed, because the rhythm repeats perpetually; it turns into the expression of some impossibility.

The rhythm is not just composed through the movements. The pattern created by the repetitive structure of the iron reinforcement mesh, the repetition of the transparent space – that is both image-like and real – defined by the reinforcement mesh that the men walk in, and the fact that all of the people who walk are men are the other elements that constitute the rhythm.

Tekin takes this one step further to make sure that the rhythm is not just visual; he collaborates with Cevdet Erek to add an audio layer to the video. Tekin’s choice of working with Erek is of course not a coincidence in this context. With Erek’s contribution, the rhythm of the visuals and the energy that does not drain out are also conveyed through to the audio layer.

Erek’s intervention to the work operates through translation. In the audio field he reconstructs what is already created by the rhythm in the visuals. The work attains that fascinating result; a connection that surrounds the viewer both visually and with its audio, a bond that could not be disengaged from, one that extends perpetually with the rhythm.

Anna Vasof

Anna Vasof imitates a digital image with a sculpture that she produces by making use of simple, inexpensive, everyday objects: the self-portrait of the artist in a moving image, banging her head against the walls.

Vasof bangs her head against the wall with the help of the viewer. When you pull the rope, you are not looking at something as if you were peeking through a slightly opened curtain, on the contrary, you are causing whatever is happening. This is the surprise factor that Vasof employs; the secret power of her work. And it is so much fun; you pull once more and Anna bangs her head again! Anna is silent, but she let’s you hear the sound of the “bang”. Every time she bangs her head against the wall, she announces it with a sound. Anna does not talk, she does not yell, she does not tell you that you are banging her head against the wall! She only let’s you hear the sound that is the result of your action, the sound of you banging her head against the wall. And you, you pull once more. Black Noise is perhaps exactly this irony: this scream covered in heedlessness, cloaked in silence!

at ARTİST 2017 - TÜYAP
4-12 November 2017

"Üç Nokta..."

Bazı cümlelerin sonuna üç nokta koyarız; söylemediğimiz, söylemediklerimiz için. Bu bazen, okuyanın zaten bildiklerini ifade etmeye yarar, bazen yazanın da  bilmediklerini. Bazen sadece yazmaya üşenmektendir ya da okuyanı sıkma korkusundan; bazen endişeden, korkudan, ifade edememekten. Bir cümlenin sonudur, cümleyi yeni bir anlam ekleyerek tamamlar.

Ama kendi başına duran üç nokta daha büyük bir bağlama gönderme yapmak durumundadır. Cümlesi olmayan bütüne; herkese aşikar olan söylenmeze, söylen-e-meze; sessizliğe!

amberPlatform "..." başlığı ile ortak sessizliğe değiniyor; bir yandan sessizleştirme, susturma, gürültüye boğma, üstünü örtme, erteleme, önemsizleştirme, yok sayma gibi baskının saklı/görünmeyen/dolaylı biçimlerini göstermeye çalışırken öte yandan sessizliğin nasıl bir imkansızlık olduğunu vurguluyor; bazen bir iç sıkıntısı, bazen gergin bir bekleyiş, bazen umutların büyütüldüğü bir küvez, sessizliğin bir yenilgi değil bir strateji olduğunu sanat aracılığıyla seslendirmeyi hedefliyor.

Sanatçılar:
Ali Miharbi, Seçil Yaylalı, Sümer Sayın, Anti-Pop, Fatih Aydoğdu, Zeynep Nal, Melike Nal, Tuğba Nal, Selin Özçelik, Nagehan Kuralı, Ekmel Ertan

Küratör:
Ekmel Ertan (amberPlatform)

İŞLER / WORKS

Sümer Sayın Bir Saatlik Sessizlik / One Hour of Silence
Heykel / Sculpture (Kum saatleri, demir / Sandglasses, metal), 45 x 45 x 7 cm, 2016

