ARTFULLLIVING / WAR IS HEALTH OF THE STATE : ÖZCAN SARAÇ
DEC 04, 2019
Interviewer: Hıdır Eligüzel
Özcan Saraç participated in the collective exhibition “Intergalactic” held at Anna Laudel (3 September-17 October 2019) with a three-piece installation. We talked with the artist about the production process, the forms and contexts of his works, and his future plans.
States remain humanity's greatest failure. It is possible to find the source of this claim in the question of why the state was needed, which is one of the important focal issues of state theory. In the lower breakdown of this problem, we are faced with the phenomenon of living together. This discussion, which focuses on the coexistence of people in terms of having a will, has of course reached ecological depth and richness today. We are no longer just talking about humans, but about clouds, storms, ticks, children, even the unborn, those who have not yet been.
Evaluating the impact of living things in the ecosystem primarily involves their survival. At this point, three main strategies are mentioned in the literature. These three strategies also evolve into a way of living together, and ultimately into discussions of the existence of the state. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), Charles Darwin (1809-1882) and Pyotr Kropotkin (1842-1921) are the main thinkers of these three strategies. Thomas Hobbes advises people to transfer their freedom and most of their will (security, work, settlement, decision-making regimes, etc.) to “one thing” / will in order to make their lives sustainable. In Charles Darwin's biological model, living things continue their lives by being positioned according to the "vital form" of the outer universe. Thus, both Hobes and Darwin essentially construct the ability to live by demanding the will to power. Kropotkin, on the other hand, emphasizes that the "part" is better equipped than the sum of its parts, both individually and collectively, by ensuring that living things act together and provide mutual assistance in order to continue the struggle for life. Thus, despite Hobbes's and Darwin's struggle for life that gathered power in his hands, Kropotkin presents a model that points to the sharing of power.
However, living together is essentially about increasing the language of peace. If the problems of the contemporary world have reached far beyond what we can cope with from the point of view, if humanity has been left without water in the water sphere and starless in the sky, it is imperative that ethical values different from the ethical values that establish the modern world come to the fore. The greatest trick of the modern world is to find modern states at the root of the problems that he claims to bring solutions to.
Özcan Saraç participated in the “Intergalactic” collective exhibition at Anna Laudel (3 September-17 October 2019) with a three-piece installation. Saraç's book, in which connections are made with his previous works, collects the expenditures of the modern armies of the states that humanity invented in order to survive; In front of the art lovers with the video work that accompanies the book documenting the war expenditures of the countries, with the intense sounds of war, and the satellite that can carry the numbers of civilians who died to a different point in the world at any time (WARNING.transmission). When we examine Saraç's works, in which we come across as a kind of researcher artist, we observe that the artist strips the information from a personal point and makes it speak on a social plane. Saraç brings art lovers to the door of thinking universes with his work. However, leaving the choice and knowledge of the art lover to decide whether to cross the threshold or not, the artist focuses on the interaction of art lovers with his works. Over these contexts, we talked with Saraç both about his research that accompanies his work in the “Intergalatik” exhibition, and about the universe and effort to produce art.
You are once again in front of the art lovers with the “Intergalactic” exhibition. Can you remind us of your previous works and contexts before “Intergalactic”?
WARNING.transmission is part of the serial logic of three research-based book and installation projects, united in general theory. The series first appeared in Confusion (December 2017, Macoo Milano) organized by Kopuntu Network and “O+oma+A” at Mixer gallery (September-October, 2017) after my ARTFICIAL.constitutional_rights work, Bilsart (April 2018) and ÜBERALLES.ff0000 featured in Borderless Art Book Days (April 2019) is exhibited as the latest link of my work (www.ozcansarac.com). My practice usually centers on a research book. While it tends to exist in an objective way, it creates a lively research area with an installation established within the framework of science, communication, philosophy and technology channels in order to direct the perspective and open it to thought.
After I decided to participate in the exhibition upon the invitation of our beloved İpek Yeğinsü, with whom we enjoyed working together, this project that I had in mind took shape in a few months, and I learned some themes that I was very new to as well, resulting in a work that I was satisfied with exhibiting. output.
