New Media Art in Turkey

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While new media art is a more widespread and deeply rooted phenomenon in the West, new media is still a “new” subject for Turkey. However, as the number of projects to bring the audience together with the new media has increased recently, more and more people have started to take an interest in this subject.

Among the prominent researchers and experts in this field in Turkey are Ekmel Ertan, Başak Şenova, Ali Miharbi, Murat Germen, Beral Madra, Bager Akbay, Ebru Adult, Burak Arıkan and Genco Gülan.

In January this year, the “Waves” exhibition, curated by Ebru Adult and featuring Turkey’s new media artists working in the fields of science, art and technology, was held at BLOK Art Space. Alp Çoksoyluer, Alper Derinboğaz, Ayşe Gül Süter, Buşra Tunç, Candaş Şişman, Deniz Kader, Erdal İnci, Korhan Erel, Osman Koç, Ozan Türkkan and Refik Anadol were among the artists in this exhibition.

Contemporary Istanbul has been giving place to new media artists with its Plug-in section for two years. Plug-in section sales were less than in other sections of the fair. The reason for this may be that collecting new media is still a foreign subject for Turkey. Collectors are hesitant to purchase new media due to concerns such as acquisition and storage.

Even though all the negativities, I have found news about two of my pioneers who succeededly designed a university project that I will briefly mention.

Fenakistiskop , the project of Deniz Derbent and Ufuk Barış Mutlu from the Visual Communication Design Department of Bilgi University , started as a university project. The project was discovered while exhibiting at Maker Faire after its development process, and Fenakistiscope was featured in the Plugin section of Contemporary Istanbul. Afterward, he was accepted to the selection of Mamut Art Project. The successful new media works of young artists are promising for the future of the market. New media – especially when the market is still small – is very suitable as a future investment tool by making discoveries in young artists and collecting works at affordable prices.