*
Digital culture in Turkey [I] *
Introduction [II] *
Turkey has a young population that adopts new communication technologies very rapidly. For this reason
for the coming years an increase in cultural output by using communication technologies is expected.
There may also be more contemporary artists who employ digital techniques in an interesting way in the
near future. The E-culture field as it is understood in the Netherlands, however, is very small in Turkey.
There is rarely a feeling of a digital creative scene, nor of a community of digital artists. Critique on
communication technologies is mostly given by contemporary artists, civil society activists, and
technology experts. If these actors can interact and deepen their knowledge, the e-cultural ecosystem in
Turkey can grow stronger, and meaningful digital-physical hybrids will emerge. The current e-culture
scene in Turkey is very small and needs to grow to accommodate and adsorb the big wave of students that
will leave the many (communication) design departments in the coming five years.
* Adoption rates [III] *
Turkey has been a thorough consumer of communication technologies, first with the widespread adoption
of cell phones in the ‘90s, then with the rapidly increasing use of social network services in the past 5
years. Today, Turkey has a 90% penetration rate in cell phone subscriptions and more than 20 million
Facebook users, being the 4th after the US, UK, and Indonesia. The contemporary digital ecosystem is
mediated by widespread use of internet-enabled smart phones, web based social network services, blog
networks, P2P file sharing networks, and pirate DVD retailers.
* E-culture scene [III] *
The digital culture producers are contemporary artists, bloggers, DJs, VJs, advertising agencies, art and
design studios, and media production boutiques. Such actors often move between industries due to selfthought skills, interdisciplinary positions, and a lack of human resource in the creative industry. There is
rarely a feeling of a digital creative scene, nor of a community of digital artists. Actors in digital art and
culture scene in Turkey can be divided in two categories. The first group consists of the users of digital
tools, who create new narratives or use them for presentation purposes regardless of the critique of its
media context. The second group consists of the users of digital media who comment on the techno-social
and techno-political environment. For such artists, software and systems are not tools for reworking data
such as a digital photo or digital video, but the writing of the concept in text and code is the core of the
artwork. The critique of people working in the digital culture scene particularly involves topics such as
censorship, copyright, surveillance, remix, virtualization of body, databases, archiving, fragmented
identities, participation culture, network mapping, and online communities. Although there are exceptions
of digitally literate unique artists, it is hard to talk about consistent local interactions that would flourish a
digital milieu in Turkey. In fact, the majority of such artists lack dedicated time for cultural production.
Instead, they create new work besides their main jobs by utilizing their surplus energy and intellect.
* Production of technologies [III] *
Turkey has never been a producer of new technologies. Software, hardware, and technological services
were always imported or adapted. Thus no culture of passionate scientists, no innovative lab findings, and
no roots of strong digital culture at large exist. However, digital subcultures and individual avant-gardes
emerged over the course of the past 15 years. Those rare specialists who were trained abroad created
innovative digital work. Some people who tried unexpected uses of technology locally caused the
formation of digital subcultures.
* Critical initiatives [III] *
Critical initiatives in and around art and politics are created mostly by Istanbul based and globally
connected digitally literate artists, a few collectives, and small institutions. Because of the lack of
financial support from cultural foundations and the government, artists often do day work and utilize their
surplus energy and intellect to make art and do research. They participate in the new media- focused
group exhibitions, creative programming and networking workshops, multi-disciplinary discussion
panels, gatherings and street actions organized through email lists and social network services.
* Turkish government [III] *
While the Turkish government seems eager to promote e-government services by providing various
governmental services online, the juridical system acts schizophrenically and maintains heavy internet
censorship, which applies to more than 6,000 local and international websites - including YouTube from
2007 to 2010 - due to so called crude videos of (Ataturk, as well as other icons of) Turkish identity.
* E-learning [III] *
In terms of e-learning, Anadolu University (city of Eskisehir) may be of interest as it is one of the largest
universities in the world by enrollment and the leading university in distance education in Turkey. It uses
both old (pre-recorded television and radio broadcasts) and new media (videoconferences and internet) to
reach Turkish students all across Turkey and Europe.
* Content of critique [III] *
While the government‟s internet censorship and copyright acts are concerns for the general public,
critique of digital culture particularly deals with authorship, copyright, surveillance, remix, virtualization
of body, database / archiving, hybrid identities, network mapping, network building, and online
communities.
* Short history [II] *
The chronological reading below is a summary of 20 year of social and cultural development in relation
to the local technological environment in Turkey since 1990: all entries under Pre-Internet cover the
period 1990-1995, the ones under Early Internet cover the period 1995-2005 and Pro-Internet
covers 2005-2010.
