Öznur Taştan, member of Sabancı University Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (FENS), has been selected to the Management Committee of exRNA-PATH Action of COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology), which is a funding organization aiming to ensure cooperation in science and technology across Europe, and coordinate nationally-funded research projects at the European level.

COST enables coordinators of nationally-funded research projects to be involved in cooperation networks across Europe. Öznur Taştan, member of FENS, took part as one of the secondary proposers of the action entitled “CA20110 - RNA communication across kingdoms: new mechanisms and strategies in pathogen control”. After the action was accepted, she started to act as a member of the Management Committee of the action. Öznur Taştan will also act as the grant awards coordinator of the action.

Öznur Taştan provided the following information regarding the exRNA-PATH Cost Action: “A new frontier in RNA biology has emerged in the last decade with findings that RNA can act outside of cells to transmit information between cells, organisms, and species as a form of communication.  Pathogens also exploit extracellular RNAs (exRNAs) to enable their infections and exRNAs are associated with numerous infectious diseases in both animals and plants. However, there are large gaps in knowledge on exRNA mechanisms, such as how exRNAs are selected for export, how they are trafficked outside of the cell, how they integrate into a functional pathway in a recipient, and how pathogens exploit these mechanisms. The COST action entitled “RNA communication across kingdoms: new mechanisms and strategies in pathogen control” aims to advance the emerging exRNA field through bridging researchers in the exRNA field. The action aims to create new synergies both among scientists and between scientists and industry for innovative solutions to medical, societal and environmental challenges in order to understand exRNAs role in disease and their curing potential.”

SUSAM Building, which will serve as an Arts Workshop under Sabancı University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, was inaugurated with a ceremony. Delivering a speech at the inauguration ceremony, Güler Sabancı, the Founding Chair of Sabancı University Board of Trustees, said they raised good students for the world of arts, adding that the workshops in the building would be home to successful projects.

SUSAM Building of Sabancı University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences located in the University’s campus in Tuzla was inaugurated with an official ceremony. The ceremony was attended by Güler Sabancı, the Founding Chair of Sabancı University Board of Trustees, Professor Yusuf Leblebici, President of Sabancı University, Professor Meltem Müftüler-Baç, Dean of Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), Selim Birsel and Wieslaw Zaremba, members of FASS, in addition to faculty members and students of Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design program.

Güler Sabancı: We raise successful students for the world of arts

Pointing out that they started preparations for the SUSAM Building before the pandemic, Güler Sabancı, the Founding Chair of Sabancı University Board of Trustees, said the following: “Today is an exciting day for me. I sincerely thank everyone who put their efforts in this project. We always wanted Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design program of Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences to have their workshops in a place of their own. During the first years of Sabancı University, it felt like we were swimming in uncharted waters with such a different program, but our program became a very successful one thanks to its students, who eventually become artists, and our faculty members who raise them. A beautiful example of this fact is that exhibitions of artists who happened to be in this program are currently on view at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum. I would like to thank our faculty members who raise successful students for the world of arts, and I believe our arts workshops will be home to very successful projects.”

Yusuf Leblebici: We would like this program to set an example for other universities.

Highlighting that they had a program that should set an example for other universities, Yusuf Leblebici, President of Sabancı University, said the following: “Inauguration of this building is a very nice development for us. Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design is one of our most valuable and special programs. It is a program that no other university has, and it makes us really proud for its achievements. Going forward, we would like Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design program to be available in other universities.”

Professor Meltem Müftüler-Baç, Dean of Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, said SUSAM building was already in use nearly for 1 year. She continued: “We actually opened SUSAM last year. Our students and faculty members have been working there for 1 year. However, we did not have any opportunity to inaugurate it officially due to the pandemic. We are very glad to be here today all together for the inauguration ceremony.”

Selim Birsel, member of FASS, said although their unit was small, they carried out important projects. Birsel said: “I would like to thank everyone who contributed to the establishment of this building. You can see here examples of some projects accomplished last year. Although we are a small unit, we realize big projects.”

