Liana Kuyumcuyan 2018-2020 design portfolio
Table of content pg. 02 Resume pg. 04 Portfolio Pedestal for daily life pg. 04 Sitting as an urban practice pg. 08 Bodies of discussion pg. 12 Spaces of discussion pg. 20 The limits of resistance pg. 26 This is not a rocking chair pg. 32
Liana Kuyumcuyan, designer lianakuyumcuyan@gmail.com based in Istanbul, TR
Education
Design Academy Eindhoven Masters of Arts in Social Design Eindhoven, NL, 2018 - 2020
Istanbul Bilgi University Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design Istanbul, TR, 2012 - 2017
Awards
IMMIB Industrial Design Contest Student category 1st prize Category of Smart House Appliances, group work with Nur Horsanalı and Derya Akdemir
Ongoing projects
Design in Pandemic Times magazine Executive editor Design Unlimited, Issue 9, 2020 Published by Unlimited Publications, Lang. Turkish & English
The Center for Spatial Justice book Guest editor beyond.istanbul, Issue 9, July 2019 - ongoing Guest editor of the new issue of beyond.istanbul related to Beyoğlu’s past, present and future Published by The Center for Spatial Justice, Lang. Turkish
Spaces for Solidarity workshop Project development Design in Pandemic Times magazine
Organized by European Cultural Foundation, May 2020 - ongoing Worked in the group of Urban Commons and developed the project Permaculture Solidarity, aims to create a hybrid of online and offline platform to support local resilience and activists Group work, Lang. English
Monuments, Cemeteries, and the Marks of the War in Istanbul website Researcher & editor Supported by Salt Beyoğlu, 2019 - ongoing Visiting foreigner cemeteries and monuments in Istanbul, research and documentation about their past and today Group work, Lang. Turkish
Unlimited Publications Spaces for Solidarity workshop 02
Editor Online and printed publications, 2017 - ongoing Editing and writing articles and interviews for unlimitedrag.com Executive editor of Design Unlimited magazine
Archive
The Memory of Cladocora video Researcher & designer Developed in Design Academy Eindhoven, 2019 Research and visualisation on Cladocora caespitosa -a type of coral lives in Mediterranean Sea Published by Ocean Archive, Group work, Lang. English
Tradition in Design magazine Executive editor Design Unlimited, Issue 8, 2020 Published by Unlimited Publications, Lang. Turkish & English
I See That I See What You Don’t See exhibition Researcher & designer The Memory of Cladocora video
Developed in Design Academy Eindhoven, 2019 Performance and a digital work called You Will Not Be exhibited in the Dutch Pavillion, XXII Triennale di Milano, Group work
Sitting as an Urban Practice article Writer beyond.istanbul, Issue 5, pg.49, 2019 Published by The Center for Spatial Justice, Lang. Turkish
Design for Emotions magazine Executive editor Design Unlimited, Issue 7, 2019 Published by Unlimited Publications, Lang. Turkish & English
Urban Political Ecology on the Road workshop Tradition in Design magazine
Researcher Organized by The Center for Spatial Justice, 2018 Investigating Istanbul and it’s contemporary transformation, working on political ecology in urban context
Design for Social Change magazine Assistant editor Design Unlimited, Issue 5, 2018 Published by Unlimited Publications, Lang. Turkish
Robotic Fabrications workshop Designer
Design for Emotions magazine
Organized by AA Istanbul Visiting School, 2017 Ten day workshop to create a wall installation with sheet metal and lighting elements
Signboards and Signboard Making article Writer Published in manifold.press, 2017, Lang. Turkish
Design Chronology Turkey book Researcher & writer Published by the 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial, 2016 Book about history of toys and toy makers in Turkey as a part of Design Chronology Turkey, Group work, Lang. Turkish & English
Toyscapes: Formalizing the Informal exhibition Researcher & designer Design for Social Change magazine
Exhibited in Studio X Istanbul, 2016 As a part of Design Chronology Turkey for the 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial, Group work
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Pedestal for daily life in 2020 in collaboration with Onur Atay concept and design Liana Kuyumcuyan
The urban commons can differentiate from public space due to citizen action and resilience. Converging with its meaning, urban commons have a higher critical role in politically oppressed countries. Especially with the rising lack of public and/or visible debate in Turkey, populism and identity politics are getting more and more dominant, which started to change the social texture of the country with the urban fabric as well. The urban commons are becoming non-places* step by step with the current urban interventions, mostly directed as remote operations by the central government. The city squares are getting narrower, and the gathering places are becoming either deprived or vanished. Not only the urban transformation is erasing social life, but also the deconstruction and badly executed reconstruction of urban memory cause the familiar ways of encounters to disappear. The city squares, boulevards, monuments and public buildings had big roles in serving the purpose of urban commons, but one can easily observe that these places are under high surveillance by the authorities. While urban commons are disappearing, the manipulated data on green, public amenities and functions are being served to the general public in the meantime. To highlight the current situation in Turkey and many other similar examples, the project intends to create an image of a safe space to gather, give speech, open a conversation in re-discovered, safe spots of the city. With converting undervalued urban nodes in spaces of communication and gathering, the understanding of urban commons can expand and new ‘debate spots’ can be generated. These spots will experimentally re-enable encounters, speeches and gatherings aiming free speech embedded in a more free urban experience. * Non-place is a term created by Marc Augé for referring to anthropological spaces of transience where the human beings remain anonymous and that do not hold enough significance to be regarded as “places”.
