Eleştiri ve Kültür Araştırmaları

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“A Living Dog Is Better Than a Dead Lion”: Representations of animal otherness in post-1990s independent Turkish cinema
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2016., 2016.) Şahıntürk, Zeynep.; Öğüt Yazıcıoğlu, Özlem.
Due to their social and political implications, the various cinematic and narrative aspects of independent Turkish cinema have been popular subjects of critical study for many scholars. One specific focus that has characterized the general approach to these films has been a study of the representations of the “Other” and whether the Other was portrayed in a pejorative or celebratory fashion. This category of the Other has predominantly contained women, children, the economically disenfranchised, the religious Other, villagers juxtaposed with city dwellers, the socially outcast, and finally, animals. All these groups of Others have been the subject of close examination, except one abundantly portrayed group: animals. As this thesis will reveal, animal characters in post-1990s independent Turkish cinema have an equally essential function as any of these groups as they are portrayed both as direct extensions of the human protagonists, and as metaphors of how violence and power operate in society, victimizing human and animal subjects in similar terms. With the increasing attention Animal Studies have drawn and the visibility of animal characters in post-1990s independent Turkish cinema, this critical gap needs to be filled. Assuming such an aim, this thesis will focus on the ethical, aesthetic, cinematic, and narrative implications of how animals are portrayed in Somersault in a Coffin, Distant, Times and Winds, The Yusuf Trilogy: Egg, Milk, Honey; Kosmos, Somewhere in Between, Jîn, Singing Women, Winter Sleep, Sivas and Frenzy and conclude that they open alternative paths of reconciliation between the human Self and the animal Other.
Animated critical theory: Nasrettin Hoca anecdotes as an animation of theories of Marx, Foucault and Simmel
(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2010., 2010.) Balaman, Ayşe.; Voss, Stephen,; Baş, Işıl.
The purpose of this study at the global level is to draw attention to points of convergence in Eastern and Western sourced tendencies of pre-modern and modern/post-modern thought, while the immediate objective is to discover overlapping themes in the approach to cultural critique present in both. The study will feature, as an illustration of the former, selections of Nasrettin Hodja anecdotes which consist of very short narrations of incidents featuring the Turkish Nasrettin Hodja, a thirteenth century historical figure known as a folk philosopher with international eminence for his wise and humorous remarks concerning cultural practices. The latter will be represented by the critical and cultural theories put forward by the nineteenth century German political economist-sociologistphilosopher Karl H. Marx, twentieth century French historian-philosopher Michel Foucault, and the nineteenth and twentieth century German sociologist-philosopher Georg Simmel. Regarding the cultural critique in the anecdotes, this study will focus on the recognition of the dynamic quality of object and subject roles in a given cultural incident involving man to himself, man to man, man to animal or man to knowledge relationships. In the said theories, this dynamism is found in the form of a process of continual exchange between object and subject components, which finds a different meaning in each theory. In Marx’s theory, this idea is spelled out in terms of historical dialectic employed in the formulation of “revolutionary practical-critical activity”. With Foucault, this exchange emerges as the simultaneity of man’s object and subject roles in relation to possession of knowledge which he states to be consequential of the transfer from the classical to the modern eras of knowledge. Finally in Simmel’s writings the dynamism in object subject exchange is seen in the form of reciprocity between objective and subjective cultures, the discussion of which he employs in describing modernity and the relevant categories of social experience he analyses. This study proposes to demonstrate, through the method of content analysis, that the recognition of subject object role exchange present in a variety of forms in the abovementioned theories is depicted in practice form in the Nasrettin Hodja anecdotes, providing an animated theory. Considering the difference in the cultural origins as well as in the eras of the said approaches, discovery of this convergence in thought is meant to stimulate a rereading of the East/West and pre/post modern dichotomies.
Another way is possible: looking at women‟s lives through the filter of divorce
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2015., 2015.) Yıldırım, Mürüvet Esra.; Öztürkmen, Arzu,; Baş, Işıl.
