Özlem Vargün graduated from MSU City and Regional Planning Undergraduate Program in 1990. She continued her master's degree in Plastic Arts Program at Yeditepe University in 2008. She completed her Proficiency in Art from Hacettepe Painting and she completed her doctorate at Yıldız Technical University Art and Design Program. She made productions in different fields of art such as painting, sculpture, photography, site-specific installations, and participated in workshops and exhibitions. She developed the Histourical AR mobile application, where she brought together cultural heritage and interface designs at Yıldız Technical University during her doctoral period. She worked as a lecturer at Samsun OMÜ, Medipol University GSTMF. Since 2018, she has been working as a Dr. Faculty Member at Yeni Yüzyıl University, Faculty of Communication, Head of Department Visual Communication Design.
Should we wage war on rationality and technology? Or should we use technology to contribute to the development of humanity? Or in a system (the world), in which everything is interconnected according to the Gaia Hypothesis proposed by James Lovelock, should we wait for the ramifications of it activating its own defence mechanism (the pandemic)...
Anthropocentric Pollution constitutes the main theme of the exhibition in its quest for answers to these questions. Anthropocentric thought, which involves the notions that “everything is for man” or “everything is meant for man”, has negative consequences on nature and on man himself. According to this line of thought, human beings are superior to all other living things and they are special. Anthropocentric Pollution is a lot more ubiquitous than one might think. This can be social as well as scientific. Environmental pollution, the extinction of plant and animal species are all results of anthropocentric pollution. Anthropocentricity is simply mankind’s self-admiration and his perception of himself to be superior to other creatures. Posthumanism wages war on this thought and aims beyond the human-centred era. So the aim is not the extinction of man; it is about putting an end to the anthropocentric perception and the superiority attributed to the humankind. In fact, Anthropocentric thought is a curious bias; it is a narcissistic sentiment. Today it has become an ideology, and racism and colonialism thrive on this pollution.
In any case, in this period of crisis, does the humankind still see itself to be anthropocentric? Or should we reconsider the Anthropocentric view, that is, Protogoras’ notion that “man is the measure of all things”? Should we be re-evaluating the designs, architecture, technology and science where the measure of all thing is absolutely the human being? Is everything in the universe subordinate to man? Where do we stand with regards to this divide? Do we have the courage to question ourselves? Are the things we know to be true, actually true? Are we going to have to re-examine our value judgements? How will the anthropocentric view evolve after artificial intelligence? Can artificial intelligence reshape nature? Can it shape the body? Should the body be abandoned? How should the body be reconstructed for the new world? If it is only information that is important in the information age, will there be no need for the body?
On the upper floor, in the “Anthropocentric Pollution” exhibition that is part of the broader exhibition of projects, titled “Intentions”, the artists explore the concept of anthropocentricity within the framework of existential problems. In the artworks that focus on the human being, the evolutionary questioning is presented dialectically, through both the helplessness and the anthropocentric nature of the human body. As you proceed through the exhibition, you come across spaces that humans inhabit and geological life forms that have undergone deformation as a result of anthropocentrism. In an effort to represent urban life, the exhibition is placed in a labyrinth. As a metaphor, the labyrinth is also a representation of chaos. In the exhibition, the viewer could come across the Minotaur or surrender to artificial intelligence by diving into the realm of algorithms. Biocentrism, on the other hand, is a line of thought that places the living thing and the environment at the centre. It is an ethical perspective that embraces the principle that all life deserves equal moral consideration and has an equal moral standing. It cares about environmental ethics and respects life and living things.
In the activity, titled “Biocentric Creation”, the audience is centred on living things. Here, the viewer is regarded to be a part of the environment and is invited to create his/her own world. Humans, by nature, have an impulse of shaping and improving the environment. The designs in this virtual world belong to a different reality and have no negative impact on the environment. The designs that the viewer is invited to build by using the Tilt Brush program, VR virtual glasses and Touch Controllers, are displayed and shared. Perhaps in the future, as we build our own worlds with our avatars and endless materials in the virtual realms of VR and AR, we would be able to construct worlds that do no harm to the environment, that respect nature and are in harmony with the environment. We will be able to construct our hundred-storey buildings without depleting any resources. Who knows?