Transmediale 07

by Banu Alpay

 

Transmediale is an annual festival for digital art and culture and this year I was lucky enough to experience it for the first time.

The festival’s 07 theme was unfinished and from Unfinished Cities to Unfinishing Creations it has addressed many progressing outcomes of our very unfinished digital/cyber/urban culture. First of all, I should say, as a first time visitor, Berlin and Akademie der Kunste was the perfect spot for the event.The city itself has just got so much to offer…

Ok.. tuning to the subject now..

In this year’s Transmediale I got to hear Orhan Esen’s presentation within the Unfinished Cities conference. Mr Esen is the co-writer and co-editor of the book ‘Self Service City: Istanbul. His book is “a book that gathers analyses, essays, reports and images about Istanbul – not least in view of Western European metropolises in which the autonomous appropriation of urban spaces is similarly excluded from the prevailing pictures of an urban civitas”(Transmediale, 44). In his speech, he mainly talked about the gated communities of Istanbul such as Kemer Country (formerly known as Gokturk village), and why the demand is so increasingly high for this segregated living style of the upper class. He pointed out many things such as the need of security, exclusivity, suburban life, and more hands on nature experience. He also mentioned the marketing strategies of these big property management companies who claim that they don’t only sell you a house but apparently introduce you to a new and better life style as well. This is all open to various arguments but listening to his speech i couldn’t help but ask myself the most inevitable question. Considering the extreme ends of architectural examples (gecekondus vs. gated communities and skyscrapers) we have here; is this city’s expansion so out of control to feed the needs of the increasing population that we don’t worry about fixing it but just keep building on the damage? Unfortunately, i think the answer is pretty obvious to that and it only underlines how we ended up with this abstract fusion of architecture as a result of Istanbul’s socioeconomic imbalance, but complaining is the easy part. Actually changing things will be and is the most challenging part for our generation. These dilemmas exist in most metropolises but Istanbul is one of the only few that has survived beautifully for over 3000 years, and i know me, you and a lot more will work hard to keep it that way!

Apart from the subject related most to this blog, Transmediale housed many more interesting conferences, video screenings, interactive projects, and brilliant art installations. I’ll strongly suggest to those who are into contemporary digital culture and practices to keep an eye on this festival. http://www.transmediale.de

For more photos of Transmediale, visit http://web.mac.com/banuny/iWeb/Site/Transmediale%2007.html

Banu-n-between

Difüzyon: fourhundredseconds | Archis: Lebanon Unbuilt

Sorry for not informing/posting anything on the blog for so long, there was enough reseaon. After all the reflections on my stay in Istanbul/Turkey, there now is action! One project here in Istanbul and one in Beirut Lebanon.

Together with some students of Taşkışla, the Architecture Faculty of ITU (Istanbul Technical University) we founded Difüzyon (the word means diffusion) and are organizing our first event ‘fourhundredseconds‘:

dörtyüzsaniye
14 katılımcının, seçilmiş bir çalışmalarını projeksiyon eşliğinde 6 dakikada, sundukları tasarım bazlı etkinliktir. Tüm sunumlarla beraber 125 dakika süren dörtyüzsaniye, çeşitli tasarım alanlarını bir araya getirmeyi ve bir kolaj oluşturmayı amaçlar. Böylelikle mimarlık, moda, fotoğraf, video, grafik, endüstriyel tasarım gibi yaratıcı işlerin yer alacağı dörtyüzsaniye’ de kendi işlerinizi tanıtabilir ve diğer bir çok alanla etkileşime geçebilirsiniz.

fourhundredseconds
14 designers, each presenting their projects in 6 minutes and 40 seconds (400 sec). In a saturated one and a half hour, you will get a sample of the full spectrum of Istanbul’s rich creative culture. A common ground for architects designers, artists, culture producers and other creatives to meet, exchange ideas and hopefully some phone numbers.

PERŞEMBE 19:30, 21.12.2006, GİRİŞ ÜCRETSİZ
Seksek Taksim, Sakızağa Cad. Yoğurtçu İş Merkezi No:19 K:4

Difüzyon Nedir?

Difüzyon kent, mimarlık, moda, güncel ve amatörün altını çizen bir etkinlik grubudur. Yaratıcı kültürü arar ve bir araya gelmesini amaçlar. Oluşturduğu kolajın, tasarım çevresinin özgün değerlerini tanımlaması ve bir birleriyle verimli ilişkilere geçmesini umar.

Temel olarak Taşkışla çevresinin bir araya getirdiği profesyoneller ve öğrencilerin içinden çıkan bir grubun hevesli birlikteliğidir difüzyon. Bu organizasyon ise yapı olarak tabandan yayılan ve açık kaynak bir düzeni benimser.

What is Difüzyon?