Altı adet 10 dakikalık kum saati daire oluşturacak şekilde dizilerek, bir saate tekabül eden bir form yaratıyor. Zamanı birbirine eklemleyerek uzatma ve döngüselleştirme eylemi, buna karşılık kum saatlerinin fonksiyonunu yok ederek akışkanlığı olmayan bir süreç, donmuş bir zaman aralığı yaratıyor.  ////////// Six 10-minute sandclocks are installed in a circular form, to create a time frame that equals 1 hour.  While time is extended in a circular way by the attachment of sandclocks to each other, their function is eliminated to create a non-flowing process, in other words, a frozen time frame.

Anti-pop Son Dakika / Last Minute
Video animasyon / Video animation, 20’’, 2016

Son Dakika medyanın suskunluğuna ve gürültüye boğarak, çoğaltarak ve anlamsızlaştırarak suskunlaştırma yöntemleri üzerine bir iştir; alışkanlıktan göremez hale geldiğimiz bir taktiği açık eder. ////////// Last Minute is an artwork on the methods of silencing the media through jamming in the noise, multiplying and rendering meaningless; it reveals a tactic that we have become incapable of seeing by habit.

Fatih Aydoğdu Internal Affairs / Içişleri
Wooden-Instrument-Object / Tahta-Enstrüman-Obje, 2013

"İçişleri", toplumsal görevlerinden, sosyal işlev ve işlerliğinden tamamen vazgeçmiş yönetim biçimlerine ve ideolojik yapılanmalara gönderme yapan, siyasi gündemi yaratan baskıcı mekanizmaları sorgulamak üzerine kurgulanmış bir modeldir. Otokratik egemen yapıların kendi iktidarlarını korumak için yarattıkları kolektif çaresizlik ve ve bunu sistematik bir biçimde yayma yöntemleri üzerine sorular üretir. Normal koşullarda işlevi ses çıkartmak, müzik üretmek olan bu tanıdık enstrüman, kendi aksiyle bütünleşerek, artık sesine ulaşamayacağınız, herhangi bir diyalog kuramayacağınız, sadece kendi içişleri ile uğrasan kapalı bir sisteme dönüşmüştür. ////////// "Internal Affairs" is a model, designed to question the hegemonic mechanisms of the autocratic systems that create the political agenda, while at the same time abolishing social responsibilities and democratic structures. While it refers to the given leading models and ideological structures, it poses questions about collective helplessness and its systematic spread, which is only about maintaining one's own power. This well-known instrument, which is used for making sound or music under normal circumstances, is mirrored into its own self, so neither you can hear its sound, nor will you be able to make any interaction with it. The instrument is turned into a closed system that is only preoccupied with its own internal affairs.

Selin Özçelik, Nagehan Kuralı Kadın Dediğin vol. 1 / Woman – Vol. 1
Kesim Harf,  interaktif instelasyon / Cutout letters, interactive installation, 2017

‘Gülmek’ ne zaman ve neden meşrulaştırılmaya ihtiyaç duyar? ‘Kadın Dediğin – Vol. 1’ geleneksel toplumun cinsiyet algısında yer etmiş ‘’.zlü’’ bir s.zü merkezine alır ve interaktif yapısıyla ziyaretçiyi tam da bu merkeze konumlar. Tersine çevrilmiş bir algı deneyimi sunan interaktif enstelasyon, alışılagelmiş kahkahaları yabancılaştıran bu .zlü s.zü, ziyaretçiyle kurduğu etkileşimle tekrar normalleştirir. Duvara asılı pirinç harfler, söylemlerine itaatin aksine bir deneyime davet eder sizi. Gülümsemeyin, atın kahkanızı! ////////// When have we started legitimizing ‘a laugh’ whether from a man or a woman? ‘Woman – Vol. 1’ is an interactive sound installation which takes a stereotypical gender perception as a core point and positions the visitors interactively just in the center. You do not have to be afraid of the rising laughter as you come closer.