* Pre-Internet [III] *
The first personal computers (PCs) were introduced to the Turkish market in the mid 1980s. Electronic
handheld games and personal computers like Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Amiga brought
the digital games into Turkish households at a time when the only government-operated black & white
TV channel TRT was broadcasting in limited hours. The computer art subculture began as copy protected
software, and was cracked and distributed via underground channels. The Turkish “demo scene” first
appeared during this era. Demos were non-interactive audio-visual presentations that run in real-time on a
computer. Coders, musicians, and visual artists formed groups and created intros for cracked software
while also trading programs, games, cracks, and demos locally and internationally. The earliest demo
group known is Zombie Boys and started in 1988, which then grew into an international group called
Bronx in 1991. The underground disk swapping / file sharing activity later continued in early computer
networks.
* Bulletin board systems [III] *
Bulletin board systems (BBSs) started in the early 1990s, enabling a small techno elite to exchange files
and send emails in Turkey and abroad. BBS enabled ordinary people to be able to communicate in a way
that before had only been possible for governments and big organizations. One of the oldest virtual
communities, the San Francisco based WELL, began as a dial-up BBS, and attracted many people around
the world. In 1993, the HitNet message network connected BBSs in Turkey, creating a national network
of BBSs, just like its international version FidoNet. These early BBS users were the first to engage in
networked publications and experienced long-distance collaboration via electronic communication, which
then affected the way they worked. The leading Turkish blog network Pilli and the collaborative wiki-like
dictionary Eksi Sozluk are some examples, whose founders started network communication in the early
days of BBS and later became leading actors of the Internet era.
* Early Internet, 1995-2005 [III] *
Internet usage in Turkey started at a number of academic institutions including the Middle East Technical
University, Bilkent University, Ege University, and was followed by other academic and governmental
research institutions. The Internet conference “Inet-tr” started in 1995 with Professor Mustafa Akgül's
precious efforts. Various topics, from network democracy to e-government, and from online education to
internet governance laws, were discussed in an academic context. Practical workshops on setting up web
servers and website development were popular among the participants.
* ISP and IRC [III] *
As of 1997, as the commercial Internet Service Providers (ISP) began to provide Internet access, more
homes were able to join the network. Internet Relay Chat (IRC) became highly popular. In fact, Internet
cafes both in urban and rural areas were a cheaper short-term alternative to home subscription. They
quickly turned into massively multi-player online game rooms.
* New media art [III] *
By the mid 1990s, the Ankara based political/artistic Körotonomedya collective was among the
forerunners of experimental new media and video art in Turkey. Ulus Baker's work within the collective
became a major theoretical resource in these fields.
* Institutional growth [III] *
By the late 1990s, effects of economic growth were visible in the cultural sphere. Borusan Kultur Sanat,
Proje4L, and Platform art institutions opened with corporate support. These were later followed by
Istanbul Modern and the Sabanci Museum, which are mainly focused on modern or contemporary art in
Turkey.
* University departments [III] *
From the late 1990s to the early 2000s visual communication design and art departments were created one
after another at Bilkent University, Istanbul Bilgi University, and Sabanci University. These academic
endeavors were formed by professionals from cinema, architecture, contemporary art, advertising, and the
computer industry. They had students who came from a variety of studies, from engineering schools to
political studies. These students had a much more organized attitude in research, information gathering,
analytical thinking and a fine handling of the tools that aid them in their creations. These days were also
the forming of digitally literate independent art initiatives Xurban Collective and NOMAD, who had
close relationships to the academia.
* Net.art [III] *
The Net.art movement was rising between 1994 and 2000 with the involvement of avant-garde artists and
writers around the world. This form of art has circumvented the traditional dominance of the gallery and
museum system, delivering aesthetic experiences via the net. The idea of Internet as an art medium was
being discussed critically on the Nettime email list, in particular with participants from Europe, the
Balkans, and Russia, but no participation was recorded from Turkey.
* Collaborative dictionary [III] *
The collaborative dictionary Eksi Sozluk started in 1999, and with it a subculture of alternative selforganizing Turkish dictionaries emerged, it reached ~200,000 users and ~1.5 million topics by 2010. Eksi
Sozluk became a historical log, a social space, and a highly popular reference for Internet users in Turkey.
* 7th Istanbul Biennial [III] *
The 7th Istanbul Biennial (2001) with the title Egofugal was curated by Yuko Hasegawa. The effects of
digital culture were visible in the exhibitions and panels. German artist Carsten Nicolai as well as Ali
Kazma from Turkey showed video and electronic based work. The Mexican media artist Rafael LozanoHemmer contributed to the Collective Intelligence panel, a topic which was soon to become popular with
the emergence of participatory web by 2005.
* E-art in public space [III] *
Istanbul Pedestrian Exhibitions I: Nişantaşı (2002), curated by Fulya Erdemci, featured artworks in public
space including a collage video installation „In the Courtyard‟ by Cevdet Erek and a traffic light hack by
Köken Ergun. Erek‟s work combined a digital video collage with scenes and sounds from his school‟s
courtyard. Ergun‟s hack was placing a shopping icon cut out on the traffic light in a busiest shopping
junction in Nişantaşı. Later Erek did more video and sound installations and he explored various issues
with his interventions in public space.
