The Light-through-Culture Ankara exhibition formed part of the celebrations of 400 years of trade connections between The Netherlands and Turkey in 2012. The exhibition aimed to make visitors experience and reflect upon cultural values in three interactive lighting installations. I was involved in the first installation: Memnum Oldum (‘It’s a Pleasure’ in Turkish)

In the first installation, people could reflect upon how they approach new people. When someone would enter the installation, a drop of colorful ink would fall into a petri-dish, which was filmed and projected again on the ground. Each drop represented one person. By looking at the behavior of the drop in the dish, people could reflect upon their own habits when meeting new people. Some drops mingled easily with others, where other drops first found an individual spot. And some drops only mixed with their own type, where other groups mixed into colorful pallets. The use of ink drops floating on water in the Memnum Oldum installation is based upon the traditional Turkish art technique Ebru (also known as paper marbling). The process of how the installation came into existence is described in a paper for the Creative Design for interdisciplinary projects in Cultural Heritage(CDCH) workshop , held 4 Oktober 2012 in Innsbruck.

In the second installation, called ‘straight forward’, people could experience the paths different communication styles. In ‘hand-in-hand’, group dynamics in the installation were visualized in complex ceiling patterns.

The three installations are the result of a 10-day workshop at METU University in Ankara. The workshop was jointly organized by TU/e, LUCA Brussels, and METU, and was supported by the European Commission for Education and Training. The exhibition has been presented three times in 2011: at the METU Art festival in Ankara; during the Dutch Technology Week in the main building of the TU/e; and during the Dutch Design Week at the VideoLab in Eindhoven’s Strijp-S. The Dutch exhibitions were supported by TU/e, Capital D, and Eindhoven Studentenstad.

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