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The project takes the staircases in front of apartments out of their context, to create a monumental-sculptural object, a new ‘safe zone’ for public gatherings.
The project is based on one of the most re-utilized urban elements in Turkey, which are staircases or steps placed in front of apartments and mostly storefronts, which are treated as semi-public places. By taking these familiar spots out of their context, and creating a monumental-sculptural object, a new ‘safe zone’ will be produced where the ideas can be vocally disseminated and publicly discussed through public encounters. A collage of stairs/steps and materials derived from the urban setting will be utilized in a platformesque setting to host gatherings. The project is intended to project a concentrated urban conversation for the people experiencing. This structural allegory also targets the initial problem that the public spots are disappearing with the current urban transformation, with erasing the public experience as well.
Pedestal for daily life 200 x 180 x 120 cm Concrete, travertine, paving stone and metal banister
Sitting as an urban practice in 2020 for Design Academy Eindhoven, Masters of Arts in Social Design tutors Jan Boelen, Nadine Botha research Liana Kuyumcuyan
Every country, city or neighbourhood have its own character in terms of usage of their public spaces. Sitting outside is one of the practices that have different meanings in different places. This act is mostly seen in Mediterranean countries, where architectural language and design of public spaces are similar because of geographical, climatic, political, or economic characteristics, that has become their culture culture over time. In Turkey and most of the other Mediterranean countries sitting on the stairs, in front of the entrances of buildings, or just on the sidewalk is a part of daily life. The similarities in the design of spaces and behaviours especially come from the climatic conditions; houses get warmer, so people start spending time outdoors. This need for connecting the indoor to outdoor also affected the architectural language that we can see courtyards, large rooftops, balconies, and big windows on the side of streets. By the time, this need of spending time outside became a routine of everyday life that people started to use their street as an extension of their houses, by putting chairs and tables in front of their houses and stores, or simply sitting on entrances or sidewalks. The research aims to find ways to exchange urban practices from different cultures and geographies, to discover new potentials in the city.
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The project aims to understand how the practice of sitting outdoor is perceived differenly in different countries, in this case; Turkey and the Netherlands.
