THE ECHO OF THE PLACE
YERİN EKOSU (appl. in 2021)
Main Goal
The ultimate goal of Yerin Ekosu [The Echo of the Place] is to sustain a university campus as a dynamic system. To reach that, the work adopted a “from within life” perspective which could be best explained from an ecological point of view, and intended to present all components, relationships and integrity of the place as well as the assemblages that emerge as a result of numerous components and their relationships coming together in that place. The work, in fact, accentuates the sharedness in the affects and assemblages emerging as a result of place experiences and takes basic human senses and affective responses as a point of departure to construct a fundamentally equal perspective about a place. It does that by creating a liberated learning setting to reveal participants’ affective experiences freely and to stimulate their creativity.
Motivation
Yerin Ekosu [The Echo of the Place] promotes learning and capacity development through three significant pillars. Firstly, it encourages critical thinking about deterministic and formal adoption of urban spaces. Students are motivated to approach the affective and semantic integrity of the selected sites. This sets all involved on an equal basis and operates as the fundamentals of life. In this way, students experience an awareness of how far they have drifted from the affective thinking and accentuated the technical outcomes of spatial design at professional levels. Secondly, it proceeds in a transdisciplinary work process with the involvement of experts from different art branches, particularly music and cinema. The affective integrity of the place is reflected through the shared experiences gained in music-making and videography. Thirdly, students participate in the course not only as listeners but also as active participants in the affective experience through music and filmmaking and in constructing the course content. The aim is not to reach perfectionism in line with a previously defined set of rules. However, it is to liberate participants’ thoughts by getting in touch with their affective responses to the place and seeking the mediums to reflect that. These affective experiences and connections facilitate the dialogue between people and catalyze the self-and-mutual learning processes.
Innovation
Yerin Ekosu [The Echo of the Place] sees the music as an interface for noticing the wholeness of life in a place, containing and reflecting all beings, ecology, history, culture, and the physical environment. It does not use music as an instrument to represent the place but integrates the music into a spatial experience to initiate the construction of affective assemblages and thereby open new avenues for people to look and reflect at a place differently. This work assumes that just as a place, music composition is sensed as a whole, and decryption of the relationship between people and music can provide clues about the fundamentals of people’s relationship with the place. Respectively, Yerin Ekosu [The Echo of the Place] engages participants to co-produce the musicality of the place, to make them the architects of affective assemblages as a result of that experience.
Collective Learning
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to develop an understanding of the place within a life context that respects all parts, the whole, and all relationships within that whole.
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to improve the capacity to use sensorial experience in spatial practice, to translate that into creative music making, and to integrate the gained affective experience in place making.
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to become mentors for each other as well as for the ones who are involved in the course process outside the class. They develop skills to construct together something that has a higher ultimate goal of seeing the place from within the objective lenses of life in that place and appreciating all parts, relations, responses and emergencies that make that up.
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to become researchers who can take an active role in conducting an inquiry in spatial practice and exploring avenues to translate the gained knowledge into planning and urban design. This intends to train students in how research can be done as part of a design process. Thereby, they gain basic managerial skills for conducting a scientific inquiry and apply appropriate methods and techniques.
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to acquire an insight into the historical, cultural and ecological issues of the campus place.
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to demonstrate proficiency in critical and constructive thought as well as in communicating complex ideas through creative presentations, and reflexive thinking for their own experience.
Teachers
Some invited instructors from other domains include Prof. Dr. Nilgül Karadeniz (Landscape Architecture) from Ankara Uni., Dr. Atilla Çağdaş Değer (Music Composition and Choir Master) from Hacettepe Uni., Özgün Özçakır (Cultural Heritage Conservation) from METU, Orkun Karakuş (Music Education) from Balıkesir Uni., Maya Galimidi (Sustainability Expert) from Empower with Nature, and Şebnem Taşkaya (Visual Arts Teacher) from Tevfik Fikret Private Schools.
Participants
Yerin Ekosu (The Echo of the Place) is formally open to students with city planning and architecture background; however, it also conveys the potential of including participants from any domain.