* E-publishing [III] *
After the financial crisis and massive lay-offs in the media sector in 2001, the Internet seemed to be the
only alternative for publishing, thus online journalism accelerated with independent news portals and
media criticism websites, created by many prominent journalists and columnists who had lost their jobs.
Some journalists formed their own sites, some used free services like Geocities, and some turned into
individual bloggers. Running on such web services, Nihayet Icimdesin (nihayeticimdesin.com) was one
of the earliest forums for contemporary artists for news announcements and discussion. Among these
initiatives, Hafif.org, Bildirgec.org, Ucantekme.com, and FazlaMesai.net were the first do-it-yourself
collective blog-like websites about internet culture, digital art, and open source software movement. They
developed their own blog software, maintained their own servers, wrote articles, and flourished
communities all at the same time.
* Pro-Internet [III] *
In the mid 2000s, internet access became cheaper and more widely available. 10 million internet users in
2005 became 26 million in 2009. Like the television sector, the internet got highly commercialized with
the rise of web start ups and e-commerce, following the trends in the US and Europe. Web applications
became like TV programs, where the advertisement is the only revenue that sustains the service. Wireless
Internet connection became widely available at homes and in cities. Mobile Internet and smart phones
were introduced.
* Vikipedia [III] *
The Turkish Wikipedia - Vikipedi - started in 2003 and reached more than 100,000 articles in 5 years
time. It had ~250,000 users by 2010. Eksi Sozluk, dated 1999, is usually considered as Wikipedia‟s
Turkish predecessor. In fact, while Wikipedia aims to develop objective articles for the subject matter,
Eksi Sozluk aggregates subjective points of view through collective dialogue, with its own slang, and is
becoming a unique phenomenon in the history of Internet.
* Carnegie prize won by Kutlug Ataman [III] *
Interesting uses of video emerged in contemporary art. Kutlug Ataman won the prestigious Carnegie
Prize for his work Küba, a 40-channel installation filmed in a poor enclave by that name in Istanbul, in
2005.
* Blog on techno-culture [III] *
In 2005, Düğümküme started as a commentary blog on techno-cultural production with contributions
from Istanbul, Boston, and San Francisco. Düğümküme members later organized visual programming and
network mapping workshops, parties, and lecture series on networked culture in Istanbul. The most recent
Düğümküme Meetings (2010), organized at Platform Garanti, confronted contemporary art by
considering its relationship to rapidly developing technologies in the context of civil society issues.
Düğümküme Meetings had a mixed audience in Istanbul, from contemporary artists and activists to
technologists.
* Initiatives by Başak Şenova [III] *
NOMAD, initiated by Başak Şenova, started the NOMAD.TV-Network to detect and facilitate links
within the local digital culture in Turkey. NOMAD collaborated with international networks, organized
new media exhibitions, sound-art performances, and panels on digital art and culture. The first sound art
festival ctrl_alt_del was organized in Istanbul (2003-2008), HTMLles exhibition and panels in Istanbul
(2006), City Sense project (2008), and collaboration in Light, Illumination, & Electricity Residency
program in SantralIstanbul. Also, Şenova, started the Istanbul chapter of Upgrade!International events,
where art and technology hybrids gather and discuss their recent work.
* E-performances [III] *
TECHNE digital performance events were organized by Aylin Kalem and Ekmel Ertan, with
contributions of techno savvy performance artists. Later, focusing on the relationship between the human
body and technology, Ertan initiated the Body-Process Arts Association (BIS) along with its digital arts
festival Amber.
* Open source software [III] *
The first Turkish Linux operating system Pardus was released in 2007. It is the largest open source
software project that has ever been undertaken in Turkey.
* Exhibition & database [III] *
The Becoming Istanbul project, initiated by Garanti Galeri in 2007, is a traveling exhibition and consists
of a database prepared with contributions from various cultural institutions, private and institutional
archives, and artists, on today‟s Istanbul. The database continues to expand with contributions from
architects, artists, and researchers who conduct studies on the city while the exhibition travels to meet
urban enthusiasts until the day it settles in its hometown, Istanbul. In its first year of inception, it has
travelled to venues in Frankfurt, Lille, Al Manama, and Berlin.
* The social web [III] *
After 2005, social web services grew in popularity with the rise of the web 2.0 business model, which
meant developing better services by harnessing collective intelligence from users. Photograph sharing,
social bookmarking and video sharing websites were the earliest social media services. The social
network service Facebook and the one-to-many short message broadcasting service Twitter enabled
anyone to share and distribute content. In fact, this new distributed communication power created gaps
between generations of traditional media users and new media users. The use of social network platforms
is currently the most dominant digital activity after emailing. Social networks are not only accessed on the
web, but also diffused in everyday mobile activities.