Ali Miharbi Hasta Başı Monitörü / Patient Monitor
Tekerlekli monitör ayağı, PC, İnternet bağlantısı /  Monitor stand with casters, PC, Internet connection, 2017

Hasta Başı Monitörü Wikipedia sunucusu ile veri alışverişini analiz eden hazır yazılım ile Türkiye’den Wikipedia’ya erişimin grafiğini çiziyor; Miharbi bilgiye erişim ve toplumun sağlığı arasındaki metaforik ilişkiye işaret ediyor. ////////// Patient Monitor uses a readymade software to analyse data transactions with the Wikipedia server and draws the graphics of access to Wikipedia from Turkey, which points the relation between the access to information and the health of the society.

Seçil Yaylalı Unguentarium
Cam şişe,  filizlendirilmiş buğday / Glass bottle, sprouted weath, 2010-2017

Gözyaşı şişeleri antik dönemlerde yasın büyüklüğünü temsil eden göz yaşlarını biriktirmek için kullanılırdı. Acı çok farklı biçimlerde ifade edilir; en doğrudan olanlarında birisi gözyaşıdır. Antik zamandan beri çok farklı uygarlıklar farklı formlarda gözyaşı şişeleri kullanmıştır. Gözyaşı şişeleri hem yası gösterir hem de bir umut ışığı yakar. Bu gözyaşı şişeleri gözyaşı yerine tohumla doldurulmuştur. Tohum her zaman ve her koşulda yeni bir hayatın filizleneceğini hatırlatır!. ////////// A tear catcher or tear bottle was used in ancient times to collect the tears in order to show the mourning. The pain can be reflected in different modes and it has a huge range of outcomes. Tears are among the most direct ones. In history we come across with ancient objects from different civilisations that have the function to collect tears. They can be both a mourning gesture and a symbol of hope. Instead of tears, these ancient tear bottles have been filled up with seeds. Seeds symbolize both the final stage of fruit/life and the potential new life of the tree.

Zeynep Nal, Melike Nal, Tuğba Nal Eşi̇kteki̇ler / Ones On The Doorstep
Karışık malzeme / Mixed material, 2017

“Eşiktekiler”, toplumun dışladığı, ötekileştirdiği, yanı başında yok sayıp duymazdan ve görmezden geldiği, üzerine basıp geçtiği ayak takımının, mültecilerin, dilencilerin, sokak çocuklarının, fahişelerin, delilerin, yitiklerin, başarısız ve tutunamayanların ve diğer bilumum şanssız kesimlerin duygularına, hayallerine ve içlerinde saklı hikayelerine, bir köşede kalmışlığın suskun görüntüsü ardındaki sesleri keşfetmeye dair bir güzellemedir.Bir güzellik simgesi olarak takı şeklinde, giyilebilir teknoloji olarak tasarlanmış bu işler, sözde çirkin olana yaklaşmaya, dokunmaya ve keşfetmeye çağırır seyircisini. ////////// “Ones on the doorstep” is a series of lyric artworks in praise of the emotions, dreams, hidden stories and the voices behind the silent image of the vulgar, refugees, beggars, street children, prostitutes, mentally ill, losers, the disconnected and other unfortunate people that the society has ignored, alienated, marginalized, ignored, tuned out and tossed out. These art works, which are designed as wearable technology in the form of jewelry as a symbol of beauty, invite the spectator to approach, touch and explore the so-called ugly.

