Videos by Burak Taşdizen
MAD Araştırma Çalıştayı, 2019.
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Theses / Books by Burak Taşdizen
Master's Thesis, 2017
This thesis aims to understand how knitting practitioners organize around knitting know-how and k... more This thesis aims to understand how knitting practitioners organize around knitting know-how and knitting patterns, which exchanges they have with regard to knitting know-how and knitting patterns and what meanings they associate to these exchanges. The fieldwork of this thesis is an ethnography of a community of knitting practice, the knitting course, through participant observations with the aim of first developing insights into practitioner’s production process by practicing knitting, and second into the dynamics of the knitting course. Based on the literature review and findings of the fieldwork, this thesis offers five main conclusions regarding knitting practice and the knitting course. Firstly, knitting practice is a skilled practice. Secondly, knitting practice is a creative practice, for it is based on the creative modification of existing patterns. Thirdly, for skill acquisition is based on observation and imitation, knitting practice helps build communities of practice and helps create third places for the practitioner, informal gathering places in urban environments other than home and work. Fourthly, because of the emancipatory and hierarchical practices it embodies in the way it is organized, knitting course is part of a wider fabriculture, which harbors both the very traditional and the very radical practices in textile. Fifthly, as knitting patterns are adjusted through creative modifications and new patterns make their way into the knitting course and knitting know-how is cultivated and spread, knitting course emerges as an unfolding archive of knitting patterns and knitting know-how. The findings and conclusions of this thesis have implications for design practice. Design practice, as in making practices, could focus more on archives of patterns and instructions to which access is offline and collective, helping to build communities of practice and third places for the practitioner.
Hair:y_less Masculinities. A Cartography, 2022
Cosmetic surgery is booming - and no longer just among women: Both surgical procedures and minima... more Cosmetic surgery is booming - and no longer just among women: Both surgical procedures and minimal invasive cosmetic treatments are on the rise among men worldwide. For many men, when early signs of balding appears or when the beard does not grow as desired, this becomes a heavy burden to carry. After all, a youthful, vital, and masculine appearance can be of decisive importance in both professional and private life.
Challenging the prevalent human-centered worldview under a critical post-humanist programmatic, the authors scrutinize ways in which hair constructs gender regimes, especially regimes of masculinities. In this book, hair follicles take center stage as peculiar actors shaping and being shaped by socio-cultural norms and techno-medical processes aiming at hair’s elimination, accelerating its growth and its taming. In order to stimulate an accessible and dialogue-oriented communication with the wider public, this Science Communication book gathers, documents and presents the visual data that accumulated throughout the 2-year fieldwork, involving photographs of operation theaters, sketches of medical professionals and patients within hair transplantation and laser hair removal processes. From these drawings and photographs emerges the cartography of ‘Hair:y_less Masculinities’, wherein hair resists the techno-medical imaginaries through its Eigensinn, despite the natureculture metaphors that readily construct it as highly malleable and passive.
Booklet for Center for Spatial Justice, 2020
This booklet was realized with the research grant of Center for Spatial Justice. It documents the... more This booklet was realized with the research grant of Center for Spatial Justice. It documents the fieldwork findings for the then-titled project "İnsanın Dışında, Tasarımın Ötesinde: Sokak Hayvanları, Geçici Birleştirmeler, Tasarım Aktivizmi". The fieldwork for the booklet was conducted between April 2019 - December 2019. The booklet showcases the preliminary analysis of my ongoing PhD project.
Journal Articles by Burak Taşdizen
REFLEKTIF Journal of Social Sciences, 2024
This article argues for liminality as a mutual, interspecies experience as well as a constituent ... more This article argues for liminality as a mutual, interspecies experience as well as a constituent of human-companion animal bond. Despite its potential for animal scholarship, research on interspecies liminality remain rather scarce. Drawing upon this research gap, the main objective of this study is to explore the experiences of liminality of human and feline protagonists in Halit Refiğ's film Madame [Hanım] (1989) through its analysis conducted in adherence with the coding principles of Grounded Theory. Experiences of liminality of the human and feline protagonists in the film are closely related to the status passages of the characters' lives. While the film narrates human liminality between living and dying at the end of Olcay's life, the feline character Hanım depicts liminality of the animal subject between person and property as well as spatial (non)belonging thereof due to her human companion Olcay's dying. Findings of the study indicate that, in addition to the category of liminal animals being a descriptor for animal populations in proximity to human settlements, liminality lens could be employed to understand life trajectories of individual animals, and to disclose potentialities for interspecies companionship and mutual survival in human-animal borderlands.
Frontiers in Sociology, Animals and Social Interaction, 2024
Human knowledge pertaining to human-animal interaction is constructed by the human author, albeit... more Human knowledge pertaining to human-animal interaction is constructed by the human author, albeit the presence of animal subjects. Such a human lens is pronounced when studying human-animal interactions across history, whose nonhuman animal subjects are not only absent, and therefore eliminating the possibility of conducting empirical studies in situ, but also their experiences are filtered by the interpretative lens of human authors of extant historical accounts as well as contemporary human analysts who interpret these accounts. This article draws upon such epistemological limitations of understanding nonhuman animal presence in historical accounts and offers human-animal intersubjectivity as an analytical concept, involving generative iterability and indistinctive boundaries that emphasise intersubjective openness and relationality, to trace and disclose the continuity of human-animal coexistence. The article's historical scope is the Late Ottoman period characterised by a sense of temporal and spatial disorientation and reorientation for humans as well as street dogs during its modernisation processes.