You are once again in front of the sanar-lovers with the exhibition. Can you remind us of your previous works and contexts before “Intergalactic”?
WARNING.transmission is part of the serial logic of three research-based book and installation projects, united in general theory. The series first appeared in Confusion (December 2017, Macoo Milano) organized by Kopuntu Network and “O+oma+A” at Mixer gallery (September-October, 2017) after my ARTFICIAL.constitutional_rights work, Bilsart (April 2018) and ÜBERALLES.ff0000 featured in Borderless Art Book Days (April 2019) is exhibited as the latest link of my work (www.ozcansarac.com). My practice usually centers on a research book. While it tends to exist in an objective way, it creates a lively research area with an installation established within the framework of science, communication, philosophy and technology channels in order to direct the perspective and open it to thought.
After I decided to participate in the exhibition upon the invitation of our beloved İpek Yeğinsü, with whom we enjoyed working together, this project that I had in mind took shape in a few months, and I learned some themes that I was very new to as well, resulting in a work that I was satisfied with exhibiting. output.
When I look at your works in "Intergalactic" and your previous works holistically, I perceive that you focus on "national forms" and aestheticize them in a sarcastic way. Can you share your assessment on this matter?
As knowledge has an aesthetic as well as art, I am primarily concerned with its functionality and conceptual value. I believe that bringing together national, cultural and political aesthetics with an objective practice is a striking blow. For example, as I showed in my Warning.transmission job, the fact that the annual military budgets of all countries of the world total 1.82 Trillion Dollars is quite striking. The important point here is to discover what this information means for the society. For myself, while it is unreasonable to spend even a dollar on military expenses, I invite you to think about the point where we can evolve if these budgets are used in areas such as health, human rights, aid organizations, ecosystem, science and technology. Therefore, my desire to warn alien lifeforms on behalf of the human race and send this military information into space (WARNING.transmission) becomes a global issue beyond nationality for me.
As someone who has been following your works for a long time, I would like to lean on Özcan Saraç's artistry. In your works, we can talk about many themes and images. Do you have a theme or image that is special to you?
I talked about the importance of knowledge and the concepts created by humans, and the problematic thing is to question how far the egocentric consciousness created by humans is from the universal consciousness, and therefore, to question how we go through a hollow evolutionary process. As an artist who deals with the universe, people, knowledge and political perceptions, the theme of "Intergalactic" was an important production process for me to bring up the perspectives that I wanted to discuss, and also to emphasize what the position and cognitive orientations in the complex system mean to the audience.
I would like to examine your position in this effort. As art lovers, we read the "stunning and well-known" information of "ordinary facts" in your works. Can you evaluate the reason for your distant but reactive style?
I see how abstracted the modern man, who has lost in the deep complex networks of knowledge and the perception of knowledge, has in fact become abstracted to the most basic knowledge. The most basic concepts lie behind the social orientations of central control systems. The capitalist order provides the right environment for this; Technological tools objectify people and we encounter a perception of society that is decaying with human consciousness lost in itself. Not the state for the people, but the state for the people in the logic of the self, which separates and destroys itself. We are a suffering and tormenting entity: this is a reality that you can see all over the world, regardless of culture, belief or political order. This shows that there is a collapse in the perception of man, namely our most basic concepts. I believe we need to reconstruct mundane phenomena.
Do you think this surprising information resonates with the art community and society? Or does it dissipate in the art climate as a pleasant sound?
I'm sure it has different effects among different consciousnesses. Since I am interested in areas where art does not remain as art and I believe in its functionality on society, it is an important factor in its success to see that the work achieves its purpose by asking questions, discussing and transferring it through the interaction of the audience in the area where it is structured.
Can we claim that knowledge has a transformative effect in our age?
Perception, interpretation and transfer of information
In the modern world, where these have very powerful transformative effects, information becomes functional only when it is used according to the conditions and structure of the day, otherwise it will not go beyond an abstract meaning.