This study primarily deals with women‟s experience of divorce in Turkey, and it aims to explore the following questions: how do the structure of marriage, the roles that women are expected to assume, and their perception of themselves within their families affect their decision to get divorced? Can any causality be established between the changing economic countenance of Turkey and the performance of manhood and womanhood on the decision of women to get divorced? What kind of strategies do women employ before and after divorce? Twenty-seven semi-structured life-story interviews were conducted in six different cities of Turkey. The average age of the participants is fourty-five, and the average length of time after divorce is ten years. The interviews lasted for almost thirty hours. The study demonstrates that the fatherhood performance women were exposed to when they were growing up plays an influential role on the decision mechanism in women‟s married lives, and the husband constitutes a second fatherhood from which women prefer to escape. Working life facilitates this escape. When children are involved, marriages are sustained until women decide to end it at the most appropriate time. Financial problems are experienced as a result of unemployment, and domestic violence in marriage are prevalent among the participants. Most of the participants interpreted divorce as a relief and a way out of an oppressive state despite its challenging results.
Authorship in the culture industry:|Azra Kohen’s series of novels Fi, Çi, and Pi
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Varol, Cansu.; Öğüt Yazıcıoğlu, Özlem.
This study is an attempt to place the contemporary author somewhere between literature and the media culture of our day. On the best-seller shelves since 2014 when it was first published, Azra Kohen’s trilogy Fi, Çi, Pi has been frequently subjected to discussions in Turkish literature. As a result, the writer has become a popular figure who has been invited to television shows, universities, newspaper interviews since then. The story narrated in the trilogy also promised such rating for a production company that three years after its first publication, it was adapted to screen as internet series. This master thesis analyses Kohen’s contradictory attitude as a writer regarding the appearances in media and the series adaptation: while claiming that her only concern is to change the world, the writer comments on her authorship as frequently as possible. This ambivalent perception of (non) authorship is analysed in the light of literary, cultural and critical theories applied to the trilogy and the appearances in the media. In addition to a glance at the characters, the issues of corruption, fame and beneficial relationships in business and media platforms are comparatively analysed both in the trilogy and its screen adaptation. The reasons of the changes in the process of adaptation are discussed in the light of cultural theory. The result of this study shows that Kohen’s idealistic intentions are challenged by capitalistic motives throughout the process.
Bodily fluids and formless bodies: Bataille reads Küçük İskender
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2011., 2011.) Bozkurt, Abbas.; Baş, Işıl.
This study discusses the works of Georges Bataille and Küçük İskender by comparing the ways these two writers use “bodily fluids” as a subversive tool. A parallel reading of some of the major works of these writers demonstrates that the imagery of bodily fluids is a recurrent motif for both of them. This common imagery reveals similar strategies of resistance for Bataille and Ġskender, and in the course of this study, the possibilities and limitations of these strategies will constitute the focal point. Through these strategies of resistance, Bataille and Ġskender imagine an alternative order that is based on chaotic/anarchistic characteristics of fluids. In their models, fluids replace the realm of language which they perceive as the perpetuator of hierarchical power structures. In order to eliminate the power asymmetry that language solidifies, they suggest a “fluid communication” that establishes new methods of connecting different bodies. That kind of a communication, which uses the entire bodily repertoire without excluding the abject, relies on a horizontal principle instead of the vertical/hierarchical principle of language mechanisms. Contemplating on the possibility of such a non-discursive/bodily communication leads us to question our corporeality and inspires us to find new techniques of “bonding” with others. As a result, such an analysis of the two writers triggers many questions regarding contemporary theories of body politics and their relation to the realm of language.
Chaning conventions of landscape photography in Turkey: from Ara Güler to Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Seçil Yersel
(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2007., 2007.) Ergener, Balca.; Ahıska, Meltem.; Baş, Işıl.
This thesis aims to investigate the conventions of contemporary landscape photography in Turkey by analyzing selected work by three artists, Ara Güler, Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Seçil Yersel and discussing them in the context of the canon of the landscape image, and landscape photography in the international contemporary art scene. A historical account of the landscape image, its historically and culturally specific conditions of emergence in the West, and its relationship with traveling and tourism is provided. Landscape is studied as a specific kind of relationship between humans and the physical world, which entails a distant viewer, looking and visually framing a physical environment rather than participating in it; and the transformation of a physical environment composed of multiple multi-sensory elements into a coherent, aesthetic object to be visually consumed. Ceylan’s and Yersel’s photographs make the distance and alienation intrinsic both to the notion of landscape and the practice of photography visible. Ara Güler’s proximity to his subjects, his engagement with documenting the contingent experiences of people specific to places and times and capturing fleeting moments result in fragmentary compositions of dynamic and inhabited landscapes transformed by and with people. Ceylan and Yersel’s distance to their subjects resulting in wide and exhaustive views that resemble paintings more than photographs because they are static and closed compositions resist appropriation and presenting ready meanings.
