VOL I. Cini/Tile In The 21st Century “PIXEL TREE” 

Project was made for: AURA Istanbul Architecture and Urbanism Research Academy and OpenAct Studio (Madrid/Spain) 

More Info About The Research and Summary of Installation (Website is in Turkish): http://aura-istanbul.com/index.php/aura-alumni-dilan-atasayar/ 

Medium: Prototype is made by underglaze technique on ceramic tile, but the main project is a model/proposal for the installation idea. Also research paper was written for this project idea.

Size: Prototype 35 x 35 cm (Each piece 5 x 5 cm) 

Year:2022 

About The Project

 “Cini”, which started to be used in Turkey’s geography in the 11th century Anatolian Seljuk Period, continue to be used in both art and craft categories with different decorations, compositions and usage areas in the development process. It is seen that tile, which is also used as a building material or ornamental element in architecture, was produced in the 21st century by being produced with certain historical groups, with decoration and expression repetitions, or by being completely purified from the rules in it and losing its character. We can find the most refined and well-known examples of tiles in museums or historical buildings. Tile productions and replicas inspired by certain past periods that we encounter today do not become forms that people can connect with because they do not carry today’s expressions. Within the framework of our research, we carried out our work to re-establish a relationship with today’s symbolic metabolism, needs, potentials, expressions, and people, starting from the styles of the 16th-17th century Classical Ottoman Period tile art. 

Text Of The Artwork: PIXEL TREE 

Our virtualized life, knitted with invisible networks and ties, has to change to adapt to the bustling and sleepless city life around rapid changes. Values and priorities that the ancients cared about are replaced by the benefits of metropolitan life over time. Nature, which we no longer look at as before, is among the lost importance in our lives. Virtual-pixel screens, technologies, and the benefits of fast life that surround our lives are becoming images that should be at the center of our lives like nature, but whose existence we now forget. To remember the nature that we have forgotten, it will be enough for us to take a break from our hustle and bustle in the city for a minute and to save nature stuck between the pixels with today’s technologies. 

Interaction with the Artwork 

The basis of our installation is a classic tile panel covering QR codes and augmented reality applications. A classic tile pattern belonging to the period is hidden inside the QR-based pixel tile walls created with the 5x5 cm square “cini” tiles and made with the underglaze technique. It will be sufficient to hold the QR code reader on our phone on the tile panel to see the whole pattern that appears intermittently when viewed from afar and to get the image out. With the scanned QR code, we can access the hidden image, gif, and narrative on the website we access. In addition to the QR code, when we hold our phone to the clipboard with the Artivive application, we can see the hidden image in motion with the augmented reality application on our phone. 

More Info About The Research and Summary of Installation (Website is in Turkish): http://aura-istanbul.com/index.php/aura-alumni-dilan-atasayar/