Art

Why Is The Turkish Government Trying To Sue This Cultural Organization Out Of Existence?

“While art philanthropist Osman Kavala has been jailed in Turkey for more than three years without conviction, the country has now filed an unprecedented lawsuit in an attempt to dismantle his Istanbul-based arts organization Anadolu Kültür. … Kavala’s various initiatives to support cultural memory projects for Kurds, Armenians, Yazidis, and other marginalized groups in Turkey have long made Anadolu Kültür a target of government scrutiny.” – Hyperallergic
Tags: Art, Turkey, Istanbul, Issues, Kavala, Osman Kavala, 02.16.21, Anadolu Kültür

Kurdish-Language Play In Istanbul Banned Just Hours Before Curtain

“Beru, a Kurdish adaptation of Dario Fo’s 1981 satire Trumpets and Raspberries, was due to open at the city’s municipal theatre, marking the first time a Kurdish-language play had been staged in the institution’s 106-year history.” Turkey’s interior ministry tweeted that “a theatre play spreading the PKK terror organisation’s propaganda will [not] be allowed [in any language]”; one of the actors responded “The play by Dario Fo was performed in many languages all over the world. Why is it danger...
Tags: Art, Theatre, Turkey, Istanbul, Pkk, Dario Fo, 10.14.20

Writer Elif Shafak On Leaving, And Loving, Your Homeland

Shafak, who says she can likely never return to Istanbul, says, “We do not give up on the places we love just because we are physically detached from them. Motherlands are castles made of glass. In order to leave them, you have to break something—a wall, a social convention, a cultural norm, a psychological barrier, a heart. What you have broken will haunt you. To be an emigré, therefore means to forever bear shards of glass in your pockets.” – LitHub
Tags: Art, Words, Istanbul, Elif Shafak, Shafak, 10.09.20

Some Of Hagia Sophia’s Mosaics Will Be Covered During Muslim Prayers

So far, at least, this isn’t as bad as many people had feared. A presidential spokesman, talking about plans to turn the historic Istanbul monument back into a mosque, said that Christian images that Muslim worshipers would face during prayers (i.e., toward Mecca) would be hidden at those times and uncovered when Hagia Sophia is open to visitors. He added that mosaics and paintings in other parts of the building would pose no problem. – Artnet
Tags: Art, Mecca, Istanbul, Visual, Sophia, Hagia Sophia, 07.21.20

Here’s To The Workers Disinfecting The World’s Great Historic Sites

“While non-essential workers are still housebound, pictures from around the world show surreal scenes of Tyvek suit-wearing workers spraying down eerily empty spaces like Hagia Sophia in Istanbul and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo,” the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Great Mosque of Mecca. – Artnet
Tags: Art, Istanbul, Cairo, Visual, Giza, Hagia Sophia, Pisa, 04.10.20

Toyi’s creative toy-making toolkit lets kids turn everyday objects into cartoon characters

Remember Forky from Toy Story? Remember how a child saw life in a mundane piece of disposable cutlery, turning it into a toy with the power of their imagination? Think of Toyi as a toy-making kit that encourages that imagination and creativity.Labeled as a Creative Play Kit, the Toyi isn’t like conventional play-sets. Rather, it comes with a set of parts and modules that let you turn objects around you into toys. You could turn an egg carton into a plane, a water bottle into a hilarious charac...
Tags: Design, Pixar, Istanbul, Toy, Product Design, Elif, Babies/Childcare/Toys, Forky, Ögeday Uçurum, Elif Atmaca, Toyi

These Artisans Have Been Hand-Making Cymbals For 600 Years

Cymbals are now mainstays of marching bands, drum sets, and orchestral percussion batteries, but they originally came from Ottoman Janissary bands, and Istanbul can be considered their home city. A BBC crew visits a workshop where Turkish cymbalsmiths forge and hammer the instruments to order. (video) – BBC
Tags: Art, Music, Bbc, Istanbul, 12.25.19

After Six Years, Broadcasters Of Syrian Exile Radio Station Marooned In Istanbul

Since 2013, Radio Alwan, which started as community radio in a Syria just breaking out in civil war, broadcast politically neutral news and other programming to Aleppo and Idlib on FM as well as online. The U.S. funding that supported the station has been withdrawn by the Trump administration, Radio Alwan is now off the air, and its staffers are stuck in a country that seems not to want them. – BBC
Tags: Art, Media, Syria, Istanbul, Aleppo, Trump, Idlib, Alwan, 12.26.19, Radio Alwan