Güler Sabancı, the Founding Chair of the Board of Trustees of Sabancı University, has paid a visit to the Composite Technologies Center of Excellence in Teknopark Istanbul.

Güler Sabancı came together with staff members of Kordsa and Sabancı University Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Research and Application Center (SU IMC) within the CTCE. After visiting the laboratories, Güler Sabancı received updates about the current work carried out in the center. During her visit, Güler Sabancı was accompanied by Cenk Alper, CEO of Sabancı Holding, Yusuf Leblebici, President of Sabancı University, Cevdet Alemdar, Sabancı Holding Industry Group President, Ali Çalışkan, CEO of Kordsa, and Mehmet Yıldız, Sabancı University’s Vice President for Research and Development.

Highlighting the importance of industry-university collaboration, Güler Sabancı said the following: “This is a place that has always excited me since it was established. Kordsa has a special place in my career. I was the CEO of Kordsa for 14 years. Today, Kordsa and Sabancı University are in a very fruitful cooperation. We set a good example of industry-university collaboration in Turkey. I have observed that very good work is done here in our Center. You have a beautiful mission and everyone makes very valuable contributions towards this mission. I extend my sincere thanks to everyone for their work and contributions.”

Yusuf Leblebici, President of Sabancı University, said they had a unique center in Turkey, and added the following: “You cannot find many examples of such an industry-university collaboration model in the world, let alone Turkey. This place is a source of pride for us. Your work is of great importance to us. I would like to thank you all so much for your dedication. As Sabancı University, we are always by your side.”

Cenk Alper, CEO of Sabancı Holding CEO stated they had high expectations for the center. He continued: “We have carried this Center to a very good point so far. We have reached a maturity level, so the Center can progress much faster than before. What we wish for Sabancı University and Kordsa is that they achieve much greater projects thanks to their collaboration. I believe they will realize projects with a global impact.”

In its online seminar series initiated during the pandemic, Sabancı University Center of Excellence in Finance (CEF), founded under the sponsorhip of Akbank, hosted Dr. Jillian Grennan, a prominent scholar in the field of finance, from Duke University.

During the seminar entitled “Artificial Intelligence and Asset Management” held on Thursday, August 12, 2021, Dr. Grennan shared her assessments:

“Artificial intelligence is a powerful form of automation that improves prediction and programs machines to act more like humans. As robots or new software have replaced jobs requiring low- or medium-level skills, artificial intelligence is expected to play a role in labor markets, particularly high-skill jobs. A study that we carried out with a focus on this expectation as far as financial analysts are concerned indicates that analysts who manage portfolios that are more vulnerable to impacts of artificial intelligence are guided to rather soft skills and some of them even quit their jobs. Most of the analysts who quit are those with a strong power of prediction and they go to non-research jobs. Although the fact that analysts’ focus has shifted to soft skills helped improve financial forecasts, the average salaries of analysts tend to decrease since the impact of artificial intelligence results in devaluation of analysts’ outputs.”

Jillian Grennan is an Assistant Professor of Finance at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. In the current academic year, she acts as a visiting professor at University of California Berkeley Law Faculty and Haas School of Business. Dr. Grennan’s academic interests span finance, law, and innovation. Her research focuses on intangible value creation and emphasizes the role informal and formal governance systems have in its creation.  She offers novel computational techniques for quantifying the value of corporate culture and sustainability objectives.

You can watch the seminar with Jillian Grennan, moderated by Yiğit Atılgan, faculty member at Sabancı University from the link below.

Under the leadership of Sabancı University Gender and Women's Studies Center of Excellence (SU Gender), our university will take part in UniSAFE, EU-funded project on gender-based violence, which includes 46 universities from 15 European countries.

Expected to be among the largest of its kind, the survey’s field research will be conducted by Hülya Adak and Ayşe Gül Altınay from SU Gender.  The survey will be implemented from January to April 2022 among participants’ staff, undergraduate and graduate students, and could potentially be one of the largest of its kind to provide measurable evidence of gender-based violence in European research and performing organisations.