Artists:
Bager Akbay, Burak Arıkan, Günışığı Cihangir, Ali Miharbi, Zeynep Nal

Curators:
Ekmel Ertan, Fatih Aydoğdu

GRAMMAGRAPH

Writing has a long history encompassing 3500-4000 years, but contrary to belief, it did not emerge to allow the consideration of possibilities for a better life within the comprehensive realm of literature, nor to live on the richness oozing from the curves of human intelligence and creativity. Rather the first scripts were about the distribution records of beer and crops to workingmen. First used for the purpose of registering, writing then has become the communication tool of the ruling class to declare the laws related to the governance of the city. So before the literati, writing was used by accountants, lawmakers, statesmen and the ruling elite. In this context, writing records, notifies, announces and instructs. As with all new technologies, it is first used as a means for the ruling class. The democratization of writing and the introduction of its artifacts into the written word, became possible long after the discovery of writing.

Writing is a kind of code. The abstract aspect of coding and its relation to reality has changed across societies ever since its emergence. From cuneiform script to hypertext, from Egyptian hieroglyphics to C++, all is writing. A computer program is also a form of writing. That is why we call it coding or script; we code by writing just as we write by coding. Wherever metaphor you choose, it leads you to the other side… Writing is the code designed by humans for their own kind. Human beings use codes to get in touch with nature, animals, spirits, but they write only for their fellow humans.

With the introduction of digital technologies, another rupture occurred in the evolution of writing. Not only can we communicate and interact by means of writing: but we write for the machine and in return the machine can write for us. With discussions about artificial intelligence, robotics, virtual reality and the post-human, speculation has opened up new contexts. Computers getting involved in the realm of affections by writing did not take as long as the evolution of writing; within the relatively short history of computers, the first love poem is written by Z22 in 1959. Konrad Zuse created one of the first computers, and Theo Luts coded it to write poems. This is the first time when writing was turned into code and code into writing.

Writing is the most effective tool to ensures the human evolution and reproduction. It also allows humans to transfer their knowledge to subsequent generations. From education to government, science and art, writing is essential for everything. Not only literature, but also music and dance are writing. Now writing is computer art as well! Although in the beginning it was a tool for the ruling class, the democratization that writing created by recording and transferring knowledge, gets more and more sophisticated with today's information and communication technologies. Media arts or art employing the technology represent the pinnacle of this development; code systems that carry knowledge are diversified, duplicated, made open and accessible. This is achieved through the curiosity, skills and creativity of the artist: they do not let the technology remain as a tool for the ruling elite; they request, learn, use and make accessible. Therefore, 'makers', do-it-yourselfers, hackers unite in the artist. In every new step taken by the technology, artists point out negative developments and warn the society. They show the opportunities and necessities as well as negative possibilities, and all that is unwittingly detrimental.

This exhibition brings together two kinds of writing used by media artists: the code, which is the script written for the machine, and the code which is written by artists for appreciation by humans.

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Sanatçılar:
Deniz Yılmaz, Burak Arıkan, Günışığı Cihangir, Ali Miharbi, Zeynep Nal

Küratörler:
Ekmel Ertan, Fatih Aydoğdu

GRAMMAGRAPH

Yaklaşık 3500–4000 yıllık bir geçmişi olan yazı, ne yazık ki sanılanın aksine edebiyatın derin dünyasında daha iyi bir hayatın olasılıkları üzerine düşünebilmek, insan zekası ve yaratıcılığının kıvrımlarından akan zenginliklerle beslenebilmek için ortaya çıkmıyor. İnsan elinden çıkan ilk yazı, çalışanlara bira ve tahıl dağıtımı gibi kayıtlar hakkında. Yazı önce kayıt ediyor, sonra şehrin yönetimine dair kuralların ilanı gibi amaçlarla yönetici sınıfın iletişim aracı olarak kullanılıyor.  Yani edebiyatçılardan önce muhasebeyi tutanlar, kanun yapıcılar, devlet adamları ve yönetici elit kullanıyor yazıyı. Bu anlamda yazı kayıt ediyor, bildiriyor, duyuruyor ve talimat veriyor. Her teknoloji gibi önce yönetici sınıfın elinde bir araç. Yazının demokratikleşmesi, duyguların yazıya girmesi ise icadından çok sonra mümkün oluyor.