* internet censorship [III] *
In 2007, the Turkish court decided to disable the access to the YouTube.com domain due to a single
inappropriate Atatürk joke video –insulting Turkishness is punished by the law in Turkey. In a way, the
Turkish court treated Youtube as if it was a TV channel. These court decisions were followed by the
censorship of blog services blogger.com, and wordpress.com. It has been left to conspiracies whether the
judges didn‟t get the idea of user contributed content / social web services or they wanted Google /
YouTube to have legal offices in Turkey so that they could be taxed. At the end, millions of Turkish
authors were unable to write and reach their readers. Since 2007, heavy internet censorship continued,
which applied to more than 6,000 local and international websites.
* reactions against censorship [III] *
On the one hand, social network media drives commercialization of social spectacles in a way that was
never seen before, but on the other hand, it is becoming a strong driver of new political movements. New
constellations of independent political solidarity have emerged against Turkish government's internet
censorship. Sansüre Sansür, Netdaş, Pirate Party Turkey use social network services for online political
campaigns, physical gatherings, and develop rapid response against government censorship policies. The
growing campaigns on the Internet finally turned into the first large street demonstration against the
Internet censorship on July 17th, 2010.
Main trends/topics [II] *
In recent years, internet censorship has been the most urgent concern for the practitioners of digital
culture in Turkey. Copyright issues are one of the reasons for censorship. Digital labor and internet
economy are other trendy topics as are Social gaming and Urban informatics.
* critique on internet censorship [III] * In recent years, internet censorship has been the most urgent
concern for the practitioners of digital culture in Turkey. Turkish government‟s blunt censorship of the
web services raised the concern since it not only limits the freedom of speech and access to information,
but also slows down the everyday productivity. In fact, many tech savvy people are using DNS proxies to
access the censored services. Also, there is most likely interest in alternative services for online video and
collaboration tools. Independent political groups Sansüre Sansür, Netdaş, and Pirate Party Turkey
organize protests and do advocacy against internet censorship. Artists and academicians Ali Miharbi and
Orton Akıncı create critique on internet censorship. Miharbi created a self-censoring web browser plugin
and Akıncı developed a participatory open source / free video art project with his students at Yildiz
Technical University.
* Copyright issues [III] * In fact, copyright issues are one of the reasons for censorship. MÜYAP, the
association for neighboring rights of phonogram producers, is one of the top lobbyists of copyright. They
are trying to protect the music industry and particularly the distributers, without even understanding the
new realities of digital production and consumption trends. The reality of today is that, as elsewhere in the
world, digitalization and the internet makes the cost of distribution close to free. Artists in Turkey raise
new questions about it, activists organize campaigns and street protests to affect the policy and
academicians give advice to the government, but it will keep being a tough battle between the traditional
media moguls and the rising new media industry.
* Digital labor and economy [III] * „Digital labor‟ and „internet economy‟ are trendy topics that seem less
urgent, but have interesting participants from the academy and the contemporary art world. The idea of
user labor and immaterial labor in the digital times have been explored in art projects and discussed in
panels and interviews. The „User Labor‟ project (2008) by Burak Arıkan and Engin Erdoğan proposed an
open data structure, „User Labor Markup Language‟ (ULML), to outline the metrics of user participation
in social web services. The aim was to construct criteria and context for determining the value of user
labor, which is currently a monetized asset for the service provider but not for the users themselves.
Along with Burak Arikans‟ „Meta-Markets‟ (2007-2009) project, an online stock market for social web
profiles, the „User Labor‟ project influenced an international discussion on the value of user labor in the
digital economy.
* Social gaming [III] * Social gaming generates fascination in digitally literate art and design schools as
well as in the advertising sector. High engagement rates, sales of digital goods, and embedded branding
possibilities drive the advertising sector to demand more social gaming applications. In fact, the term
“advergaming” is getting popular among the new media production houses elsewhere in the world.
* Urban informatics [III] * Urban informatics is getting traction from architects who use digital
techniques in urban planning. Super Pool, an architecture studio based in Istanbul Karaköy, created a map
of privately run dolmus & minibus transportation routes, which was never completely mapped in the
public transportation system. The „Mapping Istanbul‟ book, initiated by Garanti Gallery, edited by Pelin
Derviş and Meriç Öner, with maps by Super Pool, presents multiple layers of urban information on
Istanbul. The maps, infographics, together with articles, make a comparative analysis of urban issues from
housing to transportation, to economic activity to water and energy infrastructure. The municipality of
Istanbul developed a real-time traffic monitoring service, which shows the traffic congestion on a
dynamic map and through cameras available to the citizens via mobile phones. Akın İdil of Valensas
Technologies developed the Turkcell Pusula iPhone application, which is a mobile augmented reality tool
for searching urban content. İdil‟s application is one of the signs that we experience a new type of hybrid
public space.