“Despite the growing interest in gender-based violence in academia, it remains an under-developed field of knowledge and policy-making in the European Research Area. Generating in-depth data on a large scale will not only serve to raise awareness, it will also provide a solid basis to develop tools for universities and research organisations to eradicate gender-based violence” says Sofia Strid, UniSAFE scientific coordinator.

The first step within this project will be to gather measurable evidence on the prevalence of gender-based violence in European universities and understand how it relates to its determinants and consequences. The research examines experiences and related attitudes and behaviours among staff and students from the participating universities and research organisations. This quantitative study will be completed by 60 individual interviews with researchers at higher risk of gender-based violence and case studies on institutional responses at selected research performing organisations.

The next step will be to translate this solid and comparable data into recommendations and guidelines for all universities and organisations willing to implement radical change in preventing gender-base violence, protecting their students and staff, prosecuting the perpetrators, and providing services to their victims.

The aggregated data for this survey will be available in July 2022.

The UniSAFE project thanks the following universities and research organisations for their active participation:

1. University of Namur (BE)
2. University of Ghent (BE)
3. University of Liège (BE)
4. Institute of Czech Literature Czech Academy of Sciences (CZ)
5. University of Ostrava (CZ)
6. West Bohemian University (CZ)
7. Tampere University (FI)
8. University of Lapland (FI)
9. University of Helsinki (FI)
10. International Space University (FR)
11. CNRS (FR)
12. University of Paris-Est (FR)
13. University of Cologne (DE)
14. Technical University of Dresden (DE)
15. Forschungszentrum Jülich (Helmholtz Association) (DE)
16. University of Lübeck (DE)
17. FH Aachen (DE)
18. University of Akureyri (IS)
19. University of Reykjavik (IS)
20. University of Iceland (IS)
21. TU Dublin (IE)
22. Maynooth University (IE)
23. University of Cagliari (IT)
24. CNR (IT)
25. University of Turin (IT)
26. Vilnius Art Academy (LT)
27. Vilnius University (LT)
28. Kaunas University of Technology (LT)
29. Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences (PL)
30. Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń (PL)
31. Institute of Nuclear Physics (PL)
32. Union University (RS)
33. University of Belgrade (RS)
34. University of the Basque Country (ES)
35. University of Granada (ES)
36. University Jaume I (ES)
37. University of Deusto (ES)
38. University of Gävle (SE)
39. Halmstad University (SE)
40. University West (SE)
41. Ozyegin University (TR)
42. Sabanci University (TR)
43. Middle East Technical University (Ankara) (TR)
44. Babraham Institute (UK)
45. University of Warwick (UK)
46. Brunel University (UK)

Sabancı University has opened its Digital Campus in Altunizade, Istanbul with an infrastructure investment, of which there are only a few examples in the world in terms of educational technologies. On its new campus, Sabancı University will host businesspeople and professionals from all over Turkey through its graduate programs tailored to needs of the business world. Thanks to HyFlex technology, which is used for the first time in education in Turkey, students will receive education wherever they are, in a digital environment that fells exactly like individual or classroom learning. The Digital Campus will host an infrastructure through which students can come together, produce and develop projects with representatives of the business world.

The Digital Campus was designed to be the focal point of all the work of Sabancı University in digital field. The opening ceremony of the Digital Campus was attended by Güler Sabancı, Founding Chair of Sabancı University Board of Trustees, and Yusuf Leblebici, President of Sabancı University. Guests of honor, who attended the ceremony online, were Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon, and Pierre Dillenbourg, Associate Vice President for Education at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL).

GÜLER SABANCI: “Even when you look at the Ivy League in the US, you can see only a few of such digital campus examples. Therefore, we enter such a league with our campus.”