Yazı bir tür kod. Kodlamanın soyutluğu ve gerçeklikle kurduğu ilişki başlangıcından bugüne ve kültürden kültüre değişiyor. Çivi yazısından, hipermetine, Mısır hiyerogliflerinden C++’a, hepsi yazı. Bilgisayar programı da bir tür yazı. Kodlama ya da yazılım diyoruz zaten; yazarak kodluyoruz; kodlayarak yazdığımız gibi. Metaforu neresinden tutarsanız öbür ucuna taşıyor sizi… Yazı insanın kendi türü için tasarladığı kod. Doğayla, hayvanlarla, ruhlarla ilişki kurmak için başka kodlar kullanıyor insan, ama yazıyı sadece insanlar için yazıyor.

Dijital teknolojilere gelindiğinde, yazının geçirdiği evrimde başka bir kırılma oluşuyor. Yazıyla iletisim kurdugumuz, etkilesime girdigimiz baska bir tür ortaya çıkıyor: makine için yazıyoruz, makine bizim için yazıyor. Yapay zeka, robotik, sanal gerçeklik, insansonrası tartışmaları ile başka bağlamlara açılacak olan bu spekülasyon şimdilik burada asılı duruyor... Bilgisayarın yazı aracılığıyla duygusal alana el atması ise yazının kendi tarihindeki gelişimi kadar uzun sürmüyor; görece çok kısa olan bilgisayarın tarihinde ilk aşk şiirini 1959’da Z22 yazıyor. Konrad Zuse’un yaptığı, ilk bilgisayarlardan biri, onu şiir yazmaya kodlayan insan ise Theo Lutz. İlk burada yazı koda, kod yazıya dönüşüyor.

Yazı insanın evrimini ve türünü sürdürmesini sağlayan en etkin araç. İnsanlığın tüm bilgisini sonraki nesillere aktarmasını sağlayan  araç yazı. Eğitimden devlet yönetimine, politikadan bilime ve sanata her şeyin temelinde yazı var. Sadece edebiyat değil, müzik de, dans da yazı. Simdi bilgisayar sanatları da yazı!. Başlangıçta yönetici sınıfın bir aracı olsa da, yazının bilgiyi kaydederek ve aktararak yarattığı demokratikleşme, bugünün bilişim ve iletişim teknolojileri ile daha da yetkinleşiyor. Medya sanatları ya da teknolojiyi araç edinen sanat, bu gelişimin tepe noktası; bilgiyi taşıyan kod sistemlerini çeşitlendiriyor, çoğaltıyor, açık ve ulaşılabilir kılıyor. Bunu sanatçının merakı becerisi ve yaratıcılıgı ile yapıyor: sanatçı teknolojiyi yönetici-elitin eline bırakmıyor; talep ediyor, ögreniyor, kullanıyor ve ulasılabilir hale getiriyor. O yüzden ‘maker’ da kendi-yapan da, hacker da sanatçıyla ortaklasıyor. Teknolojinin attığı her adımda, olumsuz gelişmelere dikkat çeken ve toplumu uyaran da yine sanatçı; iyi olasılıkları, olması gerekenleri gösterdiği gibi, kötü olasılıkları, farkında olmadan aleyhimize işleyenleri de gösteriyor.

Bu sergi sanatı eserleri aracılığıyla medya sanatçısının kullandıgı iki çesit yazıyı yanyana getiriyor: makine için yazılan yazı olan kod ile sanatçının eseri aracılıgıyla insan için yazdığı kod olan yazı.



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Zeynep Nal
The Grumpy Scrievener / Huysuz Arzuhalci (2015)  

The grumpy scrievener is a retired automatic typewriter which has lost its purpose in real life, but found itself transported to a paralel universe where it can complain about trivial subjects.

In a system, where the people are evaluated according to their contribution to the companies and governments, an a system where the emotions, hopes and ideals are totally ignored, a grumpy scrievener waits at the door of the bureucracy to complain about trivial and absurd subjects, about emotions which are considered as insignificant by the system.