Leonardo Da Vinci’s Design For The World’s Longest Bridge Would Have Worked, Say MIT Scientists

In 1502, Leonardo submitted to the Ottoman sultan a design for a bridge over the Golden Horn in Istanbul that would have been, at the time, by far the world’s longest, and tall enough for ships to pass underneath. The skeptical sultan rejected Leonardo’s plan, but a team at MIT has modeled it out and says that, with materials and technology available at the time, the bridge would have held up. – Ars Technica
Tags: Art, World, Mit, Istanbul, Golden Horn, Visual, Leonardo, Leonardo da Vinci, 10.16.19

Pet and human-friendly multifunctional furniture designs to give you the best of both worlds!

Calling all pet owners/ lovers! Does your heart skip a beat every time you see a pet-friendly piece of furniture as you scroll through your Instagram feed? Are you almost tempted to buy it, only for seeds of doubt to be sowed into your mind a moment later?  Do you begin to wonder will your pet even adjust to it? Will they even come around to using it? What if their initial fascination fades, only for it to rot away in a corner of the house, busy gathering dust? Well, Istanbul based PET-TURE came...
Tags: Home, Design, Living, Pets, Furniture, Istanbul, Multifunctional Furniture, Ece Bac, Irmak Sekucoglu, Pet-friendly furniture, PET TURE, Irmak Sekucoglu Ece Bac

When in Rome, recycle more to earn free metro and bus travel tickets

Rome’s Mayor Virginia Raggi recently unveiled an eco-friendly pilot initiative that is gaining popularity in the Eternal City. Called “Ricicli + Viaggi” (or the “Recycle + Travel” program), consumers who recycle empty plastic bottles earn credits toward free public transportation travel tickets. How does it work? Commuters who recycle empty plastic bottles via a designated compactor will then earn accrued credit-points, redeemable as free digital travel tickets. For a standard ticket, one must r...
Tags: Design, Milan, Indonesia, Bbc, Rome, Beijing, Italy, Istanbul, Virginia Raggi, Raggi, Ricicli Viaggi, Legambiente Stefano Ciafani

The Turkish Cookbook

Musa Dağdeviren’s The Turkish Cookbook is a sprawling how-to on the country’s cuisine. It features a whopping 500+ recipes, ranging from classics like bulgur, kebabs and baklava to lesser-known regional treats like milk-poached fish and stuffed quince. With a somewhat old-world vibe, the book is rich and vibrant—much like the cuisine. Istanbul-based, Nizip-born chef Dağdeviren focuses on history and culture, and this book adds to …
Tags: Food, Cooking, Design, Turkey, Recipes, Istanbul, Turkish, Cookbooks, Phaidon, Nizip, Musa Dagdeviren, Dağdeviren

This Tesla Pickup Concept is ‘driving’ me crazy!

It’s a shame that this conceptual Tesla pickup is fan-made, because it’s an absolute beauty! Designed with sheer attention to detail, the pickup is envisioned as a part of Tesla’s Model P series, by Istanbul-based designer, Emre Husmen.The conceptual Model P 2019 (let’s just call it that for now) is a brilliant exercise in brand and form semantics… that’s a fancy-design-jargon way of saying that it looks exactly like something Tesla would launch. With the beautiful razor thin headlamps and taill...
Tags: Transportation, Design, Tesla, Automotive, Istanbul, Pickup, Emre Husmen, Model P

Dept. Of Homeland Security Has Mistaken This 90-Year-Old Theatre Historian For An ISIS Terrorist

David Mayer was a lieutenant in the US Army and spent decades living and teaching in Britain. Unfortunately, “David Mayer” was also an alias of one Akhmed Chatayev, a Chechen militant suspected of masterminding the 2016 attack on Istanbul’s airport. Several branches of the US government have gotten the two confused, and now the real Mayer can’t receive packages from the US and has trouble traveling. — The Observer (UK)
Tags: Art, Isis, US, People, Britain, US Army, Istanbul, David Mayer, Mayer, Akhmed Chatayev, 12.16.18

Exploring Istanbul at Night - Mirror World

Exploring Istanbul at Night - Mirror World AoiroStudio Oct 25, 2018 Elsa Bleda is a photographer and visual artist based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She has been taking photographs of Istanbul, Johannesburg and more; she has a distinct style that would immediately make you remind of Blade Runner. When you think of this movie, you would think about scenes from cities from Tokyo, Hong Kong and etc. But it's much more than that when you think of it, th...
Tags: Elsa, Design, Istanbul, JOHANNESBURG South Africa, Elsa Bleda, TOKYO HONG KONG, Night Mirror World, Istanbul Johannesburg, Instagram Behance Digital Photography