NanoEthics, Art-Science Interaction, 2022
This contribution includes three selected works from an exhibition on Cyborg Encounters. These wo... more This contribution includes three selected works from an exhibition on Cyborg Encounters. These works deal with hybrid connections of human and non-human species that (might) emerge as a result of enhancement technologies and bio-technological developments. They ofer not only an artistic exploration of contemporary but also futuristic aspects of the subject. Followed by an introduction by Melike Şahinol, Critically Endangered Artwork (by Ayşe Melis Okay) highlights Turkey’s ongoing problems of food poverty and the amount of decreasing agricultural lands. It displays seeds of a promising endemic plant to mitigate these problems using the seeds of the Thermopsis Turcica, a herbaceous perennial endemic plant. Ecomasculinist Pregnancy (by Burak Taşdizen and Charles John McKinnon Bell) follows the design fiction methodology and illustrates a future scenario through a patient’s diary and the medical letters he receives during his pregnancy with an extinct sea-lion. Polluted Homes (by Beyza Dilem Topdal) is a fctional art installation consisting of polychaete species evolved in time under the ecological circumstances prevalent in the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmara today. These works show, that manufacturing life has consequences, not only for the human body and its physical appearance, but also, for example, for gender orders, the social structure of society, and even the environment, and thus for (re)shaping (non)living matter and their environments. This Art-Science Collection intends to provide an impetus for debate about the extent to which cyborg encounters should be taken seriously.
MADjournal, 2021
Şehir ne doğadır, ne de doğanın zıttı: Şehir, doğa ve toplum ikiliğini aşan melez, siborg bir olu... more Şehir ne doğadır, ne de doğanın zıttı: Şehir, doğa ve toplum ikiliğini aşan melez, siborg bir oluşum (Swyngedouw, 1996, 2006; Swyngedouw ve Kaika, 1999), bir asamblajdır (McFarlane, 2011); daimi bir akıştadır (Kaika, 2012). Haraway’in (2003) tabiriyle bir doğakültürdür, denebilir. Böylesi bir bakış, şehri merkezden almakla kalmaz, aynı zamanda izole bir kategori olarak ele alınan modern şehri çözer/çözümler; onu eşzamanlı ancak farklı izleklere sahip birçok hareketin olduğu bir dolanıklık hâli olarak görmemizi sağlar. Dolayısıyla şehrin sınırlarını tarif etmek de zorlaşır. Zira şehir, uzantılarıyla etrafını mütemadiyen yoklayan, doğal veya değil tanımları gütmeden tüm şeyleri kaynağa çeviren, atığı dolaşıma sokan, öğüten, hareket eden, büyüyen, yaşayan, genelci bir türdür. Tıpkı sokak kedisi gibi (Pearre, 1998). Ancak sokak kedisi, şehir için bir kaynak teşkil etmez. Bilakis, işlevsiz ve atıldır (Atauz, 2002, s. 149; Zeybek, 2014, s. 267). Varlığı/meşruiyeti çoğunlukla merhamete tabi olur. İnsandan Öte Bir İstanbul Düşlemek, vatandaşların İstanbul’un sokak kedilerine şehirde nasıl alan açtığının, onlara sağlanan bakımın nasıl materyalize olduğunun ve bunun tasarım aktivizmi potansiyellerinin izini sürer. Bakımı sağlayan vatandaşların nevi şahsına münhasır bir müdahalesi olan kedi evlerine ve bu evleri çevreleyen su ve mama kaplarına odaklanır.
Somatechnics, 2021
Growing cultural enthusiasm for cosmetic surgery and the techno-medical modification of the body ... more Growing cultural enthusiasm for cosmetic surgery and the techno-medical modification of the body have had a considerable impact on men in recent years making it the driving force behind the medicalisation of masculinities (Syzmczak and Conrad 2006). Among the top five cosmetic procedures most frequently chosen by men are laser hair removal in the category of cosmetic minimally invasive procedures and hair transplantation in the category of cosmetic surgical procedures (American Society of Plastic Surgeons 2019). Turkey is the world's leading destination for medical services and a leading country of medical tourism. Its beauty tourism is particularly noteworthy making the country attractive for ‘demand-oriented’ and ‘wish-fulfilling’ cosmetic procedures for the West, the Middle East as well as locals. With a special emphasis on the somatechnics of shaping men's hair, this article analyses the currents of hair transplantation practices and after-care in shaping masculinities in Turkey and its regional competitor Iran. By building on the existing literature, we extend the discussion on male haircare with hair as the bios as part of emerging socio-bio-technical entities.
Beyond Istanbul, Mekânda Adalet ve Toplumsal Cinsiyet, 2021
İnternet, kuir bireyler gibi dezavantajlı gruplar için özellikle partner arayışı sürecinde daha g... more İnternet, kuir bireyler gibi dezavantajlı gruplar için özellikle partner arayışı sürecinde daha güvenli bir platform olarak öne çıkıyor, sağladığı anonimlik ile kişilerin ortak ilgi alanları ve ortak arzuları etrafında fiziksel mekânın kısıtlarını aşıp bir araya gelmelerini kolaylaştırıyor. Bu yazı, kendini "gey [sic] sosyal ağı" olarak tanımlayan Hornet uygulamasının Türkiye’deki kuir bireyler için ne tür özgürleştirici olanakları ve sınırlayıcı yanları olduğunu tartışmaya açmayı hedefliyor.
