Between world view, street life and self image: An experiential topography of Istanbul

Abstract

This project was part of the program of the fourth Istanbul Design Biennal "A School of Schools". In our workshop we aimed to explore an alternative educational model, based on uncompromising attention and multisensorial experience, in confrontation with the complex metropolitan space of Istanbul. More specifically, our 'school' consisted of a series of workshops, exploring unorthodox modes of traversing, surveying and mapping the urban fabric. By sharpening the attention of the participants and stimulating their ‘image-thinking’ the workshops enticed them to develop a profound, personal topography of Istanbul, which inevitably corrects cliché-ridden representations of the city. It is exactly the frictions between worldview and self-image that generate unknown creative possibilities. The workshops, excursions and conversations in the city resulted in diverse artifacts (images, concepts, words) that were collected and translated into an artist book, which was exhibited at the Akbank location of the Biennial.