The History of Philosophy Visualized in an Interactive Timeline

The connections we make between various philosophers and philosophical schools are often connections that have already been made for us by teachers and scholars on our paths through higher education. Many of us who have taken a philosophy class or two leave it at that, content we’ve got the gist of things and that specialists can parse the details perfectly well without us. But there are those curious people who continue to read abstruse and difficult philosophy after their intro classes are ov...
Tags: Chrome, Google, Design, Greece, College, Philosophy, Istanbul, Facebook Twitter, Josh Jones, Durham NC Follow, Bryan Magee, Deniz Cem Önduygu, Thomas Baldwin, Contemporary Philosophy

Mediterranean Summer House Marries Scandinavian & South American Design in Çeşme

Located in Çeşme, the popular summer resort of Izmir, Turkey, Cesme House is a three bedroom summer residence that has been recently renovated by Istanbul-based design studio Escapefromsofa for all year round use.
Tags: Art, Istanbul, Izmir Turkey, Cesme, Mediterranean Summer House Marries Scandinavian, Cesme House

Mediterranean Summer House Marries Scandinavian & South American Design

Located in Çeşme, the popular summer resort of Izmir, Turkey, Cesme House is a three bedroom summer residence that has been recently renovated by Istanbul-based design studio Escapefromsofa for all year round use.
Tags: Art, Istanbul, Izmir Turkey, Mediterranean Summer House Marries Scandinavian, Cesme House

French Illustrator Revives the Byzantine Empire with Magnificently Detailed Drawings of Its Monuments & Buildings: Hagia Sophia, Great Palace & More

The Byzantine Empire fell in the mid-15th century, but something of its spirit still lives on. A great deal of it lives on in the work of the French illustrator Antoine Helbert. "This passion was kindled by a birthday gift from his mother," writes a blogger named Herve Risson in a post about it. "This gift was a book about Byzantium. Helbert was 7 years old." Like many an interest instilled early and deeply enough in childhood, Helbert's fascination turned into an obsession — or anyway, what lo...
Tags: Google, Art, Facebook, College, History, Rome, Architecture, Seoul, Istanbul, Facebook Twitter, Istanbul Turkey, Sophia, Colin Marshall, 21st Century Los Angeles, Antoine Helbert, Herve Risson

Elegant Brand Identity for MONAJANS branding and digital agency

Elegant Brand Identity for MONAJANS branding and digital agency abduzeedo Jul 16, 2018 MONAJANS shared a very elegant brand identity project on their Behance profile. The project was done for their company, which always makes it so much more challenging, at least for me. Have you tried to create your portfolio or a logo for yourself? Maybe things have changed now, but for me it's always been very difficult. I am glad to see that the folks over at MONAJ...
Tags: Design, Istanbul, Behance

Contemporary Wanderlust – The Antithesis to Romanticism

Sponsored Today we would like to stimulate your minds with an interesting new exhibition that is currently on display at the DRIVE. Volkswagen Group Forum in Berlin-Mitte. Curated by the aff Galerie from Berlin the show presents the work of the three photo artists Arno Schidlowski, Jens Sundheim, and Kathrin Tschirner with the themes of Wanderlust and Romanticism at its core. For me, the topic of Romanticism has a very special meaning because one of the main artists of this era, Caspar David F...
Tags: Travel, Art, Photography, Fashion, Instagram, Berlin, Exhibition, Istanbul, Wanderlust, Greifswald, Friedrich, Caspar David Friedrich, Rugen, Berlin Mitte, Volkswagen Group Forum, Friedrichstraße

This tiny cabin on the Greece-Turkey border generates 100% of its own energy

Istanbul-based studio SO? Architecture & Ideas has completed a tiny off-grid cabin perfect for reconnecting with the outdoors. Located in a village on the Turkish-Greek border, the Cabin on the Border is a prefabricated and transportable unit constructed of laminated wood and polycarbonate. As a modern take on the traditional cabin vernacular, this tiny, sustainably minded structure is equipped with solar panels and a rainwater catchment system as well as an adaptable interior design. Designe...
Tags: Design, Architecture, Gallery, Border, Solar Energy, Solar Panels, Istanbul, Cabin, Prefab, Carousel Showcase, Tiny Homes, Off-grid, Rainwater Harvesting, Greece Turkey, Laminated Wood, Prefabricated Architecture