Grindr, Hornet, Scruff gibi konum tabanlı kuir tanışma uygulamaları, kullanıcıya civardaki diğer kullanıcıları gösterir; birbirleriyle sohbet etme, fotoğraf / konum paylaşma imkânları sunar. Çoğunlukla kullanıcıların birbirlerinin yüz ve vücut fotoğraflarını görmelerini iletişimin gerekliliklerinden biri olarak kurgulayan bu uygulamaların odağında görsellik yer alır. Farklı kullanıcı yelpazelerine sahip bu ve benzeri uygulamalar arasından kendisini “en kapsamlı gey, bi, trans ve kuir uygulaması” olarak tanımlayan Grindr’ın Türkiye’de erişime kapatılmasının ardından Hornet, Türkiye’de en çok kullanılan eşcinsel uygulaması haline geldi. Hornet, muadili Grindr’ın aksine, kullanıcıların içerik oluşturmasına izin veren tasarımı ve sağlarlıkları (affordance) itibariyle konum tabanlı bir tanışma uygulamasının ötesinde Türkiye’de (ve dünyada) eşcinsel, trans ve “meraklı” bireyler arasında popülerleşmiş bir sosyal medya olarak öne çıkıyor. Bu nedenle bu yazıda, Hornet’i diğer uygulamalardan farklı kılan iki özelliği olan akış sayfasını (feed) ve kullanıcı profil ve içeriklerindeki etiket (hashtag) kullanımını Türkiye’deki kuir sosyalleşmesine etkisi üzerinden tartışmak istiyorum.
EASST Review, 2020
De-centering the human is vital in order to recognize that the human is never an isolated, indivi... more De-centering the human is vital in order to recognize that the human is never an isolated, individual entity, as imagined in mainstream design practice (Forlano, 2017), but a material body. A body as any material, embedded within the material currents of our lifeworld (Ingold, 2007, 2010), including socio-technical systems, or the natural environment. Moving into the realm of materials requires also a critical distance to the words of design and making both of which denote certain intentional undertones such as a mental plan on part of the practitioner (Keller, 2001) subscribing to hylomorphic model of creation (Ingold, 2010). Far from shaping matter that is inert, practitioners are “itinerants” (Guattari & Deleuze, 2000) and “wanderers, wayfarers, whose skill lies in their ability to find the grain of the world’s becoming and to follow its course while bending it to their evolving purpose.” (Ingold, 2010, p. 92). In that sense, instead of merely being designed or being made in a passive state, materials grow (Ingold, 2007), resist (Şahinol & Taşdizen, 2020) and become elements in assemblages in naturecultures, linking and unlinking (Taşdizen, 2020a, 2020b).
The Design Journal, 2017
Design for social innovation is the emerging movement of the 21st century. Nonetheless, the socio... more Design for social innovation is the emerging movement of the 21st century. Nonetheless, the socioeconomic impact of social design projects is conditional upon their multifaceted conception and upon their array of influence. In Turkey as elsewhere, sustainability is one of the main issues of social design projects in urban/rural territories. Generating innovation at the local level and for individual people also rely on design teams’ persistency on penetrating on local communities’ lives. This paper will focus on the design workshop series implemented on Gökçeada/ Imbros Island between 2014 and 2016. By expanding the problematics of sustainability in social design projects, the paper will propose a three years’ experience with academic purposes, based on benevolent participation and unfunded co-design. Finally, this paper will aim to contribute to the social design literature by illustrating a model of “designing on the spot” concept, for the sake of sustainable, long run design projects.
Ankara Araştırmaları Dergisi, Dec 2016
Bir zamanlar genç Cumhuriyet'in siyasi ve ekonomik merkezi olan Ankara'daki Ulus semti, kentin he... more Bir zamanlar genç Cumhuriyet'in siyasi ve ekonomik merkezi olan Ankara'daki Ulus semti, kentin hem cumhuriyetçi hem de manevi geleneklerine ev sahipliği yapmayı sürdürmektedir. Önce gecekondularla sarılmış, sonrasında Kızılay'ın, başkentin yeni ekonomik merkezi olmaya başlamasıyla geri plana itilmiş semt, düşük gelir gruplarına terk edilmiştir. Günümüzde Ulus'un kendine özgü, çok katmanlı karakteri, kentteki önemli bir dini alan olan Hacıbayram'ın temsil ettiği manevi ve ahlaki değerleri gölgede bıraktığı iddiasıyla hedef gösterilmekte ve bu gerekçeyle bir kentsel dönüşüme tanıklık etmektedir. Bu makalenin amacı, psikocoğrafi bir yöntem kullanarak Ulus'un pazarlarında görüldüğü iddia edilen bu "ahlak dışılığın" izini sürmektir. Mevcut kentsel dönüşüm literatürünün sınıfsal yer değiştirmeye yaptığı vurguyu destekleyecek şekilde, dönüştürücülerin söylemsel müdahalelerinin deneyime dair temellendirmelerini görünür hale getirmeyi hedeflemektedir. Bu amaç doğrultusunda, Ankara Büyükşehir Belediyesinin 2008-2016 yılları arasında yayımladığı bültenler taranmış; sonrasında İtfaiye Meydanı ve Telefoncular Pazarı gibi farklı bölgelerde, raflarda sunulan nesnelere ve bu nesnelerin sunumuna dair bir dizi gözlem yapılmıştır. Ortaya çıkan öznel harita, Ulus'taki "ahlak dışılık" hissine doğrudan etkisi olan maddi kültüre, bu maddi kültürün davet ettiği önemli pratiklere ve farklı toplumsal gruplara dair içgörüler sağlarken bu hissin üç bileşenini öne çıkarmaktadır: ekonominin kayıt dışılığı, mevcut erkeklik rejimi ve çatışan nostaljiler.