Delivering a speech at the opening ceremony, Güler Sabancı, Founding Chair of Sabancı University Board of Trustees said the following: “I would like to start by telling you I am proud on behalf of the University to bring such an innovative and well-equipped campus to life. We started this project before the pandemic. The project was just at its early stage, and was completely renewed with the pandemic. Our Altunizade Digital Campus strongly reflects HyFlex working method, which has entered our lives so quickly and become indispensable now, and we have all the digital infrastructure this method requires.”

Highlighting that Sabancı DX is located on the same campus in Altunizade, Sabancı continued: “Established 4 years ago, DX is a company that leads the digital transformation of Sabancı Holding. It is not by coincidence that Sabancı DX and Sabancı University Digital Campus are neighbors, it is a decision. I am sure that with this campus Sabancı University will be closer to the business world including Sabancı DX. 

I believe we can find solutions to many problems in the world only if we work, create and develop together. I firmly believe in the success triangle. I think we will make one of the best examples of it. We have always made exemplary projects for our country, higher education and overall education in our country. And this one is a new and the first practice for our country. There are only a few examples of such a campus in the world, like Columbia University, with which we have close cooperation. Even when you look at the Ivy League in the US, you can see only a few of such digital campus examples. Therefore, we enter such a league with our campus.

Leblebici: “It will be a meeting point for university-industry collaboration”

During his speech, Prof. Yusuf Leblebici, President of Sabancı University said it was a source of pride for him to inaugurate the Digital Campus, the first and the only example in Turkey, where digital technologies would be applied to the world of education and scientific research. He continued: “As Sabancı University, with our self-confidence derived from leading innovations all the time, we are sure that this campus will make very valuable contributions to the world of education and business.”

Leblebici said “In the light of the principle of ‘creating and developing together’, which has guided us from the beginning, we believe that this campus will play a leading role in shaping the future of university environment as a place where state-of-the-art digital educational technologies will be developed and applied.” He continued: “More than 70 classrooms and amphitheaters on our main campus in Tuzla are currently equipped with all the facilities of digital technologies offered to our students. Altunizade Digital Campus, where we are today, is a laboratory environment in real sense that aims to carry this experience one step further, and promote the use of emerging technologies like HyFlex in the field of education. As Sabancı University, we bring together digital technologies and computer science, at which we are strong and assertive, with our deep-rooted experience in education to lead in this field. The Digital Campus will also offer us the ideal environment to work and develop together with our industry partners, and be a meeting point for university-industry collaboration.”

WERNER VOGELS: “The age of digital learning is upon us.”

During his speech entitled “Developments in technology to enhance students’ learning and experiences”, Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon CTO said: “The age of digital learning is upon us.  Advances in digital technologies provide a range of ways for students to engage like never before. Sabancı’s Digital Campus is the accumulation of several different trends that I see. These will be significant drivers of change that will shape our institutions, and our lives, in the decades to come.” Talking about the use of AI in education, Vogels said: “Imagine using AI as a supplement to marking. This can go way beyond relieving faculty and student fatigue for low-level issues.” Vogels continued as follows: “AI can be used to better understand assignments and lesson delivery to predict when students may be disengaging or falling behind. And how about having a system that uses AI to track students’ progress and automatically flag for instructors and administrators troubling patterns and support early intervention? I believe the kinds of innovations that will happen at the sabancı University Digital Campus will lead to advancements that will be key in developing education, industry, and society as we move into a new era in technology.”

“Pedagogical value of augmented reality is about escaping from reality”

During his speech, Pierre Dillenbourg, Associate Vice President for Education at EPFL said, “Pedagogical value of augmented reality is about escaping from reality.” He continued: “Augmented reality is used in education with the help of simulation. A simulation is done on physical objects by using digital data. Then a desktop test is carried out to check the resilience of this simulation to external loads and issues. Augmented reality has been used more and more in teaching of architecture or engineering.”

ONLINE AND HYBRID EDUCATION INFRASTRUCTURE CAME TOGETHER ON ALTUNİZADE DIGITAL CAMPUS

Sabancı University Altunizade Digital Campus started to operate in 2020-2021 Fall semester. Providing services with its online and hybrid infrastructure, the Digital Campus has 9 hybrid classrooms, 2 professional recording studios, 2 group study rooms, a scientific showroom, a conference hall, rest and dining areas.

