Sunday
Apr152012

Lost in Translation

Buying a white projection screen in Ankara turned out to be even a bigger challenge than buying a water pump. After almost being sold a wedding dress with lots of pink bows, we had to choose a style of curtains for our future homes and sheets for our wedding night.... 

You can imagine our joy when we were finally understood!

Monday
Apr092012

In the Papers 

Finally our Turkisch collegues understand why we are here.

Friday
Apr062012

April 4, Wednesday 

The concepts have now developed into something feasable:

Hand-in-hand

With this installation we want to explore the question ‘What makes a group?’. How is a group created and what are the elements of a group? How many people are in a group and what is this group-feeling we are talking about? Are the answers to these questions culturally defined? 

In this installation we provide the atmosphere and the tools for a group to be created. We won’t be suggesting, we will only be providing. Visitors are able to create beautiful patterns together, using their body dynamics and favorite colthiss. Every experience will create a complete and unique pattern.

 


It's a pleasure – Memnum oldum

The concept started out of interest in the forming and entering a group of Turkish men and women. After a few conversations with our fellow Turkish classmates, we noticed that communication mostly consists out of talking, anytime and anywhere possible. For them, it seems natural to enter or leave a group, but where does an invitation come from? Is there a mediator and what is the experience of entering a group after using that mediator?

So our concept will be a visualisation of the invitation to enter a group, using traditional ebru techniques (marble paper patterns). We’ll let you know what comes out!

 


The poetics of conversation

We are a group coming from different cultures. We have Dutch, Belgians, Turkish and even one Iranian. We noticed that we really differ in the way we communicate.

For example we had a situation were we needed to decide what we would do with an idea. A bad idea, in my opinion :). 

I’m a Belgian, really direct, so I said: forget it, throw it in the garbage.
The Dutch said: yes but maybe we need to think about definitions.
The Iranian said: no no, I really think it’s a good idea, we keep it!

So what did we do: we had an acting out session. We asked the Turkish girls how would you tell your mother you have a boyfriend. 
If we hadn’t interrupt them I think they would still not have come to conclusions and still be trying to tell their mother. 
Then we asked the Dutch, and they said, we will take the subject of my boyfriend that cheated on me... telling your mother that you have a boyfriend is just too boring. The way they told each other about the affair was way more direct. So we concluded there are different ways you can tell someone something, everyone uses its own tactics. And that is what our concept is about. 

In our installation you can play with your tactics and you can see that using different tactics imply another effect. So I hope you look forward to see and feel our installation. 

See you!



Friday
Apr062012

April 3, Tuesday 

We started our meeting with a guest lecturer: Dr. Barış Mücen, lecturer METU, Ankara, department of Sociology.
Academic Areas of Interest: historical sociology, political sociology, cultural sociology, post- colonial studies, social theory
His lecture was about “Sociology of Culture & Critique of Cultural Essentialism”.

Some of the expressions that stroke us were; "We produce meaning by defining meaning." and "Culture itself is a realm of struggle."

Afternoon
Concept development by groups




What is the benefit of the group?
What is the benefit of the individual?
How can you reveal the complexity of the group/individual?
And how do they react on each other?


They started with acting out scenarios and experiences.
Example: shopping in the Netherlands, Belgium and Turkey and personal example in communication
Already in the topics chosen there was a big difference between both cultures
Tactics about conversation in order to communicate information
The biggest difference: Turks take into account how the other person feels after receiving this information.
Empathy
There are multiple ways to reveal a message.

C
What is the context of the receiver? The sender?
Which mediators are used to enter a group of people?
There are multiple ways to convey a message.
How to reveal the dynamics of people?
What are the links?

Friday
Apr062012

April 2, Monday

Meeting and presentation of TU/e and St Lukas Brussels students of skills and projects.
Short presentation of the 6 groups of the first light scenario’s that have previously been developed by Brussels/Eindhoven students.
Out of these six groups three groups were formed.
Groups 
A) Janne, Sherry, Fiona, Leonie, Parizad, Sophie, Ceren, Selma
B) Kiarash, Laura, Lia, Tessa, Linne, Hande, Nur
C) Eva, Paul, Dennis, Karin, Hande, Zeliha