Phygital Formation

The concept of phygitality today refers to the expanded experience areas that synthesize digital experiences with physical experiences, making reality multi-layered. The concept of “phygital” is used in a multi-layered sense in this project, and is evaluated in the sense of connecting physical and digital spaces, and it puts forward this with the argument that it is necessary to produce hybrid meanings based on the potential of digital technologies to affect and transform human existence.

In our future shaped by technology, the direction of change and transformation directs us to the phenomenon of “digitalization”. However, at this point, the phenomenon of “digitalization” constructs existence as a structure trapped in a virtual space and does not take into account the physical nature of existence. The future of digitality shaped by technology needs to be placed in the space of relations specific to society and the layers it spreads need to be shown. In this context, phygitality will express an expanded reality area where there is no unchanging virtuality specific to meta-environments in the future, where digitalization expands to humans, machines, plants, animals and all areas of existence, and where all cultural areas such as science, technology, biology, zoology, philosophy and art come together.

My project within this broad framework of phygitality is based on Donna Haraway’s theories of “co-becoming” and “multiple-becoming”, which she puts forward in her figurations such as “Cyborg Manifesto”, “Companion Species” and “Humble Witness”. Haraway’s theories generally “connect actors and practices together” and produce “meanings and bodies with a chance for the future”. According to Haraway, “Cyborgs and companion species both bring together the human and the nonhuman, the organic and the technological, carbon and silicon, freedom and structure, history and myth, the rich and the poor, the state and its subjects, diversity and extinction, modernity and postmodernity, and nature and culture in unexpected ways.”

Haraway’s breaking away from mainstream ontological paradigms, blurring the boundaries between nature, culture, and technology, and overturning the hierarchies between species, genders, and identities is a strategy aimed at increasing human capacity, expanding their boundaries, and building a wider network of relationships with the universe. In fact, this strategy erodes identities on the one hand, while expanding their common living spaces by producing synthetic categories on the other. According to Haraway, technologies and scientific discourses can be understood in part as formalizations, that is, frozen moments, of the fluid social interactions that constitute them, but they should also be seen as tools for enacting meanings. In this context, our “Phygital Formation” project focuses on investigating the patterns of meaning created by phygitalization, a field that evolved from digitalization, based on Haraway’s “multiple-becoming” theories. Thus, the broad framework of phygital will transform into an opportunity to transcend boundaries in terms of existence, creating a techno-scientific and futuristic methodology.

The artists selected for the exhibition consist of new media artists who focus on creating multiple perceptions in the audience by transforming scientific and technological paradigms into aesthetic sensations.

In this context, the first work in the exhibition, which is placed on two floors of Akbank Sanat, is “Fused Form”, produced in partnership with Ahmet Rüstem Ekici and Hakan Sorar. The work, consisting of visuals and animations created by artificial intelligence, was obtained as a result of fusing human, plant and animal forms, and treats the human body in particular and life in general as a hybrid form, and reflects the relational context in Haraway’s discourse, where the boundaries between species, identities and genders are blurred.

Ebru Kurbak and Ricardo O’Nascimento’s work “Feather Tales II” is an interactive installation reflecting the interaction between electromagnetic waves and the material environment. The artists have made the feathers sensitive to human movements with the system they have placed inside ostrich feathers and have also enabled the feathers to be activated via the internet by connecting to them remotely. In this way, the work opens up a discussion of the functions of phygitality in the object world and opens up space for the potential application of the internet and digital systems to objects.

In his work “Canonical”, Selçuk Artut achieves phygital formation by transforming the movements of the human body into music. In the work, which consists of laser, generative music and electronic components, the music produced in real time continuously creates a soundscape throughout the installation with its algorithmic structure. This music, reproduced by the movement of the viewer, provides the viewer with an immersive environment experience with the effect of laser and light. Each viewer passing through this environment listens to the music consisting only of the data emitted by their own body.

Ali Miharbi’s work “Air Benches” is a site-specific interactive installation consisting of frames with infrared bulbs with local heating feature, each bulb adjusted to emit light and heat at different intensities. The frames heat the body of the viewer in front of them in different ways from different points according to the intensities of the lamps. While the air benches refer to the artificial manipulation of emotions on one hand, they also refer to the control mechanisms of today’s social media platforms and algorithms over people’s choices, bringing a utopian and dystopian opening to digital technologies.

Candaş Şişman’s work “CYCL” addresses phygitality in the context of the relationship between man and nature. The work, which starts with the movement of four circular pieces hung on a screen together with the fan placed in the middle of the screen, is a kinetic installation. The installation of the work is arranged in a way that gives the viewer a sense of cycle from a multi-sensory perspective.

Cem Sonel's work called "Allah Korusun", consisting of LED panel, computer code, plexiglass, is both a new media sculpture and an LED signboard that creates a new context for facade aesthetics as an architectural plastic element. The shops, stores and various commercial buildings that we pass by every day create visual pollution with their signs at their entrances, which have now become kitsch. However, in architecture, the facade or portal has long been considered the most important plastic element of iconic structures and has been configured with representative forms accordingly. Sonel also designed his work called "Allah Korusun" just like a triangular pediment and placed it as a window bottom ornament on an architectural facade. This digital talisman pediment, which emits green light around itself and in which codes flow, offers a unique proposition in order to give a new direction to facade aesthetics.

The work titled “Floating Matter”, a joint production of Ahmet Said Kaplan and DECOL, is a real-time and interactive installation based on exploring the new meanings created by phygitality in the relationship between humans and the environment. The installation, prepared according to fabric physics algorithms, includes real-time image processing techniques and thus interacts with the movement by reacting to the movements of the audience.

I would like to thank Akbank Art and Open Dialogue Istanbul for giving me the opportunity to present my exhibition setup, which aims to reveal the potential of art to affect and transform daily life, and all the artists who allowed me to include their works in my setup.