Book Chapters in Edited Volumes by Burak Taşdizen
Çokdisiplinli Çalışmalarda Posthümanizm, 2022
Estetik cerrahinin ve bu alanda yapılmış sosyolojik araştırmaların çoğunlukla nesnesi olan kadınl... more Estetik cerrahinin ve bu alanda yapılmış sosyolojik araştırmaların çoğunlukla nesnesi olan kadınları çevreleyen tartışmalar kadın bedeninin tek tipleştirilmesiyle gelen belirli bir tür kadınlık inşasına (Franco 479; Jones 183-184) veya sağlık nedeniyle olmayan/isteğe bağlı bu işlemlerin kadınları güçlendirmesine odaklanmaktadır (Heggenstaller ve diğerleri 60). Estetik cerrahi işlemlerin İnsan Geliştirme (İG) (Şahinol 27-28, Şahinol ve Motika) yönüne işaret eden Edmonds için, bu işlemler tüketimin ötesinde, cinsel çekiciliği artırmak gibi zihinsel ve cinsel iyi oluşu hedefleyen ortak arzular üzerinden cinsiyet ve sınıf dinamiklerinin kesişimini açığa çıkarmaktadır (483). Son yıllarda, biyomedikalizasyon süreçleri kapsamında İG teknolojileri dolayımıyla gerçekleşen beden inşası erkek bedenine de sirayet etmiş, erkek bedenine uygulanan estetik cerrahi işlemler ve minimal invaziv işlemler kategorilerinde sırasıyla saç/kıl ekimi ve lazer epilasyon işlemleri öne çıkmıştır (American Society of Plastic Surgeons). Saç ve kılın erkek bedenindeki müdahalesine dair olan talebi gözler önüne seren bu durum bir araştırma konusu olarak belirmektedir. Dolayısıyla, bu makale, Mart-Temmuz 2020’de gerçekleştirdiğimiz ve erkeklerin saç ve kıllarına yapılan medikal olan ve olmayan müdahaleleri merkezine alan niteliksel araştırmamıza dayanır; bu müdahaleler etrafında şekillenen insan sonrası (posthuman) erkek bedenine odaklanır. Bu makale kapsamında başlıca araştırma sorumuz, insan sonrası erkek bedeninin saç ekimi teknolojisi ile nasıl yeniden inşa edildiğini, özgürleştirici olasılıkları ve kısıtlayıcı yanlarıyla tartışmaya açmak ve eleştirel insan sonrası alanyazınına katkı sağlamaktır.
Türkiye’de STS: Bilim ve Teknoloji Çalışmalarına Giriş, 2020
Bu araştırma, İstanbul'daki sokak kedilerinin iyi oluşu için yapılmış vatandaş güdümlü geçici bir... more Bu araştırma, İstanbul'daki sokak kedilerinin iyi oluşu için yapılmış vatandaş güdümlü geçici birleştirmeler üzerinden yerelde sokak kedileri için ne tür su, gıda ve barınak ağları inşa edildiğine bakar; bunun tasarım aktivizmiyle nasıl ilişkilenebileceği sorularını sorar. Geçici birleştirmeler, en az önceliklendirdiği sokak kedileri grubu kadar savunmasız: Şehrin akışı içerisinde farklı aktörlerin müdahalesine (ekleme, çıkarma, yok etme) açık olmaları onları birleştirme yapan temel sebep. Benim bu araştırmadaki savım, olumlu toplumsal dönüşümü hedefleyen bir karşı anlatıyı nesneler ve mekanlar üzerinden yarattığı ve vatandaşların şehre dair tahayyüllerini açığa çıkararak şehrin nasıl tasarlanabileceğine dair olasılıklara işaret ettiği için vatandaşlar tarafından atığın yeniden dolaşıma sokulmasıyla açık ve esnek şekilde tasarlanan ve sürdürülen ve ihmal edilmiş bir hayvan nüfusunun iyi oluşunu hedefleyen geçici birleştirmeleri tasarım aktivizmi olarak okuyabileceğimiz.
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This research focuses on the citizen-led temporary assemblages, water, food, and shelter networks built and maintained for the well-being of street cats in Istanbul and scrutinizes the design activist potentials of these assemblages. Temporary assemblages are as vulnerable as the street cat population they serve: The main reason behind their temporality is their vulnerability towards the intervention of different actors (adding, removing, disposing). My argument in this research is that each of these assemblages, designed and maintained in an open and flexible nature through the upcycling of waste to ensure the well-being of a neglected animal population, could be interpreted as design activist practices for they create a counter-narrative over things and spaces aiming positive societal change and point to potentials as to how the city could be shaped.