Private and public training sessions of Sabancı University Executive Development Unit (EDU), and Non-Thesis Graduate Programs for Professionals are delivered on Altunizade Digital Campus.

A project implemented jointly by Zeynep Gülru Göker and Cenk Özbay, members of Sabancı University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) is entitled to receive support within the framework of the TÜBİTAK 1001 Program.

The project of Zeynep Gülru Göker and Cenk Özbay is entitled “The Configurations of Smart City and Youth in Turkey: Institutions, Discourses, and Experiences”.

The project aims to put “Smart City” discourse that is commonly used in many metropolitan cities in Turkey and associated policies and practices in a regional and global context enabling for a comparative examination, establish the links between these examples with participatory and inclusive city governance principles, and understand how young people in these cities experience transformations around “Smart City” principle.

The Project will further examine the contribution of policies and practices developed on the basis of “Smart City” to mitigation of social and spatial inequalities created by neoliberal urbanization experience and increase of urban justice, social inclusion and participation.

Within the framework of the research, interviews and surveys will be carried out in Adana, Antalya, Bursa, Eskişehir, Kayseri and Konya. In addition, additional interviews will be carried out in Ankara, İstanbul and İzmir. In the last 2 months of the project, a workshop will be organized at Sabancı University to bring together project stakeholders, and research findings will be presented and discussed. The project will last 18 months and 3 graduate students will take part in the project as research assistants/scholarship students.

Talking about the importance of the project, Zeynep Gülru Göker said the following: “We believe the project has a unique value proposition since it will comprehensively examine different “Smart City” discourses and applications in Turkey, and analyze how and for what urban policy purposes “Smart City” concept is used in the 2020s in Turkey. In this context, it is particularly important to explore how young people, who occupy a special place among city residents as creators and users of technological transformation, experience a smart city and are involved in the transformation of their city to a smart one”.

Sabancı University Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences Researcher and EFSUN and SUNUM researcher Dr. Abdolali Khalili Sadaghiani received the TÜBA (Turkish Academy of Sciences) TEKNOFEST Doctorate Science Award.

The applications were evaluated in detail, taking into account special criteria such as thesis content, scientific quality of the applicant and outputs of the thesis,  contributions to applications in the industry in terms of intellectual property  and conversion of innovative methods and technologies into a product. In this context, in the field of Science and Engineering; Dr. Abdolali Khalili Sadaghiani was selected as the winner in the second place with his thesis "Micro/Nano Engineering Techniques for Pool Boiling Heat Transfer" prepared under the supervision of FENS faculty member and SUNUM researcher Prof. Ali Koşar. This study and award are a nice example for the interdisciplinary research being conducted in the Sabancı University Nanotechnology Research and Application Center (SUNUM) and EFSUN Center of Excellence.

More information can be found using the below link:

http://www.tuba.gov.tr/tr/haberler/akademiden-haberler/tuba-teknofest-doktora-bilim-odulleri-sahiplerini-buldu

Sabancı University Nanotechnology Research and Application Center (SUNUM) and Nurol Teknoloji signed a cooperation agreement to accelerate research and development work of ballistic protective products. A signing ceremony was held in SUNUM Building for the cooperation agreement, which is expected to contribute to development of our country’s needs in defense industry through domestic and national resources. The ceremony was attended by Selim Baybaş, CEO of Nurol Teknoloji, and Prof. Fazilet Vardar Sukan, Director of Sabancı University Nanotechnology Research and Application Center and her team.

The cooperation will last for two years and involves development of joint projects access to Sabancı University Nanotechnology Research and Application Center laboratories by Nurol Teknoloji for its R&D work, joint applications to EU project calls, and widespread cooperation.

Selim Baybaş, CEO of Nurol Teknoloji said: “We believe that I hope this cooperation agreement, will help to develop important and useful R&D projects for our country’s progress in defense industry, for the benefit all our stakeholders.”  

