Browsing by Author "Aktas, Bilge"
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- Connecting Rural Change And Local Crafts: Rebranding Sock Knitting In Yenikaraağaç
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2019) Aktas, Bilge; Veryeri Alaca, Ilgim; Gurel, Burak - Craft Dynamics: Empowering felt making through design
A4 Artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa(2017-06-15) Aktas, Bilge; Mäkelä, MaaritThis paper argues that design can empower a craftsperson and accordingly provides the ability to maintain her work and practice. In addition, it can provide new opportunities to the local community she is part of. The study presents case studies from the field of felting in Turkey, the aim being to understand the field of felting in Turkey and the role of design in the transitioning of felting. Based on these findings, we argue that craftspeople who use design are more empowered: they can create their own craft identities, sustain their practice, and build productive relationships with the local community. - The diary project
School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Master's thesis(2020) Menassa, HalaNegative body perception is both a personal and social stigma that is felt by many women, regardless of their cultural background. Design can be a tool to help women reflect on their journey with their bodies and start a conversation about this problem. This thesis is attempting to work on a small aspect of negative body perception by working on the self and integrating women in the process of the project. This thesis began as a self-reflective approach to body image. It evolved into a participatory project where women utilized self-communication based on a design probe. The aim of the project is to design a communication tool that enables women to have a positive relationship with their bodies. Background research provides knowledge on the topic of body perception and how design is contributing to positive body image. Empirical research begins in the exploration of the topic of body image through a survey and an exhibition project and continues with interviews of ten women from different cultural backgrounds to discuss the pressures they felt connected to their body perception. Data collection and self-reflection leads to the design of a diary probe that is distributed for the women to fill in. The interpretation and analysis of the diaries, as well as the feedback provided, shows that these women benefited from this exploration of themselves and the project achieved fruitful results. This diary is a starting point for someone to get to know themselves and focus on growing their body acceptance. It can also be of aid to young people, and those who want to renew their relationship with their bodies or begin a better one. It is a safe and relaxed way to venture down the road of self-discovery and acceptance. - Entangling with Materials: Crafting as a Way of Repairing Our Relationship with the Environment
A3 Kirjan tai muun kokoomateoksen osa(2022) Aktas, BilgeCrafting facilitates direct contact between humans, materials, and the material’s environment. Embracing crafting with materials as a method can develop caring relationships with materials and can procure a sense of responsibility towards the environment. In this chapter, I discuss how crafting with materials can become a way to cultivate a personal relationship with the world and the environment, and how it can possibly generate behavioural change. This discussion is carried out by studying interactions with wool in the context of felting. By discussing the properties of raw wool and experiences with processed wool, I suggest seeing the human–world relationship as a dialogue that takes place through engaging with materials and the environment that the material comes from. The human–material relationship that emerges from crafting processes shows that everything is in continuous movement, and we need to find harmony among these changes to participate in the world in non-exploitative ways. By undertaking human–material coupling via crafting, humans can conjoin the ecology of making with the ecology of materials to repair their relationship with the world. - Finnish pine in furniture: Examining the role of material interaction in a creative process
School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Master's thesis(2021) Lindahl, ErikThe thesis contributes to the field of art and design by examining the role of material interaction in the creative process of developing furniture. The main objective of the research is to unfold the active role of the material in designerly ways of working. The material interaction is examined through a creative process undertaken in the context of furniture using Finnish pine wood as the material. Material and the chosen context provides a framework for the creative process which is examined using practice-led research methods. The process is captured by documentation of reflection in and on action. The research discusses the interconnection between personal knowledge and sensibilities, and material interaction. This specific framework provides a promising composition for revealing the tacit knowledge, embedded in the design practice. The material knowledge was constructed using diverse methods including excursion to the sawmill, interviewing the workers, studying the material properties through literature, hands-on exploring of the wood material, collaboration with colleagues, and making of the artefacts. The process produced four furniture objects which represent strategic usage of the material properties. The collection consists of a low table, a side table, a chair and a stool which all bring different insight to the theme. The research followed the journey of the wood from the forest to the artefacts. The research indicates that engagement with a physical material provides a meaningful dimension to the design work. The results suggest that putting emphasis on the properties of the material can work as a creator of ideas. In this case the unique properties of wood worked as the primary source of inspiration and had an impact on the design solutions. In addition, the usage of specific material encouraged the designer to explore the material on a profound level which led to the usage of Finnish pine wood in a knotless form. This deciphered a rarely seen side of the local material which creates a platform for new aesthetics of Finnish pine. The research enlightens the role of material interaction in furniture development processes and is considered relevant to researchers, designers and those generally interested in creative processes. - Human-Material Interaction: Examining the Material Agency Concept in Making Processes