Essays by Burak Taşdizen
Garp Sessions: Documentation and Commissioned Works 2019-2022, 2023
When I received the invitation from Garp Sessions to contribute to this book, I contemplated my e... more When I received the invitation from Garp Sessions to contribute to this book, I contemplated my experience of 2020 and what this meant for me at the time. I remember feeling an immediate warmth upon receiving the invitation, for I was neither a practitioner in the arts, nor I knew anyone from the organisers, facilitators, or invitees. This invitation, for me, meant that someone was interested in hearing from my thoughts, and thinking with me ⸺ I felt recognized and included as a thinker. But why did recognition or inclusion remain important to me? Did I feel excluded from other, seemingly similar spheres in my life pertaining to knowledge production? Did I feel that I was not heard in the academic circles I was affiliated to? If so, why? Recently, I have been thinking about the politics of exclusion as it pertains to scientific knowledge production and citation justice as a means to actively overcome such exclusive practices. However, exclusionary practices in knowledge production do not make up the focus of this essay. In this essay, I choose to focus on the Garp Sessions table, a nonhuman actant, which brought together the participants during the sessions.
Locomotion, 2021
This text presents a selection of my encounters with feral animals in Istanbul. Illustrating the ... more This text presents a selection of my encounters with feral animals in Istanbul. Illustrating the (im)mobilities that feral animals find themselves in, these encounters are not exhaustive and do not aim to be representative of feral experiences within or beyond Istanbul. Yet certain themes are shared: forced neutralization, forced adoption, forced displacement, forced labor; governance of animal bodies in various forms and scales.
Garp Sessions 2020: Fictional Protocols and Desirable Futures, 2021
Three material tales of Babakale emerged from my encounters with fishnets, stones, and knives, re... more Three material tales of Babakale emerged from my encounters with fishnets, stones, and knives, respectively. These are tales, embedded in a temporality of past traditions and present practices, wary of attaining an absolute representation of the many realities that are unfolding as I type. The material encounters entangled with peer discussions followed by my personal reflections work as entry points into the material histories and presents of the village, and I, as an outsider, who has gotten only a glimpse of them, could humbly narrate what I have encountered. Practical difficulties of conducting and writing a thorough fieldwork in the duration of the residency aside, I consciously shy away from drawing any conclusion and leave the question of desirable futures open-ended. Still, if there is any future I desire, it is one that is caring; caring for the ones that cannot speak back either for they do not speak the canon, or merely for they do not have a voice. Care for the material, whether it be a fishnet or an animal’s horn, is a running theme across the three tales. In Fishnets to conquer, to care for I explain how fishermen knit and care for their fishnets, which they use to capture the fish. In Stones to find balance, to build shelter I tell the story of how careful observations of stones, their abundance and versatile nature have translated and continue to translate to different affordances in the village. In Knives to kill I narrate how the knifemaker extracts the animal horns from the animal in a caring manner and turns them carefully into knife handles. The texts are reconstructions of my field notes including ethnographic interviews with fishnet knitters and the knifemaker, the jottings and photographs I took, and my later reflections after leaving Babakale. Field descriptions are in romans, whereas Turkish originals of some phrases are in italics in square brackets. Italics are also used to put emphasis on certain terms. All visuals are by the author unless stated otherwise.
Mashallah News, 2015
Melih Gökçek, the mayor of Ankara, is not only busy running the everyday goings-on of his city – ... more Melih Gökçek, the mayor of Ankara, is not only busy running the everyday goings-on of his city – he’s also seeking to establish a whole new identity for it. But not “new” in the literal sense – he longs for the bygone values of the Ottoman-Seljuk era: “Inşallah our gates, with their distinctive attributes and architecture, will become the symbols of Ankara. Our gates embody reminisces of Seljuk and Ottoman architecture, and, as a result, reflect our history.”
Symposium Papers by Burak Taşdizen
Masculinities in Design: Objects, Identities and Practices, 2022
Space archeologists have focused on the peculiar material culture of space exploration, looking i... more Space archeologists have focused on the peculiar material culture of space exploration, looking into infrastructures such as launch sites and landing sites (Walsh & Gorman, 2021). The focus of this paper, space suits, are studied from the perspective of fashion design looking into their aesthetic transformation throughout the decades (Chang, 2021). However, considering that commercial space travel is a recent phenomenon, the space suits of passengers, and their designs, remain unexplored. Similar to how Haraway’s poetically formulated cyborg is an illegitimate offspring of military industrial complex (Haraway, 2006), the act of designing a spacefarer human, too, is historically embedded in the masculine endeavors and agendas, nevertheless full of contradictions. These contradictions manifest themselves at best in novel space suit design at the intersection of imaginaries of masculinities and regimes of utility.
In this paper, we are interested in how the spacefarer human body has been “designed” for the purposes of commercial space travel through various technologies of embodiment disclosing the “male desire of transcendence” (Mellström, 2020, p. 113). Our scope of analysis covers space suit designs by privately owned US-American spaceflight companies, namely, Blue Origin, SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, as currently only these companies offer commercial travel to outer space using their indigenous spaceflight infrastructures. Our data consists of the visuals of the space suit designs of these commercial spaceflight companies in popular media. For this paper, we analyze their visual and material qualities, their cultural connotations as they relate to masculinity norms as well as their relation to the cultural imagination of spaceflight as guidance on how hyper-masculine desires are articulated by the design of a human-machine hybrid exemplified by the space suit. Therefore, this paper explores the ways in which masculinity norms are both challenged and reproduced in the design of space suits in commercial space travel. By doing so, we aim to disclose the masculinities in design, and how masculinities are designed.