Knowledge is power in Francis Bacon's universe. Nowadays power "gets meaningless" unless it takes physical form. How do you interpret the evolution of information into physical power and surveillance tools in our age?
Unfortunately, there is a strong ego at the base of the human structure and, as a result, the consciousness that creates interest groups. As I emphasized in my work CHAIN_BLOCK.equation (January-March 2017, Mixer; November-December 2017, Zorlu PSM Digilogue), a technology such as Blockchain and Bitcoin, which can bring social and computational liberation with the right use, is currently imprisoned in the capitalist order and also in the virtual environment. However, it is no different from paper money. Society is not interested in how and why it can generate income from this technology, but only in the capital value it brings. But I saw that people do not question that the states are behind this syndrome and of course "central banks will not gift the current capitalist order so easily". At this point, in response to all this ambiguity and to encourage the viewer to grasp the information correctly, I did the opposite of the general trend, dedicating my computers to scientific research live during the exhibition, rather than being used for virtual mining to make money.
Could the dictatorial use of knowledge be one of the hallmarks of humanity's dystopian age?
Democracy is just a modern shadow play, the state-people relationship is in such a disconnected context that it is necessary to reconstruct the entire political knowledge structure. Man is already living his own dystopia right now. As a race, if we let go of our egocentric, self-centered mindset and examine ourselves from space, from a perspective beyond the perception of time and space, we can see how unbearable we are for this system. Like a virus that enters the body, man has turned into a creature that is equally harmful to the world. If an extraterrestrial being visits this planet, will it first communicate with humans? With this creature that harms itself and the system on which it is completely dependent? That's why I question, is human existence rational?
Let's focus on the art community itself. As an artist with both national and international experience, how would you interpret the strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats of contemporary art in Turkey when you evaluate it internationally using economic, social, cultural and business parameters?
I think that qualified artists produce work in Turkey. In terms of the "art community", it is clear that the perception, practice and material values of art are not at a very heartbreaking point. Here, we see that the most important reason is the positioning of art on society and the unexplored potential impact. The main problem is that there is no motivation and direction in the general trend to take it forward, to explore, to do better.
Do you think that the visibility problem in Turkish Contemporary Art has been overcome?
If an individual wants to mirror society and therefore to be accepted, it means that he is interested in craft, not art. While art is a theory that can produce philosophically and socially effective and rich content and create important trends, gaining visibility has become a separate necessity for individuals/artists who produce for works that can expand perception on behalf of humanity. “Market” wants entertainers, not artists. The response of the artist candidates to this situation will be decisive. If only the problem of gaining visibility is adhered to, it will be inevitable for the intellectual level to decline in the name of art.
Can you talk about your future plans?
Continue production.
Can you introduce yourself for readers?
I was born in 1988. After graduating from the Department of Economics at Essex University after my Italian High School education, I studied contemporary art at École Parsons à Paris and Zürcher Hochschule der Künste. By creating research areas based on knowledge production processes in my works, I offer a critical view of the relationship of man with the laws of the universe and his own political mechanisms. I aim to obtain and show information and information production processes independent of the limits of human perceptions.
Would you like to convey the reasons or events that differentiate the way you produce art?
A language that developed was formed by my result-oriented thinking, wanting to construct the tool-purpose relationship in a way that would make the project most efficient, and teaching myself that the most important thing is conceptual interaction. I have practiced at my own level of consciousness that I can realize the perspective and perceptual aspects that I want to emphasize in the most effective way, through objective and minimal ways. Never aim to stick to a particular medium.
I couldn't, instead of expressing myself, it was my priority to strengthen the relationship of the project with the audience.
You have given very interesting information and you have brought up some discussions again. As Özcan Saraç, what do you feed yourself intellectually?
There are many subjects that I am interested in, but most importantly, it was my priority to decide what to feed myself in all the unqualified flow, choosing this requires a conscious regulation today. While the efforts of the capital-centered order to normalize the elements of existential crisis on society continue, it is an important need to nourish yourself in silence with the contents you are interested in.