A4 Artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa(2019) Aktas, Bilge - Kuulas: Examining the design processes behind the development of a chair prototype with practice-led research methods
School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Master's thesis(2019) Krute, JoshuaThrough the designing and making of Kuulas – a wooden low chair with textile components, I examine the development processes by which iterative and explorative methods are employed with research tools through a practice-led research framework. This thesis contributes to the field of arts and design by exemplifying a designer/maker’s account of the methods and processes developed and used between furniture and textile design parameters based on personal experiences. Several stages of the thesis project are employed with experimental sketching, visual tools, materiality, and reflections. These applied research approaches were perceived as tools used to develop the project. Ultimately, these research tools are used to identify and contextualize the development stages of the project, and implement them as research and making strategies for the evolving sphere of furniture and textile design. This thesis presents working methods, personal knowledge, and tools developed for a furniture work as practice-led research. Accordingly, the first section of this thesis introduces the research topic, questions, and aims of the project. It continues with the background section describing a brief history of my furniture making and printmaking practices, of which introduce the ideation and experimental projects leading to the main essence of wood and being grounded concepts that are emitted in this thesis. The literature review discusses Japanese, Danish, and experimental chair typologies that inspired this project, as well as an overview of applied research tools, practice-led methods. The methods section of the thesis is primarily twofold: The development of woven textiles and the development of the low chair. These two areas are narrowed with step-by-step process descriptions and reflections thereof; these foretell how research tools were employed to examine the iterative, explorative processes behind the project development, and to convey the decisions emitted towards the form-language of the Kuulas chair, which the name comes from the Finnish meaning: clear or pure. The textile section describes the hand-woven collection, printmaking technique, and surface design application that all led to the End-grain industrial woven fabric used in the chair upholstery, cushion and blanket. The low chair development section describes the chair typology and modified ergonomics developed through several sketching processes including: Sumi ink paintings, drawings, sketching with blocks, 1:1 mock-up, all of which lead to the final prototype. This thesis provides a glimpse into practice-led research methodologies. Throughout development stages of the project, communicative tools and form-finding techniques are developed to best examine furniture/textile making and design processes. These studies indicate the importance of documentation and reflection, as they are present in communicating how thinking and making has evolved throughout the project. Furthermore, this thesis examines how an artist-designer can employ his/her experiences and personal histories to develop abstract concepts for design projects. Throughout the thesis, there is a discourse between these personal experiences, as textile and furniture design practical knowledge and sensibilities, which are merging with iterative and explorative making methods. Moreover, the thesis is considered as viable academic research towards furniture and textile design fields. This information provided in this thesis may be relevant for those who are interested in interpreting their own furniture, textile, or related creative practice with practice-led methodologies. - Learning with the Natural Environment: How Walking with Nature Can Actively Shape Creativity and Contribute to Holistic Learning
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2023-02) Mäkelä, Maarit; Aktas, BilgeLearning takes place in various spaces through human and nonhuman interactions. Considering the urgent need for rethinking how humans relate to nature, in this article we present a MA level course in the context of art, craft and design to discuss how learning with the natural environment approach can impact learning experiences. We introduce walking with nature as a creative method that fosters students’ ability to let the environment actively shape their creative events. The encounter with nature-based materials in their different forms and following the material's flow provides students with a foundation for their creative processes. This study proposes that walking can facilitate the entanglement between the student's knowledge and encountered materials, generating an emotional and dialogical relationship with the natural environment that contributes to a holistic learning experience. We propose that such an experience can help in comprehending the importance of the caring actions we need to take and maintain towards the nonhuman world. - Material as the Co-designer: exploring a new practice in the nature and at the studio
A4 Artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa(2017) Aktas, Bilge - Material as the Co-designer: exploring a new practice in the nature and at the studio
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2018) Aktas, BilgeCreative production is fed upon reflections of the maker from various phases in making. This paper presents reflections from an explorative process of studying the material and ways of interacting with it. By introducing examples from different phases of felt making, this study examines how the wool, the only material in felt making, reacts as the maker works with it. Coming from a product design background, the author is used to build her works upon facts, needs, or reasons. When she started practising felt, she had no purpose rather than exploring the material and gaining experience on the practice. As the interaction with the material continued, with a carefully documented exploration process, she realised how material reformed itself with the movement of her hands, continuously creating new patterns by recomposing the fibres. This particular example suggests broadening the concept of design by positioning material as the co-designer in the creative process which can propose new ways of understanding the creative practice and material’s role. In this paper, the concept of material agency is studied from the perspective of material as the co-designer with a practice-led approach. - Material Connections in Craft Making: The case of felting