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Videos by Burak Taşdizen
Theses / Books by Burak Taşdizen
Challenging the prevalent human-centered worldview under a critical post-humanist programmatic, the authors scrutinize ways in which hair constructs gender regimes, especially regimes of masculinities. In this book, hair follicles take center stage as peculiar actors shaping and being shaped by socio-cultural norms and techno-medical processes aiming at hair’s elimination, accelerating its growth and its taming. In order to stimulate an accessible and dialogue-oriented communication with the wider public, this Science Communication book gathers, documents and presents the visual data that accumulated throughout the 2-year fieldwork, involving photographs of operation theaters, sketches of medical professionals and patients within hair transplantation and laser hair removal processes. From these drawings and photographs emerges the cartography of ‘Hair:y_less Masculinities’, wherein hair resists the techno-medical imaginaries through its Eigensinn, despite the natureculture metaphors that readily construct it as highly malleable and passive.
Journal Articles by Burak Taşdizen
Grindr, Hornet, Scruff gibi konum tabanlı kuir tanışma uygulamaları, kullanıcıya civardaki diğer kullanıcıları gösterir; birbirleriyle sohbet etme, fotoğraf / konum paylaşma imkânları sunar. Çoğunlukla kullanıcıların birbirlerinin yüz ve vücut fotoğraflarını görmelerini iletişimin gerekliliklerinden biri olarak kurgulayan bu uygulamaların odağında görsellik yer alır. Farklı kullanıcı yelpazelerine sahip bu ve benzeri uygulamalar arasından kendisini “en kapsamlı gey, bi, trans ve kuir uygulaması” olarak tanımlayan Grindr’ın Türkiye’de erişime kapatılmasının ardından Hornet, Türkiye’de en çok kullanılan eşcinsel uygulaması haline geldi. Hornet, muadili Grindr’ın aksine, kullanıcıların içerik oluşturmasına izin veren tasarımı ve sağlarlıkları (affordance) itibariyle konum tabanlı bir tanışma uygulamasının ötesinde Türkiye’de (ve dünyada) eşcinsel, trans ve “meraklı” bireyler arasında popülerleşmiş bir sosyal medya olarak öne çıkıyor. Bu nedenle bu yazıda, Hornet’i diğer uygulamalardan farklı kılan iki özelliği olan akış sayfasını (feed) ve kullanıcı profil ve içeriklerindeki etiket (hashtag) kullanımını Türkiye’deki kuir sosyalleşmesine etkisi üzerinden tartışmak istiyorum.
Book Chapters in Edited Volumes by Burak Taşdizen
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This research focuses on the citizen-led temporary assemblages, water, food, and shelter networks built and maintained for the well-being of street cats in Istanbul and scrutinizes the design activist potentials of these assemblages. Temporary assemblages are as vulnerable as the street cat population they serve: The main reason behind their temporality is their vulnerability towards the intervention of different actors (adding, removing, disposing). My argument in this research is that each of these assemblages, designed and maintained in an open and flexible nature through the upcycling of waste to ensure the well-being of a neglected animal population, could be interpreted as design activist practices for they create a counter-narrative over things and spaces aiming positive societal change and point to potentials as to how the city could be shaped.
Essays by Burak Taşdizen
Symposium Papers by Burak Taşdizen
In this paper, we are interested in how the spacefarer human body has been “designed” for the purposes of commercial space travel through various technologies of embodiment disclosing the “male desire of transcendence” (Mellström, 2020, p. 113). Our scope of analysis covers space suit designs by privately owned US-American spaceflight companies, namely, Blue Origin, SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, as currently only these companies offer commercial travel to outer space using their indigenous spaceflight infrastructures. Our data consists of the visuals of the space suit designs of these commercial spaceflight companies in popular media. For this paper, we analyze their visual and material qualities, their cultural connotations as they relate to masculinity norms as well as their relation to the cultural imagination of spaceflight as guidance on how hyper-masculine desires are articulated by the design of a human-machine hybrid exemplified by the space suit. Therefore, this paper explores the ways in which masculinity norms are both challenged and reproduced in the design of space suits in commercial space travel. By doing so, we aim to disclose the masculinities in design, and how masculinities are designed.
Challenging the prevalent human-centered worldview under a critical post-humanist programmatic, the authors scrutinize ways in which hair constructs gender regimes, especially regimes of masculinities. In this book, hair follicles take center stage as peculiar actors shaping and being shaped by socio-cultural norms and techno-medical processes aiming at hair’s elimination, accelerating its growth and its taming. In order to stimulate an accessible and dialogue-oriented communication with the wider public, this Science Communication book gathers, documents and presents the visual data that accumulated throughout the 2-year fieldwork, involving photographs of operation theaters, sketches of medical professionals and patients within hair transplantation and laser hair removal processes. From these drawings and photographs emerges the cartography of ‘Hair:y_less Masculinities’, wherein hair resists the techno-medical imaginaries through its Eigensinn, despite the natureculture metaphors that readily construct it as highly malleable and passive.