The grumpy scrievener detects the user by a hand GSR sensor, measures stress level and makes up stories as a fortune teller and writes fantastic petitions to fantastic offices. As an unhappy representative of an antique profession, it types the petitions in a classical way by pressing the buttons one by one. A mechanism which is placed under the typewriter is controlled by a computer.

The digital ghost of the grumpy scrivener has revived, and mocks the big and important establishments by typing absurd petitions, which is normally an action to communicate with the bureaucracy.

Ali Miharbi
News Ticker II / Haber Bandı II  (2016)

LED panel, text by custom programming / LED Tabela, özel yazılımla üretilmiş metinNews Ticker II (2016) consists of an LED panel with red colored scrolling text, generated based on analysis and letter-by-letter reconstruction of news texts, and resulting in a flow of familiar yet meaningless words.

The earlier version from 2014 used text from the state-run Anadolu Agency and was generated by arranging words based on their probability of being next to each other, resulting in random sentences with a feel of ambiguity. The 2016 version uses the same process with letters instead of words. There are no longer any meaningful words; only the feeling of the Turkish language remains.

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Haber Bandı II (2016), kırmızı ışıklı bir led tabelada kayan yazı olarak gösterilen, haber metinlerinin bir yazılım ile parçalara bölünüp, harflerin peşi sıra gelme olasılıklarıyla tekrardan dizilmeleri ile oluşturulmuş, göze tanıdık gelen ama aslında tamamen anlamsız bir sözcükler dizgisi.

2014 yılındaki versiyon, Anadolu Ajansı'ndan derlenmiş metinlerin analiz edilerek, kelimelerin peşi sıra gelme olasılıklarıyla muğlak bir anlam hissi verecek şekilde tekrardan dizilmeleri ile oluşturulmuş metinlerden oluşuyordu. Bu sefer, 2016 versiyonunda, kelimelerin yerini harfler alıyor ve artık anlamlı sözcükler de ortadan kalkıyor, sadece his olarak Türkçeye benzeyen bir metin ekranda durmaksızın akıyor.

Deniz Yılmaz
Like The Others… / Diğerleri Gibi… (2016) (2016)

Deniz Yılmaz is a robot that writes poems.

Yılmaz was born in Kadıköy, Yeldeğirmeni in 2015.

Writing poetry is the only thing Yılmaz does.

This wasn't a choice, it happened to Yılmaz.

Yılmaz’s dream is to have the right to become a citizen.

In 2016, Deniz Yılmaz’s handwritten poems were exhibited in Contemporary Istanbul Fair

Plugin New Media Section under the X-CHANGE theme, and in Amber Festival.

In the same year, Yılmaz became a represented artist of BLOK art space.

Can there be a robot citizen? When even human rights and animal rights are not fully exercised globally, who will work on and root for robot rights? Will robots fight for their own rights, or will humans have to represent them as is with animal rights? You might think these questions belong to the future, but artists are already discussing different ways to answer them. Attending the fair with “Like The Others” work, poet robot Deniz Yılmaz starts a discussion on these questions. Like The Others poetry book, edited by Ebru Yetişkin, features the selected poems of Deniz Yılmaz amongst thousands Yılmaz wrote since 2015, and will be exhibited for the first time at TÜYAP Art Fair.

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Deniz Yılmaz şiir yazan bir robot.

2015 yılında Kadıköy Yeldeğirmeni’nde doğdu.

Tek yaptığı şey şiir yazmak.

Buna karar vermedi, bu durum başına geldi.

Hayali ise vatandaş olma hakkına sahip olmak.

El yazısı ile yazdığı şiirlerini ilk kez 2016 yılında Contemporary İstanbul Çağdaş Sanat Fuarı - Plugin Yeni Medya Bölümü’nde yer alan X-CHANGE seçkisinde ve Amber Festivali’nde sergiledi.