A4 Artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa(2020-08) Aktas, Bilge; Mäkelä, Maarit; Laamanen, Tarja-KaarinaThis study examined a creative practice, namely felting, to explore the daily practices and encounters of felt makers. The study aimed at understanding the material connections of felt-making that are not limited to the making process. To examine how practices of felt makers emerge in connection to materials, we employed the material engagement theory as our perspective. The data was collected through interviews with eight felt makers and participant observation at two studios in Turkey. The analysis revealed how felt makers think between things, people, space and time and develop their practices accordingly. These findings illuminated a holistic and insightful understanding of the material’s role in shaping the practice and field. A more holistic and insightful approach can also propose being open to constantly renewing creative practices and recognising how its material connections affect other things and people. - Negotiation between the Maker and Material: Observations on Material Interactions in Felting Studio
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2019-08-31) Aktas, Bilge; Mäkelä, MaaritThis article examines the interaction between maker and material in craft making in the case of felting. From the perspective of material agency, the article argues that the craft practice is the result of a negotiation between the material and the maker, and the bodily movements of a practice emerge from this dialogical act. The article investigates felting processes and uncovers how they occur through bodily movements and material transformations. This investigation refers to the processes that a novice maker and two expert makers go through a negotiation. The emergence of the artefact is studied with a focus on the relationship between the maker, material, and practice by examining different ways of interacting with the material and its transformations. The research employed a practice-led approach and participant observation as methods to collect various types of data in various studio settings. The data was collected in the form of reflective diaries, field notes, and videos. Through a meticulous analysis, we examined the movements of the body and the material in felting. This examination enabled us to understand what happens in each contact moment between the maker and the material. - Obstacles, Solutions and Creative Agencies: How Forces and Agencies Shape the Learning Process of Weaving
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2024) Aktas, Bilge; Omwami, Anniliina; Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, Pirita; Mäkelä, MaaritThis paper explores how design students overcome various obstacles they encounter during their design processes. By studying the processes of three textile design students during their weaving course, we investigated the forces and agencies that help overcome or accommodate obstacles by developing solutions. The interview data showed that while learning and advancing a skill, in our case weaving, various obstacles emerge through direct and indirect interactions. By recognizing how to position themselves and build relationalities, students start working with various agencies to develop ways of being with these obstacles. Our findings propose that experiencing obstacles fosters the learning process of students by leading them to actively look for ways of being with other elements while becoming more skillful in their practice. - Shared Authorship in Research through Art, Design, and Craft
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2021-05-25) Vega, Luis; Aktas, Bilge; Latva-Somppi, Riikka; Falin, Priska; Valle Noronha, JuliaConducting research through creative and artistic practices is becoming an established approach used to advance knowledge in various domains of the Arts. Although this approach tends to highlight the voice of the author through the first-person singular, practitioner-researchers working in the fields of art, design, and craft often involve other stakeholders in their practices, such as lay people, workshop participants, workshop co-organizers, other practitioners, and other informants. In some cases, these stakeholders can be said to attain the status of co-authors since their contribution not only informs the development of the practice but also influences the direction of the research. In this paper, we examine what other voices contribute to the production of knowledge through not always accounted forms of authorship. By discussing the inclusion of various stakeholders as co-authors at different stages of the investigative process, we explore the spectrum of shared authorship in research through art, design, and craft. The discussion draws on five research cases conducted by the authors of this paper. We conclude that examining shared authorship champions the emergence of more inclusive research practices, which not only propel the diversification of distinct ways of knowing but also value their operational role in the generation of new knowledge. - Stranded colorwork: Meaning-making through experimental knitting practices