Grindr, Hornet, Scruff gibi konum tabanlı kuir tanışma uygulamaları, kullanıcıya civardaki diğer kullanıcıları gösterir; birbirleriyle sohbet etme, fotoğraf / konum paylaşma imkânları sunar. Çoğunlukla kullanıcıların birbirlerinin yüz ve vücut fotoğraflarını görmelerini iletişimin gerekliliklerinden biri olarak kurgulayan bu uygulamaların odağında görsellik yer alır. Farklı kullanıcı yelpazelerine sahip bu ve benzeri uygulamalar arasından kendisini “en kapsamlı gey, bi, trans ve kuir uygulaması” olarak tanımlayan Grindr’ın Türkiye’de erişime kapatılmasının ardından Hornet, Türkiye’de en çok kullanılan eşcinsel uygulaması haline geldi. Hornet, muadili Grindr’ın aksine, kullanıcıların içerik oluşturmasına izin veren tasarımı ve sağlarlıkları (affordance) itibariyle konum tabanlı bir tanışma uygulamasının ötesinde Türkiye’de (ve dünyada) eşcinsel, trans ve “meraklı” bireyler arasında popülerleşmiş bir sosyal medya olarak öne çıkıyor. Bu nedenle bu yazıda, Hornet’i diğer uygulamalardan farklı kılan iki özelliği olan akış sayfasını (feed) ve kullanıcı profil ve içeriklerindeki etiket (hashtag) kullanımını Türkiye’deki kuir sosyalleşmesine etkisi üzerinden tartışmak istiyorum.
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This research focuses on the citizen-led temporary assemblages, water, food, and shelter networks built and maintained for the well-being of street cats in Istanbul and scrutinizes the design activist potentials of these assemblages. Temporary assemblages are as vulnerable as the street cat population they serve: The main reason behind their temporality is their vulnerability towards the intervention of different actors (adding, removing, disposing). My argument in this research is that each of these assemblages, designed and maintained in an open and flexible nature through the upcycling of waste to ensure the well-being of a neglected animal population, could be interpreted as design activist practices for they create a counter-narrative over things and spaces aiming positive societal change and point to potentials as to how the city could be shaped.
In this paper, we are interested in how the spacefarer human body has been “designed” for the purposes of commercial space travel through various technologies of embodiment disclosing the “male desire of transcendence” (Mellström, 2020, p. 113). Our scope of analysis covers space suit designs by privately owned US-American spaceflight companies, namely, Blue Origin, SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, as currently only these companies offer commercial travel to outer space using their indigenous spaceflight infrastructures. Our data consists of the visuals of the space suit designs of these commercial spaceflight companies in popular media. For this paper, we analyze their visual and material qualities, their cultural connotations as they relate to masculinity norms as well as their relation to the cultural imagination of spaceflight as guidance on how hyper-masculine desires are articulated by the design of a human-machine hybrid exemplified by the space suit. Therefore, this paper explores the ways in which masculinity norms are both challenged and reproduced in the design of space suits in commercial space travel. By doing so, we aim to disclose the masculinities in design, and how masculinities are designed.
We discuss three dimensions, enabling and contesting the emergent empowerment through hair transplantation practices. First dimension regards purity and cleanliness, which could often be traced to religious meanings and affects. Secondly, empowerment is framed by socio-political currents as in different moustache and beard styles often associated with specific socio-political attitudes. Last dimension points to the emergent beauty norms often related to emergent masculinities. Our qualitative research discloses individual yet connected empowering practices and techniques around hair transplantation entangled with the three above-mentioned dimensions reshaping masculinities.
become not only more accessible (Edmonds 2009) but also more popular among men with hair transplantations/implantations being one of the most chosen cosmetic surgical procedures by men (American Society of Plastic Surgeons 2019). Extending the focus on ‘body companion technology’ from the concrete technologies implanted into/on the body/ies, towards including emerging biotechnical entities, such as (synthetic) hair and its implantation/transplantation processes, this research focuses on men’s bodies and their materialization as ‘everyday cyborgs’ through hair implantation/transplantation procedures. Concentrating on men undergoing such procedures in clinics in Turkey and Iran, we argue that these procedures could be regarded as empowerment of vulnerable subjects for they enable self-actualization. As these procedures are embedded in a web of biopolitical currents (i.e. economy, professional settings, etc.), consolidation of gender differences through the reproduction of a particular type of masculinity could be underway. Considering the self-will (Eigensinn) of the bios, and thus hair, our complementary to the body companion technology concept helps to see hair as biotechnical entity, with the agency to reject its new territory, requiring ongoing care on part of the patient’s body.
Thus, this research conceptualizes the techno-medical (re)locations of hair in men’s bodies within a socio-bio-technical framework and scrutinizes how and the ways in which these ‘everyday cyborg’ bodies deal with emergent vulnerabilities
set out to explore possibilities and limits of cooperation with Iranian
scholars and academic institutions by engaging in research on the
cultural, social, and religious connections in the transregional
continuum stretching from Anatolia to Iran and beyond to Pakistan. In
the project “Performance of Culture, Religion, and Body as Strategies of
Self-Empowerment in the Islamic Republic of Iran” research in three of
Orient-Institut Istanbul’s research fields – Human, Medicine, and
Society, musicology, and study of religions – explored how practices of
cultural expression are modified and multiplied, becoming socially
differentiated in the face of globalization, migration, urbanization,
and the dissemination of technically mediated forms of expression.
On the basis of selected research questions, pertaining mainly to the
Turkey-Iran-Pakistan sphere, IRSSC investigated how purportedly
traditional forms of authenticity (such as established forms of
religious practice, “classical” music styles or “indigenous” knowledge
canons), global forms of expression (esotericism, transhumanism as a
postmodern current, music-related subcultures), but also new
technological possibilities for the “conquest of the human condition”
(‘human enhancement’) are intertwined with profound transformations of
social interaction and identities as well as understandings of the human
body. The creative appropriation of practices and discourses in the
context of rapid social change takes place in tension and in dialog with
currently accepted norms and practices. These are for example related to
Shiite Islam, and phenomena such as those concerning body habitus,
religious ritual, gender roles as well as active and passive access to
music. Conditions of modern-day mediality and the resulting
multiplication of social interactions lead to a larger, internally more differentiated, and hybrid repertoire of practices in dealing with
public institutions as well as with an international public sphere,
e.g., via social media as well as transnational commercial and
professional networks.