SANAT DÜNYAMIZ / KNOWLEDGE & ART : ÖZCAN SARAÇ
MAY - JUN 2018 / ISSUE 164
Writer: Kültigin K. Akbulut
KÜLTİGİN KAĞAN AKBULUT'S GUEST IN THIS ISSUE IS ÖZCAN SARAÇ, ATTRACTING ATTENTION WITH ITS WORK FOCUSING ON IMPORTANT ISSUES, BOTH SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL.
Özcan Saraç's work is an art based on research processes, processing and producing information in order to question the economic and political situations in the world. In his own words, “it aims to create effective reaction tools to the problems created by today's central control systems.” Özcan Saraç continues his education on multidisciplinary arts after his education in economics. For a period of time, he deals with the problems of space and space and takes photographs that deal with the cultural and architectural contexts. However, later on, he began to be interested in contemporary art forms, thinking that some developments in science were important tools to explore the problems of humanity. "We are the most intelligent being on Earth with our ability to use and develop technology, but also the current system we have created in our little bubble shows that we can be the dumbest being, so what is evolutionary intelligence?" he asks, stating that he is on his way. “We live in an ecosystem that will sustain itself as long as the sun exists, but at the same time we are destroying the organic technological order on which we depend. For example, with the recent research on colonizing different planets, the issue is that one day we will consume this world and we will need a different system to live. As a space lover, I follow this research with enthusiasm, but what I want to mention is that we make ourselves accept that one day we will consume this system like a virus and we will need a new system to exist. These reasons led me to studies dealing with central issues in our perceptual source of consciousness,” says Saraç, and states that these thoughts pushed him to focus on works that open up research areas.
Saraç, unlike today's trends, is not interested in technique and technical process. Saraç's aim is to create works that process and produce information, regardless of the medium, and to open a discussion area through it. “I position myself as a researcher in my work. If a job requires taking a photo or writing a code and we're going to get the same result, someone else can do it. For example, while I was working on biogenetic uses in the laboratory at System.dna, where I used DNA sequences for the inquiries I wanted to process, I spent two months focusing on bringing together the economic, political and geophysical characteristics of every country on Earth for my last project ÜberAlles.ff0000. . In my projects, I try to find a medium that I do not know and am curious about, not what I know. I re-learn the relevant technical knowledge every time and every job.”
Before returning to Turkey, Saraç produces various projects by studying and living in different countries such as England, Paris, China and Switzerland. The Zurich School of Arts, where he received a multidisciplinary education, turns into a platform where he receives technical training on the uses of technology in art and also has the opportunity to discuss minority cultures. He was selected to the Mamut Art Project in 2016 with the System.binary - Software.human work he started working on while in Zurich. “I tried to discover the human as an organic technology,” he says, and I aimed that the concepts we are working on, such as artificial intelligence, to raise awareness about our own evolutionary realities,” says Saraç about their work. While Saraç had no plans to stay in Turkey at that time, he decided to stay with the interest in his work and the project proposals. He participates in the "Sessions" exhibition held at Mixer with his System.dna work. The work consists of 24 books on two shelves. On the top shelf is the DNA information of a human, and on the bottom shelf is the DNA of a goldfish, which is the closest living thing to human DNA. He transfers the DNA portraits of two different creatures into books consisting of 48 thousand pages. “The purpose of the question and comparison in this work was, is the consciousness level of the human being at a level sufficient for the universal system? It deals with how primitive human beings can be compared to other living things within the infinite scale of time in space. As humans, we see ourselves as an advanced being. However, this abnormality that exists within the system is in a position of error for itself and the precious resources around it.” Saraç emphasizes that the self-centered vision is also funny. Then, he participates in the "Observable Realities" exhibition at Mixer with the work CHAIN_BLOCK.error. The work, which includes 5 computers and a sound installation, is research-based. In this work, Saraç makes a contribution to the work of the scientific world on finding the largest prime number. They run their computers during the exhibition period of 1 month to find the next largest prime number found in 2016. 5 computers work throughout the process to find the next prime number and make its mark on the scientific world.
