Teaching as a visiting lecturer on this course in the autumn semester 2023-24, I prepared and taught a syllabus developed specifically to address interaction between digital modeling/drawing tools and the contraints of digital manufacturing techniques in the real world. The course was taught with the support of Nejat Emre Özen as teaching assistant. Students spent the first 7 weeks learning the basics of 2D drawing and 3D nurbs modeling in Rhino. This culminated in a the production of a 'Virtual Disassembly' pamphlet, taking furniture scale objects from their own lives and taking them apart virtually through drawings. For the remainder of the semester, we focused on digital manufacturing technologies; specifically 3D printing, laser cutting and CNC machining. Smaller assignments enabled individuals to experiment and get familiar with with these technologies, including experiments with wireframe 3D printing. The final group installation project involved the repair, alteration or adaption of found objects into sculptural assemblages. Receiving the feedback on their designs through the use of rapid prototyping, groups iterated on their juncture elements several times before reaching a working version. The outcomes were presented in a final exhibition held on 17th January 2024, samples are also available to view on the Faculty of Art and Design online portal [see 1, 2 & 3].

Critical Craft: InterWoven Practices was an intense 2 week workshop between İstanbul and Kahramanmaraş. The workshop aimed to build on existing work completed by HiM & KAF Kolektif in order to provide ongoing engagement with communities heavily affected by the Feb 6th earthquakes in 2023.

The workshop combined an exploratory practice led research component, with an in the field community engagement period. Embracing practice as research the participants engaged with the topics of weaving, waste and situated knowledge through building a series of rudimentary looms that then allowed them to (re)weave found, surplus and waste textiles that we had collected during the workshop.

The field period was based in Kahramanmaraş,utiling an existing space that HiM had built as part of their 'Post Disaster Reconstruction Plan'. The participants specifically engaged with local women and children as a way to try to create space for collective recovery as well as sharing of skills and knowledge. Together, participants and locals explored the potential of using waste materials to produce new textiles, rich with the narratives, histories and labours of the otherwise discarded materials from which they were made.

The workshop was conducted in collaboration and with the support of Herkes İçin Mimarlık and KAF Kolektif. This workshop was realised with partial funding from the EELISA Alliance as an inter-university activity between Istanbul Technical University and Universidad Politecnica de Madrid within the EELISA Circular Community. The exhibition will be open to visitors until the 1st December 2023.

Participants: Antonio Parilla Ayuso, Aslı Gökçe, Ayşegül Yiğit, Burak Ercanli, Ezgi Küçükpehlivan, Laura Perez Tembleque, Leyla Hepsaydir, Melike Beşik & Sure Tuna

Designed and organised by: Vivien Tauchmann, Ela Gok & Sam Price

Co-ordinated by: Sam Price, Dr. Aslıhan Şenel & Dr. Bihter Almaç

In support of my ongoing thesis research, during 2022-23, I organised 2 workshops exploring the potential of steambending as a tool for building more intimate and entangled relationships between...

Title: Curating the home, curating the home space: Identity in the physical and the virtual / Evin ve ev mekânının küratörlüğünü yapmak: Fiziksel ve sanal alanda kimlik (tr)

Written in the aftermath of the COVID-19 global pandemic, this article addresses issues of identity, privacy and developing technologies. In asking questions about the growing accessibility of 3D scanning technologies, the article questions why we refer so much back to our own physical realities in the context of the almost limitless possibility of virtual creation and curation. The original article is available in both Turkish and English here (pages 56-60).

By using a high powered waterjet to connect felt fibres with timber beams, this project looked at adapting the use of a waterjet cutter to create structural connections between timber sheet material and felt fibres.
I guided two students throughout their project. Initially, I programmed the machine operation and discussed with them which strategies, setups and approaches that would be best to experiment with.
However, it soon became clear that they needed to develop a more embodied understanding of the process. As such, I trained them to use the waterjet cutter, including proprietary software, safe operation and programming strategies, enabling them further to experiment on the theme.

As part of their design process, Mariana and Sara spend and extended period of time exploring the aesthetic effect of different tools, tool geometries, toolpaths and speeds & feeds using a high accuracy CNC machine. These experimental pieces informed the their term project into the distortion of light through raw, CNC machined aluminium blocks.
The following examples were produced on a HAAS TM-3, 3 axis CNC machine using Fusion360 to generate toolpaths largely based on abstract geometries and patterns. Throughout the process we also used the CAM software itself, and its ability to generate toolpaths without a complete or solid model as an experimental method of design.

Excerpt from call for participation:

"Stories of Situated Pedagogies in Architecture and … aims to gather educators and learners who are enthusiastic about sharing their stories of situated pedagogies in architecture and other fields with an interest in critical spatial practices. We invite all to apply to this workshop call with critical responses to their personal experiences in education. We envision a playful and productive platform for communication through pre-workshop peer-to-peer reviews, round-table sessions and fieldtrips in Istanbul, and post-workshop collaborations for publication."

In response to the open call, I submitted an abstract reponding to the theme of "Situated Pedagogies: urgent pedagogies in times of disasters, wars, and displacements". An except discussing the Sumer Space project that I was co-organiser of in this context is included below:

"Framing the project through the lenses of ‘craft’ and ‘repair’ allows the process of realising the project to be understood not just as an attempt to provide immediate, urgent relief, but instead as a process of recovery in itself, both for the individuals involved, and the networks and communities of people who participated throughout. The envisaged function of the space too places this project firmly in the realm of ‘invisible reconstruction’ (Gunning & Rizzi, 2022). The research frames our (HiM’s) response, and that of most organisations involved in the recovery process, through Mattern’s problematisation of ‘fixing’, by nature a reactive rather than proactive response (Mattern, 2018). This line of theory also consides with the concept of all practices in social and cultural life being ‘improvised’ (Hallam & Ingold, 2007)."