Contested landscapes of belonging at the Turkish-Syrian border :|the (re)making of Antakya and Defne
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2021., 2021.) Medeiros Coelho, José Rafael.; Milagros Garcia, Maria Pilar.; Baykal, Güldem.
Based on the new metropolitan municipality system (Law No. 6360) Hatay, a multicultural province located at the Turkish-Syrian border, has undergone major cartographic changes. During this process, Defne has been crafted out of Antakya city as an ethnically and religiously segregated district. In this ethnographic study, I analyze the sociopolitical implications of this process. I examine how and why the Alawite and Christian Arab communities that identify themselves as indigenous peoples of Antakya have found themselves in the newly mapped Defne. I demonstrate how and through what spatial and identity practices these indigenous communities and key political stakeholders compete over the cultural heritage of Hatay and Antakya. Doing so, I aim to reveal the power relations behind the new cartography for Hatay while witnessing and documenting Antakya's (re)make and Defne's metamorphosis into the built and imaginary landscapes of the nation at the Turkish-Syrian border. My research has shown that Defne, now with its non-Sunni population, stands as a sign of difference and segregation in Hatay’s new ethno sectarian landscape, in contrast to Antakya, which has been Sunnified due to recent official districting practices. Nonetheless, the very same place (Defne) has proven to be a new public sphere for Hatay’s Arab Alawites to negotiate their local identity by appropriating its space for political and communal engagements.
Fans by proxy: cross-cultural media fandom in Turkey
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2015., 2015.) Yıldırım, Utku Ali; Akar, Didar.
A “fan” can be anyone, from a regular viewer of a TV show, to a fan fiction writer, a collector, or an obsessive consumer. “Fandom”, therefore, is a community of these myriad of fans with their myriad of ways to interact with the text and each other. This study investigates the cross-cultural media fandom in Turkey and how -within a global context- Turkish media fans interact with the global media products in a different cultural, social and linguistic spheres. To investigate this community, this study relies on semi-structured interviews conducted with cross-cultural media fans in Turkey, who are urban middle-class young adults. The findings of the interviews are analyzed in five main topics: the fans share a specific kind of aesthetic attachment to the object of their fandom, they practice code-switching, they form a community by a sense of belonging and digital socialization processes, they show resistance toward the mass consumerism and Turkish popular culture, and they reject fandoms in their vernacular culture. All these practices render this group of people a community of practice, and these practices and dispositions are investigated within the light of the findings of the interviews.
Formations of the body: Talal Asad and the secular
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2015., 2015.) Peksöz, Ömer Faruk.; Baş, Işıl.
The present study aspires to read Talal Asad’s Genealogies of Religion and Formations of the Secular not as works of anthropology of religion, but as one major contribution to body studies. The novelty of this thesis lies in its argument that Asad’s reflections on the religious and the secular in two separate works comprise in fact one theory of the body. Asad’s critique of the concepts of the secular and the religion is the ground upon which his theory of the body is constructed. His genealogy of the attitudes towards the body via the changing juridical practices in the European Middle Ages is Asad’s treatment of bodily pain in the economy of truth. Asad’s theory of the body is complemented with the examination of modern conceptions of agency, pain, and cruelty with regards to the concept of the secular and secularism. Accompanying this reading of Asad, this study is to maintain that “the religious” and “the secular” as opposites are but the products of modern thinking; that “the secular” precedes “secularism”; and, most importantly, that Asad deconstructs the binary opposition of “the religious” and “the secular” within the horizon of the body. Reading the shifts in the attitudes towards and understandings of the body especially in the history of Christianity, Asad develops a theory of the body. I attempt in this thesis as a consequence to introduce body studies to Talal Asad’s theory of the body.
