Istanbul

2017

about the travel

Istanbul 2017

The musicethnologist Nil Basdurak invited me in December 2017 to hold a specific sound walk.
It took place as part of a larger dissertation project by Nil Başdurak, a PhD candidate in Ethnomusicology at University of Toronto in Canada. Her dissertation focuses on the exploration of the soundscape of Istanbul’s Beyoğlu district.

An excerpt of the invitation for the participants:
“Beyoğlu is a significant social hub of the city of Istanbul. It offers access to everyday negotiations and contestations of diverse populations and also provides a performative public stage. Through this guided soundwalk experience, we aim to gain a sonic comprehension of the everyday in Beyoğlu and fathom overlooked correlations between adjustments and readjustments of socio-cultural life and spatial transformations taking place. Through this soundwalk, we will also try to explore how culturally, socially and politically informed forms of sounding and listening practices of the everyday construct and reconstruct spatialized and temporal notions of memory, idealization, identity, conflict and power. Our exploration of this acoustic space will be guided by Germany based sound artist Marcus Beuter. Our perspective will be rooted in the approach that sounds and “their meanings are shaped by the cultural, economic, and political contexts in which they are produced and heard” (Smith 2002, 7) and we are hoping to gain further insights into the past, present and future idealizations and expectations of social organization in relation to urban space.”

Additionally I had a performance at Take the Aid Train curated by Şevket Akıncı.

Excerpt of the recordings of the soundwalk.