The probability of 1 in the direction is tried. The artist converts the last prime number found in the sound installation into a 3.5-minute audio file and adds it to his work. Here, Saraç points to the recent transformation of blockchain technology, which has the potential to be an alternative economic model for liberation from the current economic systems. Because in blockchain technology, mathematical encryption is required to create money, and for this, thousands of computers are currently working on this business. However, because of this, scientific institutions such as NASA cannot buy graphics processors, because processors in the market are consumed by institutions that want to earn bitcoins for monetization. In response to the fact that this technology, which has a great potential to liberate the existing economic and political central systems and can be called a kind of digital reform, is again the victim of people's capital greed, the artist dedicates his computers not to mathematical data analysis for capital such as bitcoin, but to mathematical analysis for scientific research.
CHAIN, where we can see traces of the artist's economics education. In addition to his BLOCK.error work, he also participates in the Bang Art Innovation Prize exhibition with a work based on sociopolitical systems. G20.complexity_theory conducts a study on the heads of the G20 states. It brings together 20 computers around a round table like a G20 meeting and searches for the name of each country leader on a new account on Youtube and clicks on the first video, and with the auto-play option, the videos rotate throughout the exhibition and as a result of automatic searches with each other, just like in a G20 summit. they contact. Youtube, which develops an algorithm from the videos people watch the most, determines the content of the work. Saraç states that he started his work by saying that if an extraterrestrial entity came and tried to understand humanity, they would have to understand the concept of politics, which is the most effective in the current world order. The black hole-like round table used at the G20 summits in the installation is also a part of it. Zeynep Tüfekçi, who conducts research on the social effects of technology, stated in her article "Youtube, the Great Radicalizer" that she wrote for The New York Times, that the automatic playback option of the Youtube algorithm pushes users to radical extremes. He stated that searches that started with vegetarianism shifted to radical veganism after a few videos, while searches for mainstream dissidents shifted to the radical left. Such algorithms are created with data obtained from user experiences on the one hand, but on the other hand, they turn into a kind of game of artificial intelligence that wants to keep the user for a longer time. We can see similar questions in Saraç's work regarding the data chaos that has recently emerged with Cambridge Analytica company, which affected the elections in many countries, especially the USA, by collecting data on Facebook and displaying user-specific targeted ads. Another work of Saraç, which comes from the question of "If extraterrestrial beings tried to understand humanity, where would they look," is Artificial.constituonal, which is included in Mixer's "O+oma+a" exhibition. According to 2017 data, it reads the print and audio transcription of the constitutions of the 10 countries that host the most refugees, to the cultural structure of the countries in this list, and therefore to the artificial intelligence that has their accent. However, while the artificial intelligence voice in the constitution of the first country, the USA, cannot be easily distinguished from the human, as it passes to other countries, the voice is distorted by zooming level by level in order to emphasize that this is not an "artificial" recording. The artist tells the refugee problems, one of the biggest political crises of today, with the help of digital technologies.
Saraç is at ÜBER_ALLES in the exhibition "Intersecting Destinies: Respect for Calvino" in Bilsart, one of the new venues focusing on video art. It takes place with job ff0000. The artist states that he started by addressing the nationalist and conservative trends that have been on the rise all over the world recently, and questions how these trends are triggered in the name of the interests of the major systems. He emphasizes that the most used color in the flags of 150 of 197 countries in the world is red. In his video work, he collects the flags of this country and creates an image of fascist propaganda by rapidly showing the flags that are left with only reds and tones between white and black, as an overdose, with the command to delete all colors except red, which he gives to the computer. In his work, Saraç makes a book in alphabetical order from all the countries whose flag he bought, and adds country coordinates, regime, GNP and population information to this book. In addition to this, Saraç brings together the national anthems of these countries and brings together the most used terms in the anthems and creates the national anthem of the world with 150 words that creates a reading on its own. The discriminatory policies of recent times have been associated with homeland-identity groupings inscribed in people's consciousness. He explores the subject on how major systems use time for mass manipulations. We will see Saraç's new works in two new exhibitions to be held in Das Art Project and Adahan in May. With his book and visual project, which includes his research on border politics, we will come across installation works that construct how genetic engineering will affect citizens and refugees in the future.
