Monday, December 9

4S Exhibition: Innovating STS in Turkey

Duygu Kaşdoğan and Aybike Alkan curated an exhibition entitled “Innovating STS in Turkey” for the 4S 2019 meeting in New Orleans.

The exhibit extended the digital collection entitled “An Archaeology of STS in Turkey” that was built for the 4S 2018 meeting in Sydney. It searched for multiple ways to innovate STS in Turkey through highlighting old and new practices that have taken place in and out of the academic world on the basis of personal narratives and interpretations. These practices, for example, include: 

  1. Creation of STS-related content for a local arts and culture magazine by STS scholars (see: Mehmet Ekinci’s publications in Bant Mag.)
  2. Engagement of STS scholars with artists to re-think about STS methods and methodologies (see: Maral Erol’s interview with the documentary filmmaker Can Candan)
  3. Experimenting with concepts towards making new STS theories (see: Aybike Alkan and  Öznur Karakaş’s experimental work on the concept of ‘translation’)
  4. Exploration of historical public materials that are not necessarily framed as STS works but can be claimed to be so (see: Fatih Artvinli’s essay on the journal Şizofrengi)
  5. Creation of new spaces by STS collectives for public discussion over the contemporary scientific practices and technological developments (see: Duygu Kaşdoğan’s interview with Umut Türem on the ‘STS Talks’ event series)
  6. Attention to infrastructures and personal narratives to constantly question where and how STS (would) find a home in Turkey (see: Aybike Alkan’s interview with Haldun Özaktaş about STS courses at Bilkent University)

Here is the link for the digitalized version of the exhibition!

A photograph of exhibition participants, 4S 2019 – New Orleans