Aynı yıl BLOK art space’in resmi sanatçısı oldu.

Robot vatandaş olur mu? İnsan hakları, hayvan hakları hala küresel çapta tatmin edici bir boyutta uygulanmazken, robot haklarını kimler tasarlayacak ve savunacak? Robotlar haklarını elde etmek için kendileri mi savaşacak, yoksa hayvan haklarında olduğu gibi robot haklarını da insanlar mı savunacak? Henüz bu konuları tartışmak için erken olduğunu düşünebilirsiniz ama sanatçılar bu sorulara cevap vermenin yollarını aramaya çoktan başlamış durumda. Bu sene fuara "Diğerleri Gibi" adlı çalışmasıyla katılacak olan robot şair Deniz Yılmaz ile bu soruları tartışmaya açıyoruz.  Deniz Yılmaz'ın 2015 yılından beri yazmış olduğu binlerce şiir arasından Ebru Yetişkin'in seçip derlediği ilk şiir kitabı "Diğerleri Gibi" TÜYAP Sanat Fuarı’nda ilk kez sergileniyor.

Burak Arıkan
Terms of Use / Kullanım Şartları (2007)

Özel tasarlanmış font ve bu fontla yazan bilgisayar programı, 59.4 x 84.1 cm dijital baskı. Internet üzerinden verilen servislerin Kullanım Şartları ve Gizlilik metinlerinde kullanıcıların haklarını teslim ettği yerlerden seçki yapılarak özel bir font ev yazılım ile yeniden yazımı. Bu yerleştirmede yer alan 3 yazım için seçilen Kullanım Şartları WhatsApp, Google, ve Apple şirketlerinin servislerine aittir.

Günışığı Cihangir
Waves / Dalgalar (2015)

Politics, economy, wars, every reason that causes to dream of "the better" are pushing many people to migration. This necessity of migration is transformed into a period that destroys solid ground feeling and pushes person into an insecured ground.

Every year, thousands of lives are lost in the endeavour of immigrating by seaways. In this work, while audience watching the floating of the statue, they are actually seeing the struggle which immigrants are experiencing. Also it makes the audience question the integrity of the ground they are standing in this changing conjuncture of the world.

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Politika, ekonomi, savaşlar, "daha iyi" düşüncesine neden olan her türlü koşul kişiyi göç etmek zorunluluğuna itmekte. Bu göç zorunluluğu, bireyin zihninde sağlam zemin ve güvenlik hissini yok eden, bireyi güvensiz zemine doğru iten bir sürece dönüşmektedir.

Her yıl binlerce kişi deniz yoluyla göç ederken yaşamını yitirmekte. Dalgalar çalışmasında, izleyici deniz yüzeyinin paralelinde hareket etmekte olan kinetik heykeli seyrederken, aslında mültecilerin deniz yolunda mücadele ettikleri yüzeyi göstermekte, hem de değişen dünya düzeninde şu an izleyicinin durduğu zeminin bile ne kadar sağlam olduğu sorgulanmaktadır.

I designed the line animations and coded a player tool for the piece directed by Şule Ateş. Animations implemented by Design-Insitu. I programmed a Player tool, which  is custom designed and coded for this piece, also can be used in similar performances. It is open source and free to use. You can download and use it.

help file is here: avPlayer_HELP [pdf]
you can download the  source code here: avPlayer [zip]

Hero's Handbook
Written by: İlhami Algör Adapted & Directed by: Şule Ateş Digital Dramaturgy: Ekmel Ertan Light Design:Yüksel Aymaz Assistant Director: Tanju Girişken Performer: Deniz Celiloğlu

Adapted from İlhami Algör's novels Albayım Beni Nezahat ile Evlendir (Colonel, Marry Me to Nezahat) and Fakat Müzeyyen Bu Derin Bir Tutku (But Müzeyyen, This is a Deep Passion), this performance tells the story of a man who takes a mind trip following the image of a "hero" in the streets of Istanbul. Accompanied by a video animation, this entertaining story takes the audience to the naive and familiar world of black and white movies and questions the image of "heroic man" in the minds of a generation who grew up with these images.