Prof. Fazilet Vardar Sukan, Director of Sabancı University Nanotechnology Research and Application Center said: “We hope to further develop continuing R&D collaboration with Nurol Teknoloji, towards mutual benefits and large scale applications.”

The 2021 Forum of the Switzerland-based ArtTech Foundation, which brings together international researchers, engineers and scientists in addition to prominent people from the world of culture, arts and economy was held at Sakıp Sabancı Museum in collaboration with Sabancı University. Delivering a speech at the event, President of Sabancı University Professor Yusuf Leblebici said that technology and the arts were two powerful forces re-shaping the world we lived in each day, and when the arts and technology came together, they also helped preserve cultural heritage and unearth richness. Patrick Aebischer, Chairman of ArtTech Foundation likened togetherness of technology and the arts to the ‘future of the new world’

Sabancı University Sakıp Sabancı Museum hosted ArtTech 2021 Forum of the Switzerland-based ArtTech Foundation. Held in a hybrid way with the participation of international researchers, designers, authors, engineers and scientists, the forum included discussions on many topics including the role of technology in preservation of works of art in the long-term, how we could benefit from digital technology in cultural and artistic projects, and creation of digital archives of works of art. 

ArtTech builds an ecosystem to explore and test innovative solutions for promising entrepreneurs, and discover new questions. In the ArtTech Forum in Istanbul, Yusuf Leblebici, President of Sabancı University, Patrick Aebischer, Chairman of ArtTech Foundation, and Roland Brun, Deputy Consul General of the Consulate General of Switzerland in Istanbul delivered opening speeches.

LEBLEBİCİ: AS A COUNTRY, WE POSSESS A MASSIVE FORTUNE IN CULTURE AND THE ARTS

During his speech, Sabancı University President Yusuf Leblebici said he was proud to host such an important and international event. He added, “As Sabancı University, we strive to raise awareness of cultural heritage and arts in our country, and help to develop and preserve the arts.” Highlighting that when the arts and technology came together, they helped preserve cultural heritage and unearth richness, Leblebici said the following: Technology and the arts are two powerful forces re-shaping the world we live in each day. They guide our minds to different realms through new discoveries and experiments, opening up new and exciting horizons. They also help preserve cultural heritage and unearth richness. During the panels to be held in this event, many important topics will be covered, from new technology models for protection of cultural heritage, to new structures in performing arts. And I believe that the discussions in this event will help us preserve our country’s historic and artistic heritage to be handed over to future generations. Throughout history, our country was home to many different civilizations, and also the meeting point of those civilizations. We possess a massive fortune from the Göbeklitepe site, dating back to 12 thousand years ago, which led to rewriting of human history, to our complete cultural heritage and all the works of art inspiring the whole world.

Aebischer: “WE AIM TO BRING THE ARTS TO MORE PEOPLE”

Pointing out that Sabancı University was an institution that aspired to build a bridge between technology and science, culture and the arts, Patrick Aebischer, Chairman of ArtTech Foundation said the following: Technology has assumed an increasingly important role in bringing people together with culture and the arts. Technology can also present to us new experiences about the arts. We aim to bring the arts to as many people as possible. Our ArtTech forums aim to do the same. Start-ups and initiatives are the key to this endeavor. Therefore, we have always invited very innovative enterprises that try to become big companies of the future to our Foundation and enabled many people to enjoy culture and the arts from the very beginning. ArtTech Foundation predicted this new world would be upon us. During the pandemic, we have realized how much we depended on technology tools.”

Brun: “We encourage the arts and culture to make the two countries get closer”

Roland Brun, Deputy Consul General of the Consulate General of Switzerland in Istanbul said that cooperation between Turkey and Switzerland, the 7^th biggest foreign investor in Turkey had strengthened further in recent years. Brun said, “The two countries need closer cooperation and further exploitation of synergies that might arise. As the Consulate General, we do not seek synergies only in the field of business, technology, education or research. We also encourage the arts and culture in order to make the two countries get closer. And there are extraordinary places to do this in many cities in Turkey, to start with Istanbul.”