*Sub-disciplines [II] *
Contemporary artists, new media artists, activists*
Contemporary arts [III] * Since the technology is becoming ubiquitous in everyday life, what was known
as new media art is now blending into other contemporary art practices. A majority of the contemporary
artists use digital tools to create new narratives or to give presentations of their work regardless of the
critique of its media context. Digital photography, digital video, digital editing, projection, and screening
are the main tools used for such purposes. Online productivity tools such as shared documents, wiki,
online project management, and contact lists are getting popular in the cultural industry. Distributed
discussions among the contemporary artists take place via hosted services like Blogger, Wordpress, or
Tumblr. It helps them to keep their audiences updated about their news, events, and new work. They link
to each other, or comment on each others' blog posts. The actors of the “cultural sector” tend to use social
networks services. Twitter and FriendFeed are used for sharing events, for discussion on theory and
politics, and for sharing links about anything. Facebook is mostly used by event organizers for event
invitations, photo tagging, and gossip in general.
* E-culture [III] * A few artists use digital media to develop critique on the media itself as well as its
techno-social and techno-political context. For such artists, software and systems are not tools for
reworking data such as a digital photo or digital video, but the writing of the concept in text and code is
the core of the artwork.
* Activism [III] * One of the most interesting uses of social media platforms is the organization of
activism against the Turkish government's schizophrenic internet censorship. Protests move from online
discussions, to online campaigns, to street actions. Academics, students, artists, and industry experts all
organize on Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, Google Groups, independent email lists, or even via SMS.
* Blogging [III] * Journalist-turned-bloggers survive economically by writing independently as well as
contributing to more traditional newspapers. Technology focused blogs write about industry locally and
globally. Programmers develop tutorials and guides in their writings. Bloggers‟ costs are mostly
compensated by the banner ads. Collective curating on blogs is getting popular. Artists produce critical
commentary streams in the form of posters and writing. They focus on topics from internet cultural
perspective to everyday political news.
* Commercial [III] * Interactive agencies, some independent some incorporated in traditional ad
agencies, produce the most general purpose commercial digital work. The Promoqube new media
company provides social media monitoring services and maintains Facebook pages for companies. The
41? 29! new media studio produces viral advertising campaigns and advergames. Internet video and
Internet TV startups such as Uzman.TV and Television create the most informative and thus useful hybrid
TV-video content.
* Games [III] * Yogurt Technologies is an established new media production company. Its founder
Cemil Türün pioneered advertising focused online games. Today, the company develops a SecondLife
like virtual world called Yogurtistan (Yogurtistan.com), which works on the web and aims to grow with a
virtual currency system. This type of alternative economy models are hard to flourish, but could be
economically substantial in the long run.
* Hackers and creative coders [III] * Hacker identities are rarely known. When a hacking happens in
Turkey, it is almost all the time for political and ideological purposes, rather than for the sake of hacking.
Nationalism and right wing ideologies are dominant in such hacking cases.
*Youth [II] *
Digital youth culture develops on Facebook as we speak. Ages from 13 to 24 make up the 54% of 24
million Facebook users from Turkey. Young people adapt to social media applications quickly, they play,
chat, learn, share, and gossip about all sorts of things. TV seems no longer interesting. New types of
generation gaps are ahead of us.
*Popular culture [II] *
Pop culture moved to social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm., the 90% penetration rate in
cell phone subscriptions and 24 million Facebook users, 4th after US, UK, and Indonesia. Internet
enabled smart phones and e-tablets like iPad are getting popular even for mothers, who are normally not
considered to be digital users.
*Venues [II] *
In the case of E-culture we do not describe actual venues as well as the main State and
Independent organizations or sites.
* State [III] * Ministry of Transportation is the responsible state department for telecommunication and
internet as well. RTÜK is the organization that applies the censorship for TV and radio. They now want to
be the authority for censorship on the Internet.
Ministry of Transportation,http://www.ulastirma.gov.tr
RTÜK, http://www.rtuk.org.tr
* Independent [III] * Düğümküme, NOMAD, and Amber Platform are the main groups and organizations
developing a critical knowledge base for digital arts and culture via writing, exhibitions, panels, and
festivals.
http://dugumkume.org
http://nomad-tv.net
http://www.amberplatform.org
The Genç Siviller activist group is known for getting organized online for their offline actions.
http://www.gencsiviller.net
Bodig has been an interesting event series that combines body performance and digital tools.
http://www.bodig.org
Mode Istanbul and Kurye are organizations for digital video and motion picture in general.