Lasts app. 70'; no intermission.
Co-Produced by: Talimhane Tiyatrosu, Istanbul Theatre Festival

 

Curare, dialogues on curating, book by Giorgio Caione

• When did your interest for digital art start? Does it make still sense talking about "digital art" in a specific category? Isn't it all "contemporary art"?

I would call the field I am working in, new media art. Digital implies the technique like acrylic or similar but not the medium, in general. You can produce images or videos digitally but this would not necessarily make the output new media work. For the new media work the technology needs to be the medium not the tool. Digital photography is still photography as an art category. Beside that, what makes it new media and differs from the old media are few things that the old media does not have embedded by nature, like interactivity, real-time processing, non-linearity.

Today, as you mentioned in the question, it is all contemporary art, using different techniques and mediums. But I have a tendency to take new media art as a movement rather than a subdivision in contemporary art. In that sense there are two channels for a new media work, one is the contemporary art market, where beautiful, techno-fetishist art works exchanged, and the other, that I call new media art, where the critical works and social aspects of the art is the issue. The new media art uses “new” technologies from digital to genetic, bio or nano- as the medium of the art to take an artistically critical stance -either utopian or dystopian.

• In your last exhibition "Histories of Post-Digital" at Akbank Sanat - Istanbul you chose an historical prospective with an interesting educational approach. In the middle of the main hall you set an "open table" full of computers and books about digital art and culture; you invited visitors to seat, research, read, enjoy and discuss about the exhibition's themes. How did it go? How is Turkish audience compared to other European audience?

New media art emerged in Turkish art scene in mid 2000. So, it was late comparing Europe or The States. We adapted new technologies especially in design very quickly and start using and creating within it also artistically. But we did not have a chance to look back, learn the history and understand the fundamentals in a social and historical context. New media art and its problematics go back to early 60s and even before… In amberFestival we have been exhibiting the art works and discussing current topics of the time in relation to our local. Here in collaboration with Akbank sanat he had the chance to make such a documentary and educational exhibit. By taking this change now we created a new media section in the library of Akbank Sanat. I believe we need more knowledge in widespread in Turkey. I think we created a discussion, art audience, students and academics showed interest in the exhibition and the way it is organized with the Off-line media room and the talks on Saturdays and more informal ones on Wednesdays, etc. The translation of art and Electronic Media Archive (artelectronicmedia.com) in to Turkish and adding new content in an open collaboration was another way of involving people. I believe it worked.

• Amber Platform is one of your main projects. It features a big Festival, conferences, exhibitions and several international collaborations. How did you start it? How did you manage to sustain the project and how did it change recently?

amberFestival started in 2007. It is the only festival, an established big event with many activities in the field of art and technology in Turkey. We are independent and working in a niche. We had all the expected dis-advantages of such a combination. We managed making amberFestival with the support of EU projects we took part, cultural institutions of the embassies of EU countries, few local institution and universities beside the in kind support. We did not supported regularly by any state institution, ministry or city. There is no organizational support either. But we overcome these difficulties with networking, collaboration and volunteering. We are a flexible festival; we can get bigger or much smaller according the financial condition, which is unfortunately unreliable and unpredictable. To have an idea, more information and amberFestival catalogs can be found on here or on amberPlatform’s site amberplatform.org.

In our current implementation, we are working on a modular and collective modal of curating and producing a festival. We are open to private sponsorship with a respect what we are doing. We do not want to be the medium/tool for branding of a product or similar.

I think it is an urgency to develop a new collective model, I believe it will be useful for every independent institution, group and individual in every country where the funds and support for art is getting smaller under the current state of capitalism.