'Are We Human?' - 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial

Are We Human?: The Design of the Species: 2 seconds, 2 days, 2 years, 200 years, 200,000 years is the official title of the 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial, which will run from October 22 - November 20, 2016 at the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV).
I created a 2-minute video that will be screened along with others in the Foundation at Sishane, Istanbul, Turkey and also online here!

Scroll down the page to find the link associated with my name.

Biennial Website

 

Turkish Language Flyer

The video developed out of a long-term project I had been undertaking as it seemed a good fit with the Biennial theme. I had been observing the changing state of a small beach on the island of Cheung Chau and I noticed how the weather and the tides added and subtracted elements within a small area I had been observing. nature sometimes carved out channels in the sand while at other times it obliterated all details and left a smooth almost featureless plain of sand. 

Quite often there appeared detritus, flotsam and jetsam, refuse, evidence of human garbage polluting the lovely little beach. Nature eventually cleared it away, even when it had been particularly bad and piled high on the beach. This to me was quite telling, the only evidence of human existence was the refuse we had discarded but even this was carried away by nature leaving no trace. As the months passed I saw this cycle played out: the beach filled up and was then cleared, the sand was carved away and then replenished...
The photographic project is still ongoing and in progress.

If you have trouble finding the link via the Biennial website, you can find a direct link here!

NYKS - Galata, Istanbul

I discovered NYKS of Istanbul http://www.nyks.com.tr/ while watching an intriguing video on the Monocle website: http://monocle.com/film/business/making-a-point/  and by pure luck my paper on performance art was accepted at the Contempart'15 conference in Istanbul. I thought that NYKS products were lovely and resolved to go there if I got the chance, even though I knew I would only be in town for 2 days.
On the second day, after the city tour had finished I immediately made my way over to Galata and wandered the narrow streets looking for the tiny NYKS shop. The streets in Galata are quite steep but it didn't take me long to find their premises and I was so relieved to enter the shop and see their wonderful products first-hand. Making a choice was not easy but I was helped and advised by Deniz Yurtkuran, one of the owners (the other being Merve Tatari).
If I submit another paper to this conference again next year I will surely return to NYKS but in the meantime, I really wish they would establish a mail-order service!
If you find yourself in Istanbul, don't miss it!

Photos courtesy of www.theguideistanbul.com

CONTEMPART '15 - Contemporary Art Conference, Istanbul

On Monday 8th June, 2015 I caught a train on the new Marmary section of the local Mass Transit Railway from Serkeci under the Bosphorus to the Asian side of Istanbul. From the station at Kadikoy (close to the ferry pier) it was a short walk through the local streets to the Nazim Hikmet Cultural Centre (established in an old renovated Armenian School) where I attended the CONTEMPART '15 Contemporary Art Conference.
This modest Cultural Centre became the focus of a series of presentations by artists, researchers and creators from around the world. I found myself in the midst of participants from Australia, Canada, South Africa, China, Mexico, Columbia, Portugal, Singapore, Germany, Taiwan, the UK and of course I traveled from Hong Kong.
The range of session focuses was wide: Architecture and Contemporary Arts, Art and Technology, Cinematographic Arts and Identity, Place Medium and Art, Ways of Artistic Production, Urban Space and Contemporary Arts, Performance and Contemporary Art - we pretty much covered everything!

I chaired one of the first parallel sessions and enjoyed stimulating presentations by Jorge Lopera of EAFIT University in Columbia, Mengbi Li of the University of New South Wales in Australia, Jennifer Lade of RMIT, Melbourne, Australia and Antonio Gorgel Pinto of Portugal.

Following a nice lunch we began the afternoon sessions and at around 3:30pm it was my turn to present. I related my experience constructing a performance piece and included descriptions of references, methods, theories, research and the practical experience of realising the performance in the hot summer of Hong Kong. I believe my work was well received despite not being as academic as some others and I subsequently held thought provoking discussions with other participants about performance and experience.
Also presenting in my session were Izabela Pluta of the University of New South Wales Art and Design, Sydney, Australia, and Lenka Novakova of Concordia University, Canada.
In the earlier afternoon session I had listened to the presentation of Peter Burke of RMIT, Melbourne, Australia who gave a very interesting summary of his practice and I was very impressed with his energy and creative passion for participatory art.

There were two keynote presentations, Lawrence M. Kaye talked about 'Art Law and Contemporary Issues', relating interesting stories of law suits involving artists and works of art, and Ludovic Bernhardt - a French artist living and working in Istanbul who introduced his work and experiences being an artist in this city.

The day passed incredibly quickly and the following day I joined a walking tour of the city during which we visitied the Hippodrome, Hagia Sophia, The Blue Mosque, The Grand Bazaar and the Hagia Irene Church outside the city walls.

I must thank Hande Dirim and everyone else who helped organise the conference and I wish them well for the future. The question that popped into my head on the flight home was 'Will I return next year?'...I'm very tempted!

Nazim Hikmet Cultural Centre

Cultural Centre Interior

Cultural Centre Outdoor Dining Terrace

Galata Tower

Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia Interior

After the conference with Peter Burke and Jennifer Lade