http://modeistanbul.org
http://www.kuryevideo.org
Nerdworking is a loosely connected network of people who work together on digital art and design
projects. Their most recent work Yekpare is a public projection of digital images on the Haydarpaşa Train
Station historical building. They project the building‟s architectural features on the building itself and
play with it.
http://nerdworking.org
*Festivals and events [II] *
Amber Digital Art Festival, Kurye Video Festival, Difuzyon, TEDx Conferences are known as perpetual
events in Istanbul.
http://www.amberfestival.org
http://www.kuryevideo.org/festival.php?chlang=en
http://www.difuzyon.org
http://www.tedxistanbul.com
http://www.tedxbosphorus.com
*Educational institutions [II] *
In Turkey people usually make the division between State and Private education, and this is why
we do this in this survey as well. State Universities are cheap but require high points on the
national University Entrance Exam (OSS in Turkish) and therefore have good students but
sometimes lack facilities. Private education tends to be expensive (and the number of
scholarships is limited) but students with less stellar results from the national University
Entrance Exam can enter if they pay enough and facilities on campus are often state of the art.
* Private [III] * Private universities have the most prominent visual communication arts and design
departments, which are digitally well equipped with digital video and photography studios and computer
labs.
Bilkent University, Visual Communication Design
http://www.art.bilkent.edu.tr
Istanbul Bilgi University, Visual Communication Design
http://vcd.bilgi.edu.tr
Sabanci University, Visual Communication Design
http://fass.sabanciuniv.edu/vacd/eng
Kadir Has University, Communication Design
http://www.khas.edu.tr/en
* State Schools [III] * State schools tend to get good students due to the national exam entry model,
which “tests” students‟ education, rank them by their scores, and match them to schools based the
schools‟ contingent. Since science and engineering schools get the most focus and budget by the
government, the state school art departments are not well equipped with computer labs and digital media
studios. Among the state schools, only few have digital focused art and design departments.
Yildiz Technical University, The Faculty of Art and Design
http://www.sts.yildiz.edu.tr/index.php?pro=fak&sayfa=gen&dil=en
Istanbul Technical University, Technologies in Design Graduate Program
http://tbt.itu.edu.tr
*Professional associations [II] *
Platform Garanti / Garanti Galeri supports digitally literate artists in their general program. They have
artist in residency facility, which is often part of artist exchange programs with other institutions in the
region. They organize and support art based discussion panels. Platform has an extensive art library,
which is being digitized and will be accessible online. This institution is expanding and moving to two
new spaces in Beyoglu and in Karaköy, which will be opened in Fall 2011.
http://platformgaranti.blogspot.com
*Critics and academics [II] *
Özgür Uçkan, Başak Şenova, Murat Germen, and Selçuk Artut are the most interesting academics who
develop critique on digital culture.
*Publications and blogs [II] *
Many blogs and groups exist on digital culture and arts. The blogs Dugumkume.org and Etrafta.com have
the most permanent archive on digital culture. However almost all digital culture blogs are in Turkish.
*Prizes and grants [II] *
Non-professional [II] *
The word „professional‟ in Turkey is narrowly understood as someone who earns a living with their
activity, rather than as a concept that describes a professional attitude or an individual responsible for the
development of a field. Therefore in the Turkish understanding many Turkish people who would be
described as professionals by Dutch actors are seen and describe themselves as non-professionals. For
true amateurs ask for hobby groups. The Turkish word for hobby is „hobi‟.
*Audiences [II] *
The audiences of digital products in Turkey do not have very different properties compared to the global
digital audiences in general. The internet enabled almost a shared understanding and perception of digital
culture globally. The only visible behavior is the rapid adoption of new communication technologies as
seen in Facebook and mobile phones.
*Facilities [II] *
In Istanbul, Beyoğlu and Beşiktaş have the majority of digital production capacity as many digital printers
are established there. Sirkeci / Eminönü and Mecidiyeköy are the districts for buying and repairing digital
equipment.
Technological workforce can be reached at universities including Istanbul Technical University, Yildiz
Technical University, Bogazici University, Sabanci University, and Istanbul Bilgi Universtiy.
*Financial situation [II] *
Cultural institutions such as Platform Garanti, İstanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, and Anadolu
Kültür provide financial support to artists living in Turkey. Foreign artists may be more successful to find
resources in the form of in kind contributions and by contacting and collaborating with artists in Turkey.
Design schools educate new generation of talented designers, who can use hybrid techniques including
3D design, programming and information design. Artists outside of Turkey can collaborate with such
students to exchange ideas as well as to develop projects together. Such people can be better reached
through a social network, rather than a compiled contact list.
* Business models [III] * Almost all creative digital product focused companies have a service-oriented
business model. They start small, provide limited design and production services, and grow as they get
more contracts.