The IRSSC closing conference is the culmination of these three years of
research and internationalisation. The sessions will present project
results as well as suggest future avenues of scientific exploration and
collaboration.
As a placeless local, you will encounter sections from the cyborg universe. In this creation; cyborg is a political, poetic, living or inanimate, digital or mechanical intervention; with or without a body and flesh. In this exhibition, a narrative in which fiction and reality intertwine, cultivates the theories of the cyborg, feminist technoscience, human enhancements, laboratory studies and politics of disability/ability and artifacts.
‘Cyborg Encounters’ had emerged from the readings and discussions during the ‘Qualitative Approaches in STS: Cyborgs and Technobodies’ course lead by Dr. Melike Şahinol within 2018-2019 Academic Year Spring Term at Özyeğin University Design, Technology, and Society graduate program. Works at the exhibition are aiming to introduce the notion of cyborgs to the audience, by taking them on a journey through an imaginary cyborg universe. Referring to the literature in dialogue with the course sessions; each piece at the exhibition emphasizes the uniqueness and authenticity of the cyborgs' existence with the agency of art and design practices.
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‘Siborg Karşılaşmalar’, zamanın dışında; ne geçmişte ve gelecekte ne de şimdide, cins ve cinsiyetin ötesinde, insan ve insan-olmayanın birlikteliğinden doğan melezlerden oluşan bir evren deneyimi sunar. Entegre devrelerin ve bir yere ait olmama hislerinin dualitelerinde, şeylerin düzenine kafa tutarak yaşarlar.
Yurtsuz bir yerli olarak, siborg alemine ait kesitlerle karşılaşacaksın. Bu yaratımda siborg; etten ve kemikten vücut bulmuş veya bulmamış; politik, şiirsel, canlı veya cansız, dijital ve/veya mekanik bir müdahaledir. Bu sergide, kurgu ve gerçekliğin iç içe geçtiği bir hikaye; siborg teorisi, feminist tekno bilim, insan geliştirme, laboratuvar çalışmaları, engellilik/-ebilirlik ve nesne politikaları ile bezenmiştir.
‘Siborg Karşılaşmalar’, Özyeğin Üniversitesi Tasarım, Teknoloji ve Toplum lisansüstü programı kapsamında 2018-2019 Akademik Yılı Bahar Dönemi Dr. Melike Şahinol’un yürüttüğü Qualitative Methods in STS: Cyborgs and Technobodies dersinin okumalarından ve bu okumalar üzerine gerçekleşen tartışmalardan ortaya çıkmıştır. Sergideki işler, sergi katılımcısını siborg kavramıyla tanıştırmayı hedefler; bunu katılımcıyı hayali bir siborg evreninde yolculuğa çıkararak yapar. Sergideki her iş, dersin diyalog halinde olduğu alanyazınlara göndermeler yaparak, sanat ve tasarım pratikleri aracılığı ile siborg evrenindeki her bir siborgun tekilliğinin ve biricikliğinin altını çizer.
tehdit ediyor. İran sineması, benzer değişimler ve zorluklarla karşı karşıya olan İran toplumuna pencere açmasıyla uluslararası camianın her daim ilgisini çekmiştir. Bu Film Forum Orient-Institut Istanbul’un üç güncel
araştırma alanı olan “Müzikoloji”, “İnsan, Tıp ve Toplum” ve “Din Çalışmaları”nın kısa film ve belgesel seçkilerini bir araya getiriyor. Örneğin; modernite ve beraberinde getirdiği teknolojik gelişmeler karşısındaki muhafazakar toplumlar veya toplumsal cinsiyet çerçevesinde dönüşen erkeklik normları gibi konulara odaklanarak İran toplumunun uluslararası arenada daha az ilgi görmüş yönlerine ışık tutuyor. Bağımsız filmleri odağına alarak İran’ın kültürel dokusunun çok katmanlı yapısının çağdaş bağlamda anlam ve ilham kaynağı olmasını açığa vuruyor. Film Forum, Orient-Institut Istanbul araştırmacılarının film seçkisini ve farklı bakış açılarını diyalog zeminine oturtmak amacıyla yönetmenleri ve alanında uzman akademisyenleri bir araya getiriyor. Üç tematik oturum, izleyiciyi diyaloğa katkı sağlamaya
davet ediyor.
As a response to the current COVID-19 pandemic, an online workshop entitled “Iterations of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Themes and Problem Spaces in Turkey, Iran and Germany“ was held by Orient-Institut Istanbul on June 25th, 2020 and brought together 23 scholars from Iran, Turkey and Germany. The interdisciplinary workshop was convened to discuss rapidly emerging social sciences and humanities research concerning the pandemic and to begin to map themes and problem spaces arising from the specific challenges faced in each of these countries. With participating scholars grounded in disciplines ranging from sociology of health and medicine, to science and technology studies (STS), law, religious studies, anthropology, linguistics, history and media studies, the papers presented a broad spectrum of perspectives on the challenges faced in the three countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.