Arditi: “Success results in arrogance, and arrogance, in failure”

Metin Arditi, author, delivered a speech entitled “Why mixing culture with entrepreneurship makes a high-octane fuel”. He touched upon the relation between culture and entrepreneurship. He said the following: Culture is not knowledge, it is not about the facts, it is about sentiments and sharing those sentiments. Culture is not about knowing how to play an instrument, how to write a novel, but listening to a masterpiece, and getting enriched with the sentiments it presents. It is about sharing pain and pleasure of characters in a novel you read, and living their lives." Highlighting that the most important quality of culture was to provide people with a sense of humility, Arditi continued, "Why is this so important? Because success results in arrogance, and arrogance, in failure. A person who is always very successful cannot predict competition."

Director of Sakıp Sabancı Museum, Dr. Nazan Ölçer said the following as she invited Refik Anadol, the world-famous designer to the stage for his speech: “Anadol’s work has been featured at iconic landmarks, museums, and festivals worldwide. He has also received several awards and prizes. His work addresses the challenges and possibilities of what it means to be a human in the age of artificial intelligence and explores how our experience of time and space is evolving now that machines dominate every aspect of our daily lives. He invites his audiences to imagine alternate realities by redefining the functions of architectural elements, creating immersive environments that offer a dynamic new perception of space. Anadol’s site-specific three-dimensional data sculptures and paintings, live audio-visual performances, and immersive installations bring entire buildings to life, offering viewers a new perspective into their world.”

REFİK ANADOL: “THE ARTS SHOULD BE IN STREETS”

During his speech entitled “Creativity at the intersection of humans and machines”, Refik Anadol stated that he was deeply inspired by the works of William Gibson, author of the book Alien and said the following: “Technology has been at the center of our lives for centuries and it develops continuously. As a media artist, I can say that I was first inspired by many things, from the city I was born and grew up in, to the movies I saw as a child. I am truly excited by transposition of architectural structures to virtual reality, and elimination of boundaries of physical spaces and their re-dimensioning by using light and special production software. Visualizing elements like sound and light on top of physical materials with the help of technology to generate new dimensions in time became a new threshold for me and carried my work to a different level. As an artist, I was always thrilled to produce works that were based on the perception of ‘what is real and what is not’. In my opinion, the arts must be everywhere and open to everyone, in other words, the arts do not have to be confined to museums and buildings, they should be in streets. It is very inspiring to collect the data around us and transform it to art. As technology develops, it occupies a growing place in our lives, and machines play a big role in our lives.”

TWO ROUNDTABLE SESSIONS WERE HELD

The first roundtable in the Forum was entitled “Trends and investment in cultural and creative industries”. It was moderated by Muriel Siki, journalist. The panelists included Ian Charles Stewart, co-founder of WiReD Magazine, and Vincent Borel, Vice-President of Logitech. The second roundtable was entitled “Heritage preservation and technologies, focus on Turkey and region” and moderated by Zaki Aslan, Director and Regional Representative of ICCROM for the Arab States. The panelists included Nurçin Kural, Conservation Laboratory Manager, Patrick Michel, Senior Lecturer at the University of Lausanne, Antonio Almagro, Professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, Günce Pelin Öçgüden from the Department of Archeology and History of Art of Koç University, and Ertu Erbay , VRchitect from Metaxu.studio.

8 PARALLEL SESSIONS

During the forum, 8 parallel sessions were held. The names of the sessions were “NFTs: A catalyst of change for the art market”, “ArtTech start-ups”, “XR opportunities in Turkey’s cultural sectors”, “New formats in cultural institutions”, “New formats in performing arts”, “Private and public funding for creative industries”, “How online is shaping the next generation of artistic creation, content and communities”, “Digital twin as a new canvas for cultural institutions – iart session”. One of the 8 start-ups that competed during the forum to develop their projects was presented 5^th ArtTech Prize by an international jury.