Most recently, Istanbul based venture capital firms such as Golden Horn Ventures and 212 Ventures
started investing in new technology based startups. So, the venture funds support the development of
genuine digital work around new startups. Also, the e-tohum platform, started in 2008, aims at associating
investors, professionals and companies with young entrepreneurs who have knowledge and ideas about
the new economy and who want to found their own companies.
*TR + NL collaborations [II] *
Currently there is more e-culture movement of people and projects from Turkey to the Netherlands than
the other way around: there are some Turkish artists working with digital media in the Netherlands and
that is about it. So more action is needed, in both directions.
* TR in NL [III] * Digitally literate contemporary artists living and working in Netherlands are Tunç
Topçuoğlu, Ahmet Öğüt, and Emre Hüner. The director of the SKOR Foundation curator Fulya
Erdemci‟s program also includes interesting work in digital culture. Banu Cennetoglu from Istanbul
collaborates with Dutch artist Philippine Hoegen in Amsterdam on the BAS/BENT artist book publishing
project.
* Born Digital [III] * In December 2009 Born Digital initiated an exchange with Turkish artists and
organizations to collaborate on new media art projects and festival programs. Visiting the Contemporary
Istanbul exhibition and other events, Born Digital became acquainted with several Turkish organizations
and artists and performed at the release party of Ice (Istanbul Contemporary etc.), a magazine aiming to
‘translate Istanbul's dynamism to the whole world and document everything that's going on in this city’.
In May 2010 Born Digital participated in the VJ Fest Istanbul conducting videomapping workshops in
collaboration with new media artists from Turkey and a VJ performance by Dutch visual artists. The new
media artists from Turkey are invited to the electronic art festival that Born Digital organizes in Utrecht.
In order not to depend on actual physical events, Born Digital developed an online platform whereby
online artists can meet and collaborate in an open source format on multimedia projects.
Born Digital also collaborates with the A-M-B-E-R festival, which they also want to connect to Utrecht
School of the Arts (Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht), currently looking for exchange possibilities in
new media. Together with the Utrecht School of the Arts, Faculty Art Media & Technology Born Digital
is working on Urban Screen Gameplay projects, investigating the playful impact of new media works in
public space. In collaboration with the A-M-B-E-R Art & Technology festival Born Digital will conduct a
week long workshop with 5 teams of Turkey based artists, designers and programmers to investigate
urban video projection and interaction. Following the workshop, which takes place in September 2010,
participants cooperate to create 5 interactive / video works for 5 public locations in Istanbul which will be
shown or performed to the public during the A-M-B-E-R festival in November 2010. Born Digital
organizes a yearly new media art festival and for the next edition in October 2010 several visual artists
from Istanbul are invited to perform in Utrecht as a result of this new born exchange. The collaboration
with the Utrecht School of Arts will be part of this exchange between the different festivals and newly
made media art projects. Finally Born Digital explores and develops new media tools which facilitate
online remote collaboration between artists working on different locations (i.e. Istanbul, Utrecht,
Amsterdam, Berlin) in future projects and events, extending the creative process.
* Steim [III] * A-M-B-E-R festival also has a long held wish to collaborate with Steim (2007 Interactive
concert, they wanted to work together on public works/art in ordinary daily life but due to the subsidy
stop that affected Steim their project could not continue).
* TU Delft [III] * The Faculty of Architecture of TU Delft and the Department of Architecture of METU
developed a Joint Master of Science Program on Computational Design and Fabrication Technologies.
The program aims to form a well-structured collaboration between the two universities in a graduate
program ending with a double Master of Science degree. The Joint Program focuses on Computational
Design and Fabrication Technologies with the goal of research in cutting edge design technologies and
new design tools as well as new design paradigms in architecture. Candidates are expected to be adequate
in research and have a background to follow up new design technologies and to enrich research and
design in the field of architecture.
*StrangerFestival Workshop 2009 [III]*
StrangerFestival Workshop 2009 participants Naz Belkaya and Volkan Karataş were invited to Digital
Dreams Festival in Rotterdam, The Netherlands with their respect videos “On the Beach” and “The Kiss”.
Digital Dreams Festival was hosting youth coming from Rotterdam, Istanbul and Paramabiro, who shot
videos about their identity, thoughts, dreams and especially their future in the context of their city and the
world. Naz Belkaya and Volkan Karataş also joined a workshop in November 18th and 19th where they
were shooting videos with students from Grafisch Lyceum Rotterdam (Graphics College Rotterdam), the
largest specialized vocational college in the field of media and design in the Netherlands. On November
20th and 21st, they participated the film screenings and the award show in the arts center Your Space.
Digital Dreams Festival is organized by Kosmopolis Rotterdam in collaboration with MODE
ISTANBUL, Grafisch Lyceum Rotterdam, Zadkine College, Albeda College, De Heuvel, Beeldfabriek,
Patching zone, Cultdoc, stichting Frequency, R.A.M.P, Network Star Suriname and Strangerfestival.