Project booklet and the article Sitting as an urban practice constructed by three chapters: Culture and sitting, Politics and sitting, and Solidarity and sitting
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“The urban commons of cities had been transformed into controlled non-places. The politics played a big role in this transformation in Turkey, that a very simple practice such as sitting outdoor became controlled by police, and beware by citizens. Even though this practice seems just as a daily life ritual, it has deeper meanings in the scale of social interaction and the exchange of information. Especially in a highly-politicized country like Turkey, one of the everyday conversation pieces is politics. Debates and discussions on contrary opinions, decisions whereabout the streets or neighbourhoods, meetings for exchanges of ideas are happening in these random gatherings. With the existence of citizens and their interactions, the streets are becoming agoras, but unplanned and casual ones.� From Sitting as an urban practice
Bodies of discussion in 2019 - 2020 for Design Academy Eindhoven, Masters of Arts in Social Design tutors Jesse Howard, Jon Stam, Henriette Waal concept, design and production Liana Kuyumcuyan
Today; the world-wide crisis such as migration, climate change, decrease of natural sources pushed people to support far-right politics, as we can see in governments of usa, europe and middle-east. By this choice, people’s de-politization increased, to reject the facts that can be seen with bare eyes, to not change our lifestyle. Discussing politics became a profession, which everybody is afraid of saying their opinions to not be seen as ignorant about the topic. The project tries to use public space as a distributer of information, and encourage people to actualize this exchange by giving chance to practice different hierarchies. By finding the most effective way of giving a speech that later can turn to a discussion/debate about ideas, news, or simply to have a dialogue with a counter opinion. The public space is the best medium to collect and distribute information, to give people a space to make a change before ending up with protesting. Three categories called Body in Different Height, The Absence of Body, and The Illusion of Powerful Body searches the best way of giving and perceiving an information by changing or manipulating the image of the speaker, or re-positioning the audience.
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The project tries to use public space to encourage citizens to speak outloud, by giving chance to practice different hierarchies.
Project booklet
Body in Different Height The concept searches how the given and perceived information changes on different height, both for the speaker and audience. Speech giving is realised in a pre-defined structure: by the separatioan of the speaker, and a stable audience to be sure that the given information is perceivead by listeners. The project tries to re-define this structure which creates a hierarchy between the speaker and audience, to make a fluid and changeable choreography. By having different positions during the speech, the speaker and audience can position themselves to find the most mentally confortable place, and also give a message via their body placement to the others.
The Absence of Body The concept searches the importance of the image of the body while giving information. The object aims to be the closed version of the speakers’ corner, encouraging the speaker to have a powerful body posture but not seen by the audience. The object takes reference from confessional, giving the speaker invisibility during the speech. As in confession moment, the speaker isolates himself to talk about personal/intimate things, but he can see the priest after confession by going out of the room. By using the idea of this temporary invisibility, the audience can listen to the spekaer and perceive and information coming from “the unseen”, but still interact with it after the speech.
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The Illusion of Powerful Body The concept searches how the manipulation of the visual representation of the body would create a different perception of information during a speech. By highlighting certain parts of the body, the audience is exposed to see the most manipulative parts of the body, taking references from the body language of politicians. Highering the chin and having open shoulders to have a straight and confident look, moving hands to get the attention of the audience and raising arms to have a taller and larger image are some of these powerfuĹ&#x; gestures to have an impactful speech.
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The Absence of Body prototype 240 x 60 x 100 cm Cardboard and wood
Spaces of discussion in 2020 for Design Academy Eindhoven, Masters of Arts in Social Design tutors Jesse Howard, Jon Stam, Henriette Waal concept, design and production Liana Kuyumcuyan
How does the position of body can start or end the possibilities of discussion into restricted and highly-politicized countries? Political, demographic and economic changes have widened the gaps between people, opening up fertile ground for populism, radicalisation and fear. Just when we need to find ways to discuss these changes, social media is entrenching viewpoints, decontextualising information and spreading falsehoods. There are fewer physical safe spaces available for people to meet and openly discuss ideas with people outside their own bubble. The project tries to find new methodologies for public speech and discussion against possible restrictions, interferences and aggression. Finding peaceful ways of practicing public debates between dwellers, and higher the citizen participation on urban decisions by using public space as a medium to exchange information and ideas will be the main purpose. The space must encourage fluid and changeable body positioning for public debates and speeches, to increase participation from the audience. Making public discussions, speeches and gatherings are restricted in some countries, such as turkey. Even though sitting outside is a big part of the turkish culture, making organized meetings and sharing political ideas can be limited by the police. That’s why, there is a need of finding new forms for public participatory meetings. The problem’s itself can be identified as “placing an object or a body in public space”. That’s why this project proposes making the meetings in a constant movement where the image of a meeting is constantly broken. By moving the bodies, the space changes it’s meaning for every stage of discussion, and also give the users a feedback about which role to take.
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The project tries to find new methodologies for public speech and discussion against possible restrictions, interferences and aggression.