ISTANBUL ART NEWS / WHO WILL DETERMINE THE FUTURE OF ART?
APR 2018 / ISSUE 51
Writer: Cansu Şimşek / Featured Work: Chain_Block / .Equation
Ö: Regardless of the purpose, the patterns used today will become primitive as the new level of information processing will be more functional. I think that the art of the future will be determined by the most effective language at that time which react to different kinds of problems. While emphasizing the importance of all the information tools that exist in different forms in the past, present and future; not to glorify concepts, situations and technologies but to wonder about the background and to explore the links of chain will give us a way out.
C: "At this point, I get the idea that we should not dive into the dreams of innocent future for these technologies from our interviews with the artist, researcher Özcan Saraç. Saraç thinks that" : Against all of the active global political and sociological problems that we create, vehicles that have significant potential for the correct use of current and functional interaction elements can have a big impact as a reaction. Moving from the example of Blockchain, it is noted that this formation, which changes the distribution dimension of the data like Blockchain, and which is able to handle its own media control with a kind of digital reform, is trapped in the black hole around the concept of capital. At the same time, besides the investments made for the bitcoin, people in this system, who don't have much knowledge about the source, are not questioning the connections that the major control mechanisms of the contemporary world can have, so I would like to emphasize the significance of data flow awareness at this point.
DIGI LOGUE / ÖZCAN SARAÇ | DOES HUMAN EXISTENCE MAKE SENSE?
AUG 11, 2017
Interviewer: Duygu Bengi
Özcan Saraç pushes the limits of “perception mechanism” with his works where arguments in question are ever-dynamic. Saying “The importance of art in society and its influence of perceptional development are radical to me!” Saraç mainly aims to stay relevant to research processes. Let us introduce you to the future scenarios in his works which underlie that everything in the universe can be mathematically explained.
You create works that focus on perception mechanism. What directed you to this kind of work?
As I observed that humankind is trapped in a cycle (it especially created today and cannot deal with) that would bring an end to both itself and the microsystem it lives in, I made my peace with the fact that it’s impossible to singularly deal with all these problems as an individual or an artist stuck in this involuntaey system, which further increased my interest in and questioning stance about the source, i.e. humankind’s perceptional consciousness. If we are to consider the universe as a system and think about the actual and potential damages caused by humankind (which is in its evolutionary infancy), then I begin to see the position of humankind in this universal system as a failing program inside the same operation system. Then, someone may look at the bigger picture and ask this: “Does human existence make sense?” This question aims not to create an idea of self-genocide; it merely represents mu belief in the ever-present contribution of questioning arguments. To update this program, first you have to look for a new version. I guess the common destination for individuals and communities who are interested in positive sciences and create works in fields such as science, philosphy, art and mathematics will be that all concepts such as consciousness level is always open to development.
You have a multidisciplinary process. Can you talk about your academic background and how do you stay relevant?
I studied Business Economics in London. After focusing on my artistic work during the last year of college, I graduated and began to study Interdisciplinary Art Education in Paris. At the end of my second year, I transferred to Zurich and focused on contemporary art forms for 2 years. The importance of art in society and its influence of perceptional development are radical to me! Therefore one of the most important factor in what I do is to stay relevant to research processes. I mostly benefit from the Internet in this regard.
Which social media platform are you currently using the most and why?
I guess it’s currently Instagram. It helps me to access creative works and those who are interested as well as to remain relevant.
You had a great work about G20. Can you talk about how it transformed from an idea into an actual work?
“G20 / .Complexity_Theory” is a strategically designed work that comprises 20 computers that face each other on a round table. Each computer represents a country in G20, which is an international forum for governments and central bank managers of great economies. As a whole, G20 economies make up the 80% of global trade (or 75% if we disregard EU trade) and 2/3 of the world population.