*Recommendations [II] *
Set up projects that integrate/include talks and/or hands-on training in e-cultural management
In the eyes of Turkish e-culture actors, the Dutch digital culture ecosystem seems to have the most
institutionalized cultural infrastructure in Europe. Organization is one of the key skills that is missing in
the art and culture field in Turkey. Artists and cultural professionals often learn by trial and error. The
most interesting expertise the Dutch digital field can bring to Turkey is organization models, education
models, and „business models‟ for art and culture. This can best be done during a project, not by a project
solely focused on this. So rather than designing a training with the direct purpose to increase management
capacities, review any given project idea and discuss with Turkish partners what aspect of the
management of that project is of interest to them, what tools do they think can be useful to them? Be open
to share management info. Have talks during projects about: How can an artist initiative start and stay
sustainable? What are the best practices for running a non-profit art space? How to leverage the digital
collaboration tools to support your organization? What are the best practices in presenting digital art?
How to keep your organization learning while growing? How to collaborate with established
organizations such as universities, government, and large foundations? How to find and manage cultural
funds?
Bring actors from both countries in the digital field together
The actors of art and culture ecosystem in Turkey seem to take high risks. They have to be practical and
quick to be able to get things done in Turkey‟s low budget high risk ecosystem. So it could be valuable
for the art and culture professionals in Turkey to exchange their experience based knowledge with the
ones in Netherlands. The Netherlands have several old and established e-culture institutions that could
send out open calls for projects (practically managed by the Dutch) to e-cultural actors in Turkey that can
bring diverse actors in the Turkish digital scene together. Offering e-culture people from Turkey a visitors
program in the Netherlands is very important to increase both collaboration between Dutch and Turkish
people active in e-culture and to help develop the field in Turkey.
Focus on artists that comment upon the techno-social environment
The general public and some activist groups are concerned about the government’s internet censorship
and copyright acts. General critics of digital culture particularly deal with authorship, copyright,
surveillance, remix, virtualization of body, database / archiving, hybrid identities, network mapping,
network building, and online communities.
Internet censorship is also the top concern in debates amongst e-culture people. Other topics discussed by
e-culture people include authorship, digital labor, internet economy, interactivity, and urban informatics.
There are a lot of interesting examples and relevant (local and global) issues from Turkey and the
Netherlands that Dutch and Turkish e-cultural people can discuss.
Focus on (debates on) databases, archives, info graphics and mappings
There is a trend in Turkey (mostly Istanbul and one project I know of in Izmir) to make databases,
archives, info graphics and mappings of all kinds by cultural actors from various disciplines. Some
seminars about the cultural implications of this kind of activity, critical input by e-culture people and an
analysis of the sustainability, methodologies and techniques used would be welcome. In 2010 Mediamatic
organized some workshops on mapping and info graphics in Amsterdam and such type of projects would
be meaningful in Turkey as well. Projects also are advised to put the maintenance and sustainability of
such databases, archives and mappings on the agenda.
Support any activities that bring actors of the digital subcultures together
If the aim is to create more partnerships between the Netherlands and Turkey in the field of e-culture, it
may be a good idea to also fund Dutch e-culture organizations that organize a project in Turkey without a
Turkish partner. The main aim of such projects needs to be to bring together various e-cultural actors and
form sustainable networks.
Digital media, art photography and video are very popular with the latest cohorts of students and youth in
Turkey. Because there are at present very few outlets for these graduates to show their work it can be
expected that the coming wave of digitally literate youth and graduates will face problems finding jobs
and showing their work. The Netherlands could be helpful to set up projects or structures that may absorb
these youth.
Educate digital media educators
Some e-critical mass needs to be build in Turkey, in order to guide the coming wave of youth and design
and communication designs graduates that are computer-addicted towards critical artistic production in
digital media. There reportedly is a lack of digital media educators on all levels that focus on something
else than technique. Bilgi VCD Communication design & design, Sabancı Faculty of arts & social
sciences (FASS), Yıldız and Izmir economy university Graphic Design & new media departments may be
visited by and connected to Dutch partners. Educator to educator exchanges are seen as the best way to
reach more students and for exchanging knowledge and ideas. In Turkey the hierarchic distance between
students and professors can be large, so exchange amongst equals (student-to-student, teacher-to-teacher)
may overcome some inhibitions that arise from this power-gap.
Stimulate internet collaboration because it is cheap, sustainable and international
Overall, the increase in sustainable collaboration in the e-culture field should be a priority because it
seems underdeveloped on all levels. Internet collaboration has a few characteristics than other cultural
disciplines lack: it does not rely on expensive and logistically challenging transports of goods and people,
which makes it relatively cheap. Online collaborations can also be maintained and continue for a longer
period of time and potentially be meaningful to larger audiences in both countries.
*