Project booklet
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Category of Debate Debate is the type of gathering that the opposite ideas are discussed. The meeting is split in three parts; in first part the speaker one talks about their ideas, in second part the speaker two talks about their ideas, in third part both ideas defend themselves again. Ä°n each part, one idea gets the chance to have hierarchical superiority, and in third stage the hierarchy is equalized. This kind of meeting can be tried by splitting in smaller groups to have a chance to debate with audience as well. Category of Presentation Presentation is the type of gathering that there are many speakers who present opinions to the audience. The meeting is split in three parts; in first part the moderator presents the topic, in second part speakers talk one by one, and in third part the moderator takes the questions from the audience, or moderate a discussion between speakers and audience.
Category of Participatory Discussion Participatory Discussion is the type of gathering that the audience’s opinion is expected. The meeting is split in three parts; in first part the moderator informs everyone about the topic, in second part everybody splits in focus groups to discuss their opinions and have chance to talk, each group has a group representative that collects the information, in third part the group representatives presents the outcome of the focus groups.
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The trial of the category of Debate, example 1 Performance and installation
The limits of resistance in 2018 - 2019 for Design Academy Eindhoven, Masters of Arts in Social Design tutors Angela Rui, Anastasia Kubrak research, design and production Giulio Fuzzi, Liana Kuyumcuyan, Pia Regenbrecht, Rebecca Stumpf, Samein Shamsher, Shobha Bhat
The current expressions of traditional folk forms of protest seem to have failed to achieve significant changes for the material realities of those who engage in them. And yet, these forms of collective action continue to persist, and flourish. However, as more and more protestors vie for a decreasing slice of the 24-hour media cycle, and as their protestations fall on deaf ears, professional activists have had to resort to ever increasing extreme action in order to make their voices heard. Why and how then have entrenched political organizations and institutions become immune to public outcry, and what new forms of activism and resistance are emerging away from the spotlight of media attention that may save activism from its current irrelevance? The project started with the research and analysis of the protests happened all around the world in last 50 years. To visualize the research the project splitted in five parts; gestures, objects and clothing, colors, graphics and spaces. By analysing each part of a protest separately, each element was taken apart and brought together in another context. The result of the project presented with a performance, to show each part of the research, and to show that the kit can be used anytime, anywhere in the world.
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The project aims to break up the elements that create a protest, and bring them in another context to open a discussion about the repeating visuals of protests.
Research and design by Liana Kuyumcuyan Spaces prototype Map of 15 squares mostly used to protest from different cities 300 x 80 cm
Research and design by Pia Regenbrecht Gestures prototype Map of 6 common gestures used in protests 60 x 240 cm
Research and design by Rebecca Stumpf Objects and clothing prototype 4 common dress patterns used in protests 80 x 120 cm
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The limits of resistance performance
This is not a rocking chair in 2019 - 2020 for Design Academy Eindhoven, Masters of Arts in Social Design tutors Eric Klarenbeerk, Maartje Droos, Basse Stittgen concept, design and production Liana Kuyumcuyan
Body rocking is a common behaviour between people with intellectual disabilities. With the rise of stress, body rocking can affect people’s social relations. The project is trying to give a frame to this movement to lower the visual affect for other people who see the act, and calm the person who is making the act. The project started with a visit to landpark assisie, an institution where people who have mental disabilities are living. While i was talking with people living there, some of them where rocking their bodies because they were stressed that they couldn’t explain themselves clearly to me. İt is important to know that body rocking is a normal behavior and an everyday life movement for intellectually disabled people. The object is offering different ways of sitting. The higher part made to keep the hands busy, because making repetitive movements with the hands is very common for the stressful moments. To find the correct proportions, 3 prototypes were produced. The chair can be built with one plate of wood cut in cnc, and there is no need for screws or glue to join the piece. The chair is designed to be used to be taken in between legs, so the chest can be leaned on the higher part. This shape came after the observations made during the visits to landpark assisie, where people were rocking their bodies towards the front, and not use the backrest of chairs after the raise of stress.
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The project focuses on creating a tool that can be used to calm the stress created in the public environment and social engagement for the people who have intellectual disabilities.
Second prototype booklet Plywood 80 x 40 x 60 cm
Third prototype booklet Plywood 80 x 30 x 50 cm
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This is not a rocking chair Second and third prototypes Plywood
Liana Kuyumcuyan lianakuyumcuyan@gmail.com Istanbul, TR