That’s why, I believed that G20 would be a good opportunity to collect data and conduct research regarding some deep unanswered questions that resulted from humankind’s detachment from the universe as a consequence of its questionable evolution and broken irrationality. The whole process took shape by focusing on the gradual normalization of massive power mechanisms’ irrationally and deadly negative effects on humankind, and on the failing biological configurations that distance themselves from the universal perception of reality.
How’s politics related to your works?
Politics is the strongest mechanism in this bubble we created. If an alien life form were to visit this planet, it would first have to understand politics to be able to understand humankind. That’s why I frequently use tap into questioning of politics in my works.
What would you like to say about mathematics’ existence in our lives?
Everything in the universe has a mathematical explanation. We have only discovered a small portion of these explanations based on our capacity of perception. Therefore, I’d like to see the concept of mathematics (like all positive sciences) more frequently in our lives rather than current unnecessary concepts for the sake of humankind’s evolution.
A few days a go, MIT Lab scientists announced that the first known stop motion data was stored on DNA. We know that you have some works related to DNA storage. What would you like to say about that?
I’ve been interested in this subject for a long time now. It’s exciting to see the possibilities and innovations brought along by organic technology. To give an example of their potential use, we managed to store a 700-terabyte data in a 1-gram DNA. Most importantly, the DNA data can be stored and used for thousands of years. Human brain is one of the most complicated known structures. We can create different technologies based on this organic technology but we’re not in control of our own system which can give birth to different questions in conceptual terms. Positively, the collaboration between organic and mechanic technologies will make unimaginable contributions to discoveries in fields such as science, space and medicine.
MIXER ARTS MAG / ÖZCAN SARAÇ
SEP 2016 / ISSUE 16
Interviewer: Selin Turam
Your works have been exhibited for the third
time in Istanbul at Mamut Art Project in 2016,
then we came across your works at Mixer
Sessions in the summer. What are the main
concerns of your works?
It has become more apparent in today’s world
that humans have caged their existence into
a cycle that’s not serving its purpose, as if the
existence system of humans are not compatible
with life systems itself. As an artist, surely it’s
not possible to handle all issues of mankind,
which makes it very important to be in a position
to ask questions that could enact a certain
elevation of consciousness and perception, if
possible.
If we see the whole universe as a system, baring
in mind the destructive potentials humans hold,
one could say that humans represent a primitive
state of evolution; almost acting as a faulty
program in an operating system of a computer,
which brings us to the question: Is the existence
of humankind logical, does it make sense?
How do you position yourself as a question
asker of the same system, how do you interpret
this paradox?
These interrogations don’t necessarily take on
a self-destructive manner. I believe that such
questionings are vital to our perception systems,
they’re part of the development process, which
is similar to the idea if one wishes to update a
program, first one would need to scan the new
versions possible.
In my opinion, the individuals and the
communities dealing with positive sciences or
humanities, dealing with important subjects
like science, philosophy, art, mathematics they
all coincide on the same basis of the idea that
just like the conscience level, all human related
concepts are always open for improvement.
As an artist, I find it as relevant as all sciences
to position my concerns and my works in this
spectrum.
Where do you think the dilemma lies within the
need for system-updating?
I observe that the most conspicuous error is
curtaining off the sense of a bigger picture, as
well as the negative effects of daily illusionary
concepts that we take for granted.
How relevant do you think your diagnosis is
based on your works?
I invite people to think about the possibilities
rather than searching for a diagnosis. My works
don’t intend to direct the participants to a result
or a conclusion, on the contrary, my works aim
to create modular thinking spaces between
spectators. When we look at CERN researches
for example, until the targeted results are
reached (or not) all data plays an equally
important role in developing the concepts or
situations where questions are posed.
What are your plans for the future?
I am currently working on a few different
projects which will be exhibited in solo and group
exhibitions. It’s been useful to me to test-run a
small part of the “System” project this year