The initiative for this platform comes from a group enthusiasts that has emerges from the Taşkişla community (students or professionals) in Istanbul. Taşkisla is a focal point for many young creatives in the field of architecture and design in general.

Difüzyon is not an official organisational body, The organization is characterized by an D.I.Y (Do-it-yourself) attitude and a ‘bottom-up’ and/or ‘open source’ approach. Difüzyon is an open ended project, fueled by the initiative of young creativesives

Besides Istanbul I have also been in Beirut, Lebanon:

As a part of the Archis team I was in there gathered with architects, designers and artists from Beirut and from the Netherlands the Pearl Foundation and Partizan Publik. We where in Beirut for an event titled: Unbuilt Beirut, or more broadly Unbuilt Lebanon. After some field trips to the Southern suburbs, and the South of Lebanon in and around Bint Jbeil, we addressed aftermath of what architects, designers and artists can do in the aftermath of violence, destruction, political division and very little perspective of immediate improvement. After the horror of war and disorienting denial there is more need for creative power than ever, to defuse the explosive society of Lebanon, to find common ground, common space and place. Establish platforms for dialogue, and shared perspective to aim for. The creative intellectuals of the society are key players in generating common space and perspective through generating concepts, practices and images beyond the imagination of a society in distress. Now on the Unbuilt blog, we are gathering these creative works so badly needed.Together with Archis I was in Beirut gathered with architects, designers and artists from Beirut and from the Netherlands the Pearl Foundation and Partizan Publik. We where in Beirut for an event titled: Unbuilt Beirut, later enlarged to Unbuilt Lebanon. After some field trips to the Southern suburbs, and the South of Lebanon in and around Bint Jbeil, we addressed aftermath of what architects, designers and artists can do in the aftermath of violence, destruction, political division and very little perspective of immediate improvement. After the horror of war and disorienting denial there is more need for creative power than ever, to disfuse the the explosive society of Lebanon, to find common ground, common space and place. Establish platforms for dialogue, and shared perspective to aim for. The creative intellectuals of the society are key players in generating common space an perspective through generating concepts, practices and images beyond the imagination of a society in distress. Now on the Unbuilt blog, we are gathering these creative works so badly needed.

There are also some pictures: on flickr

Genius Loci: 34?

Browsing the design magazines at the Robinson Crusoe bookstore in Istiklal, I found the magazine 34. An international design magazine based in Istanbul, which at first sight doesn’t seem to make much difference, just looks like your usual ‘design/lifestyle glossy’ but a closer reading exposes that the editorial approach is coloured by their editorial base in Istanbul.

Murat Patavi (for the Turkish among us:ekisisozluk.com) owner of Republica (founded in 2000), a Istanbul based advertising firm, founded 34 with as first director editor John Weich, Dutch/American writer on design and travel (former Wallpaper editor) in 2004. This summer they have published their 8th Issue but Weich has left 34. Now Adam Eeuwens is at the helm of the magazine. Dutch and also with one leg across the Atlantic in the States. Together with Aaron Betsky (former director of the Dutch Architecture Institute, he resigned very recently to become director of the Cincinnati Art Museum) he edited the book ‘False Flat, why Dutch design is so good’, haven’t read it but it is undoubtedly a very nice addition to the propaganda of Dutch design and architecture.

The cross-breeding of the Turkish, the Dutch with the American lifestyle glossy becomes clear when you browse through it’s content. Featuring Turkish designer Yves Behar and his practice, next to Dutch trend forecaster Li Edelkoorts, this all embedded in a lush bed of the overly familiar lifestyle glossy format (design snapshots, architecture+fashion+travel hot spot features). The tone of the articles is describing and praising design and its designers just like the editorial is an ode to design and cosmopitainism, and of course (quoting): “the world of design beats throwing bombs any day”. But it overlooks that this magazine magazine is for the ‘lucky few’ who should’t need self-congratulation and affirmation. Cosmopolitanism can be much more than a gated community of hip urban hot spot.

The most delightful part of the magazine is a short interview with Bob Partington, a Canadian working in exile in Istanbul. Just simple and upfront, and like me an expat in Istanbul, so there is also a recognition factor at work I have to admit.

But anyway, still I think 34 could embrace the potential of being in Istanbul a lot more. A little bit of international exposure for local design talent (and not all the obviously succesful-working-abroad-Turkisch-designers), and an effort to go beyond the drained ‘east meets west’ metaphore for Istanbul would help. A good refernce would be Bidoun, a magazine which manages to go beyond any orientalist stigma surrounding culture from the Middle East. Another example is Pages Magazine. The typical thing is they are doing a better job from respectively New York and Rotterdam than 34 is doing from their own genius loci: Istanbul. I just see lots of potential un-adressed, a change up for grabs …