Browsing by Author "Aktas, Bilge Merve"

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Entangled Fibres - An examination of human-material interaction
(2020) Aktas, Bilge Merve
School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)
Material's role in making has been previously tackled to understand practices, objects, and society from multiple angles. Recent research on materials challenges prioritising human perception, experiences and needs while proposing that materials actively participate in everyday interactions and experiences through their embedded agencies. This research examines the active role of material within the context of design and craft-making. The main research question is: how does human-material interaction occur, and how does material actively affect the making processes? This examination is carried out through the case of felt making via four studies. The first study was conducted at expert craftspeople's studios and examined how through negotiation the material and the body become united during making processes. The second study examined the material in its own environment and at the design studio and focused on how material interactions affect ideation while making an artefact through a practice-led study on my own making process. The third study tackled how the early material engagements of novice makers might challenge their understanding of being with the world. By utilising first-hand experiences, this study challenged established human values to discuss coexisting with other entities in more responsible ways. The fourth study examined the field of felting and its material connections to reveal how material agency shapes the fluidity of the practice within the field. The case study methodology provided meticulous analysis of a material's changing activeness in four research settings. By employing a practice-led research approach, human-material interaction was explored through the reflections and experiences of makers. Participant observation and reflective making were particularly useful methods of collecting data as they revealed the steps of direct engagement with the material. Examining felt making from the material's activeness perspective provided four theoretical insights: 1) the material's meaning can change based on how the maker is with them, and it can gain different roles for various processes, 2) making is a situated and context-dependent action and can gain different meanings under various conditions, 3) perceiving the material as active also requires activating the self by being more flexible, and 4) understanding the extent of the material's activeness in the material engagement can expand the boundaries of responsibility. The findings stimulate cultivating new pedagogical models for teaching new skills and for building empathy towards existing with humans and nonhumans. The design of studies can inform new material development processes by valuing experience-oriented explorations over goal-oriented ones. By embracing the coexistence of human and the nonhuman, this research prompts an acknowledgement of other kinds of agencies and our dependencies on them. Realising that humans do not own or dictate but collaborate with materials generates more responsible behaviours and inclusive political actions for coexisting with nonhumans.
Exploring material culture of carpets in Turkey via an art project
(2019-04-01) Alaca, Ilgim Veryeri; Aktas, Bilge Merve
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
This article reports on an art project carried out by undergraduates in a core course entitled 'Art and Innovation' offered at Koc University in Istanbul, based on traditional handmade carpets in Turkey. The project enables 23 undergraduates from various disciplines to become acquainted with material culture and art as they reflect on the carpets' declining presence in contemporary culture. The goals of the project are first to acquaint the students with the art history and symbolism of carpets from Turkey, then to invite students to investigate contemporary artworks created in relation to carpets and finally to move into sketching and discussions later to have the students conceptualize an artwork that reflects the changing status of handmade carpets and the weaving tradition as an indicator of transformations in society.