miscellaneous

“Nothingness” and “Entitled As” will be exhibited at the event “Transnatura Videolab”, at the Botanical Garden of the University of Coimbra, Portugal, on 2 August 2010.

http://projectovideolab.blogspot.com/

Cura Bodrum is a project of Iz Oztat and Emincan Alemdaroglu, founded in 2008. It is an international residency program aiming to bring artists, researchers, writers, etc… from around the world together provide them a space for brainstorming, collaborating, producing and sharing… Patrick Lichty and I were invited to give a workshop on interventionist media art practices (see previous entry). Read about this year’s program, participants and many more on Cura Blog.

I had an amazing 10 days during my visit. Although, it was remarkably difficult to focus on work knowing the gorgeous Aegean was just there, we were able to produce a lot.

I did a trial run for a new piece I am working on. With most of the Cura residents, we went to one of the ‘largest coffeehouse companies of the US’, which is becoming more and more popular among the Turkish youth. We went in the coffeeshop one by one in 3 minute intervals and ordered turkish coffee –to make one takes about 3mins. The guys working at the place had to make turkish coffee but nothing else for almost 30mins. Even though the machine temporarily broke down, they managed to meet the demand. The most interesting part for me was that none of the coffeeshop people commented on the absurdity of the situation, although they sensed something unusual was going on. To me, this is a study on how corporations and the setting comes with them control human interaction. In a regular/local Turkish shop one would rarely see a ‘big welcoming smile’ on the cashier’s face, because you would know the person isn’t really happy about the position, and customer happiness isn’t really his/her biggest concern. Anyways, these guys were able to keep the big smile and avoid questions as written in their ‘corporate guide to creating a profitable workplace’.

Nazenin Tokusoglu (a dear friend from high-school) wrote an article for HaberTurk about this year’s program. Click here to view larger.

The Sketchbook Project Monthlies: March. Sketchbooks will be available for viewing at the Brooklyn Art Library.

Cities visited in two weeks: Clarksville, Nashville, Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Austin, Dallas, Little Rock, Memphis and Indianapolis.

–>

I did some spring cleaning and found these miniDVs from my travel to Turkey in 2008.

I’ve been wanting to write but life was very busy for the past couple of months. I’ve moved to Oberlin, OH, where I’ll be teaching some very interesting classes: New Media Practices, Design as Social Process and Digital Photography. School will start in 2 weeks - I’m hoping to get some rest finally while waiting. I’ll be organizing some semi-formal artist talks in my new apartment: Sleepless Nights on Elm Street. Yea! I live on an Elm Street. More info about these gatherings and calender will come soon. I thought this is a good way of having friends come visit.

–>

(image: hurriyet.com.tr)

I feel sad; Turkey has lost a very important woman (an actress, performance artist, example) in this very critical and difficult time for the women’s movement.

I had this dream last night/this morning, I had the body of a raven trying picking some bread on the road, I was starving. But I all I could see was the sideways but not the front, so couldn’t pick the food. Then I woke up. Thirsty… and happy.

–>

oops! missed another deadline.

–>

Moon seems so close. Policemen handcuffed two young girls today, right beside me. We were sitting at Harvard circle. One started weeping, other was tough. I wondered which one would I be and realized already had a tear in my right eye. I looked away, thought other things. Thought about Arthur Rimbaud, whom I was reading at the very second. Perhaps order wasn’t a big deal at his time; no cops hovering over public places looking for “high” poets? Perhaps he was white enough to seduce them. These girls weren’t.

–>