School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Master's thesis(2021) Kilpi, LinneaKnitting is a common and long-established craft practice. Despite the expressive potential inherent to knitting it has been generally overlooked due to its everydayness. This is problematic because it ignores the agency and skill of its practitioners and limits its creative scope. This thesis presents knitting as a profound practice deserving of critical engagement and welcoming of creative experimentation. To facilitate this shift in perception I suggest an expanded conception of function to amend traditional understandings of knitting and take the craft forward. The function I turn toward is of a more poetic nature: storytelling. Through representational depictions of everyday life, I explore fleeting moments between comfort and discomfort, and critically reflect on how the narrative is bolstered by the technique it is told with. In the process I focus on three elements that I determined to be central to knitting: in/visibility, tension, and repetition. Through a theoretical review of knitting, this thesis discusses its historical position as a folk craft existing in the domestic realm. I highlight its relation to care and therapy, and how the practice provides a powerful method for introspective work through the comfort of repetition. Part of this power comes from the opportunity to confront failure at a low threshold, as people who knit know of its potential energy of undoing, the possibility of unravelling inherent to the craft. Through the concept of becoming, I consider the reconfigurability of knitting as its continuously changing position in a flux between yarn and fabric. From a poetic perspective, this thesis presents the basic looped structure as a symbol of personal history, an entangled system of individual and collective. Following a practice-led research approach I knit stories and experiment with the stitch structure to develop a new sense of aesthetic expression in machine knitting. To do this I focus on the process of making and explore the idea of repetition. Documentation is carried out through photographs and diaries, in the form of text as well as a hand-knit scarf. The making process led up to and was contextualized by an exhibition of machine-knit artifacts. The examinations on the project proposed the concepts of ‘knittedness’ and ‘pixelness’ as vehicles for expression. Knittedness refers to the entanglement of the work with its process, as well as a way to visualize the world around us. Pixelness describes the stitches inherent to knitting and the notion of creative problem-solving born out of this technical limitation. Through these ideas, the expressivity of knitting appears in unexpected and poignant ways. - Studying Material Interactions to Facilitate a Sense of Being with the World
A4 Artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa(2020-08) Aktas, Bilge; Groth, CamillaMaterial interactions are fundamental to design and craft education; however, they might also provide opportunities to reflect on sustainable behaviour in general. In this paper, we present an interdisciplinary undergraduate course in which students interacted with clay and wool. By engaging novices in material-based craft processes, we examined renewed ways of experiencing the materials to reconsider our everyday material interactions and our dependency and responsibilities in regard to materials in general. Through this example, we discuss the potential of craft practice as an educational platform to discuss materiality and to facilitate a deeper and more holistic understanding of the consequences of our material behaviour beyond the creative practices. The students’ reflections over the five weeks touched upon their renewed appreciation of materials, and their changed interactions with materials – moving towards a dialogical stance rather than only using them as a means to an end. - Using Creative Practice in Interdisciplinary Education
A4 Artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa(2021-09-24) Aktas, Bilge; Groth, CamillaInterdisciplinary approaches in education help future professionals build better understanding and a common language between disciplines and individuals. To make such leaps, skills in adjusting to new situations and rapidly changing knowledge systems are needed. Such skills are intrinsic to design practice, and design and making practices lend themselves well to such personal development. Design and making activities also offer opportunities for students from different disciplines to gather around central topics and engage in interdisciplinary discussions about matters that concern everyone and to materialize their understanding while reflecting on their personal process. In this paper, we present a course design in which this type of transformational reflection might take place, and we discuss how designing and making processes can provide suitable means to build a platform for interdisciplinary discussions and learning. By examining an interdisciplinary group of students’ creative processes, we found that navigating unknown situations with the explorative and adaptive mind-set that emerges through reflection creates transferrable skills that are useful in interdisciplinary interactions and communication. - Vernacular Design Examples to Study Climate’s Role on Design Decisions: an Example of Nomadic Yörüks in the Turkish Mediterranean
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2019) Aktas, BilgeThis paper presents vernacular design examples to investigate the relationship between design and climate. The paper aims at understanding ways in which design can collaborate with other elements to produce naturally compatible artefacts, systems or experiences. Considering the current climate crises and growing changes, we need to develop an understanding that does not exploit the natural resources but incorporates with them. To study this co-operation, this paper studies textile crafts, more specifically felted artefacts, of Yörüks (or Yoruks, Yuruks), a nomadic Turkic clan in the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. I examine the ways in which climate, mobile lifestyle and accessible materials actively affect design decisions of the Yörüks. Yörüks way of living could be an example to think further how to correspond to climate while developing artefacts. - You Have One New Message: Knitting intimacy for connecting opinions, people and the world
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2021-05-10) Aktas, BilgeKnitting is often practiced as a group activity that takes place in the domestic environment. Besides the collectivity, using motifs with meanings has also facilitated communication between people. Building on these ideas, a workshop was designed to facilitate discussions about everyday concerns or experiences, both on personal and societal levels, to strengthen communication with the self and others. In the workshop, the thirteen participants were asked to design a motif to convey a message to themselves, to the group or to the society. Through a group discussion, the motifs stemming from personal experiences were knitted, shared and discussed. The topics emerging from the workshop indicates that knitting affords intimate exchanges between the self and others, and connects people by facilitating socio-political discussions, such as on environmental sustainability, women rights and self-development