Istanbul apartment has some quirky storage solutions

This renovated apartment incorporates some interesting storage concepts for a cleaner, brighter space.
Tags: Design, News, Istanbul

The Last Of Istanbul's Public Scribes

The arzuhalciler, petition writers or public scribes who set up shop in the streets, go back to the early years of the Ottoman Empire, composing and writing legal documents for citizens to submit to courts and government offices. There are still a very few of them left (despite the efforts of Turkey's legal profession to […]
Tags: Art, Turkey, Words, Istanbul, 04.17.18

The Great Book Acquisition Adventures Of The 17th And 18th Century

Yes, it was partly about European colonial greed. "In Istanbul, the buying of books by foreigners eventually got so out of hand that in 1715 or 1716 the grand vizir, Şehid Ali Pasha, himself a book collector, 'enacted a law ... banning the sale of books to foreigners.' This protectionist measure was designed to prevent […]
Tags: Art, Words, Istanbul, 02.23.18, Ali Pasha

Dror Benshetrit on the Crucial Role Designers, Tech & Nature Will Play in Architecture's Future

For this year's Core77 Design Awards, we're conducting in-depth interviews with each of our jury captains to get in a glimpse into their creative minds and to hear more about what they'll be looking for in this year's awards submissions. Our first interview is with 2018 Built Environment Jury Captain Dror Benshetrit. Founder of New York based Studio Dror, Benshetrit does not allow the conventions of the present to interfere with his ambitious goals for the future of design. He chatted with us ab...
Tags: New York, Design, Earth, Architecture, Canada, New Zealand, Brazil, Istanbul, Designer Profiles, Eindhoven, Core77 Design Awards, Bosphorus Strait, Dror, Dror Benshetrit, Dror Benshetrit Founder, Galataport

I Make Short Video Portraits of Contemporary Artists

My name is Dogan Balamir Nazlica, and I am an audio-visual artist based in Istanbul, Turkey. I make short films for my film project called ‘Unconcealment’. ‘Unconcealment I / Francesco Albano’ is a short film about the calling of Francesco Albano filmed in his studio. The film is an attempt to see through the eyes of an artist and his mood in the moment of his artistic calling. I always found the journey, the making of art interesting, and I remember how Francesco had to endure painful thi...
Tags: Art, Cool, Istanbul, Portraits, Artist, Istanbul Turkey, Francesco, Short Films, Dogan Balamir Nazlica, Francescoalbano, Sculptor, Unconcealment, Francesco Albano

Guided Tours Are Tacky, Touristy, And The Best Way To Sightsee

Jeffrey Bloomer: "Friends offered stories of backdoor culinary tours in Istanbul down rickety staircases and through secret restaurants. I heard about guides whom you pay just to skip the line at overrun international museums but then charm you half to death anyway. And then there were many stories of guides like mine in Vermont, stewards […]
Tags: Art, Istanbul, Vermont, Issues, Audience, 01.25.18, Jeffrey Bloomer

Hear the Hagia Sophia’s Awe-Inspiring Acoustics Get Recreated with Computer Simulations, and Let Yourself Get Transported Back to the Middle Ages

The technology used to produce, record, and process music has become ever more sophisticated and awe-inspiring, especially in the capability of software to emulate real instruments and acoustic environments. Digital emulation, or “modeling,” as it’s called, doesn’t simply mimic the sounds of guitar amplifiers, pianos, or synthesizers. At its best, it reproduces the feel of an aural experience, its textures and sonic dimensions, while also adding a seemingly infinite degree of flexibility...
Tags: Google, Art, Music, Science, College, Stanford, Architecture, Smithsonian, Istanbul, David Byrne, Facebook Twitter, Sophia, Constantinople, Josh Jones, Justinian, Durham NC Follow

Turkish President To Replace Atatürk Cultural Center, Istanbul's Major Monument To Modern Turkey's Founder

"Recep Tayyip Erdoğan [has] unveiled plans for a new opera house and cultural complex on Taksim Square in central Istanbul ... which will entirely replace the Atatürk Cultural Centre built in 1969 in memory of the great modernising founding father of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. ... [The current building] is viewed as a Modernist landmark […]
Tags: Art, Turkey, Istanbul, Issues, Tayyip Erdogan, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Taksim Square, 12.21.17