Fragile identities: prostitutes as signifiers of patriarchy and heteronormativity in Turkey
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2015., 2015.) Sorma, Mediha Pınar.; Akar, Didar.
'Prostitute', being a term or a stigma, both talks through the mouth of patriarchal system and deciphers it as an object, a tool and a subject created and reproduced by this very system over and over again. In a society where religion has penetrated into the social everyday life practices and where culture works as a shaping mechanism beyond law, female body can claim existence or agency only as much as the hegemonic patriarchal ideology consents. Prostitute body which has deliberately detached itself from or been cast out of the dominant ideology has to either embrace the 'victim' identity exposed to her or become one of the gears of the mechanism as a power holding subject. The extracts from the interviews studied in this work reveal that prostitutes reproduce the victimization discourse as a way of realizing their social existence and by doing that they describe the 'essential' elements of womanhood definition such as marriage and motherhood as a lack, nostalgia or a utopia. Those women see men in their lives either as sacred and untouchable figures or as symbols of power to succumb to. Therefore, they serve as the sustainable and suppressible source created by the patriarchal and heteronorrnative ideology to satisfy male desire. When the interview extracts of the prostitutes who reject the victimization discourse, knowingly or not, are analyzed, it is seen that the only way to get empowered for them is to appropriate masculine power and become an oppressor or a masculanized woman. Thus, it still remains a utopia to talk about prostitutes as empowered women and a counter-power against patriarchy and heteronorrnativity.
Gendered experiences of modern cities in the novels of Turkish and Mexican women writers
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Akalın Arslanalp, Sena Hatice.; Tekdemir, Hande.
This thesis examines Adalet Ağaoğlu’s Lying Down to Die (1973) and María Luisa Puga’s Panic or Danger (Pánico o Peligro) (1983) to study how women writers in non-western geographies reflect upon the relationship between women and modern cities. Drawing on feminist scholarship on the gendered experiences of modernity and urban space, this thesis shows how Puga and Ağaoğlu illustrate the significant role that the daily experience of modern cities plays in the self-discovery and self-realization of women characters in the modernizing cities of Ankara and Mexico City. This process takes place via their encounters with patriarchal relations, class inequalities, and dominant political discourses that are embedded in the spaces of these two national capitals. The thesis also argues that Puga and Ağaoğlu’s literary reproduction of the cityscapes from the perspective of women protagonists is simultaneously a critique of and a contribution to the gendered cultural memories of the cities.
Kadıköy rock culture as an affectual environment in transition
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Çakmak, Bengi.; Demirhan, Başak.; Oğul, Belma.
This thesis takes an ecomusicological approach to analyzing Kadıköy rock culture as an affectual environment in transition. Kadıköy rock culture is examined as an ecosystem and the relationship between space, music, and affects is discussed as a significant component of the states of co-vibration and co-existence. The participants of the in-depth interviews, who are members of this ecosystem, co-exist within the cultural environment of Kadıköy rock culture, and subsequently experience an intense sense of belonging to a community. This sense of belonging is often expressed in the form of a home narrative, which was one of the major themes in the interviews. Kadıköy’s affectual character and the centrality of the home narrative manifest themselves in the discourses and narratives on the rock culture. I argue that sounds and affects are of utmost important in the transformation of the home narrative into shared emotions within this cultural environment. The transition of Kadıköy rock culture into a new phase along with the larger social transformations was a turning point from which new affects and certain emotional states emerged. Regarding that, the different conceptualizations of the home by nostalgia and solastalgia provide important insights about a fundamental ontological problem that has also been discussed in ecomusicological approaches Ecomusicological theorists have identified this ontological problem as a misconceived separation between nature and culture. I argue that such a misperception creates the fear of losing the home in Kadıköy rock culture as well and that this fear can replaced and alleviated with the notion of sustainability.
Located subjecthoods :|gender and lived body in An Atlas of the Difficult World and Afiş
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Yıldırım, Yaprak Damla.; Milagros Garcia, Maria Pilar.
This thesis investigates whether feminist critical discourse analysis (FCDA) could be applied to poetry via the notion of lived body (corps vivant), as opposed to the conventional methods of poetry analysis which centralize male-oriented post- Cartesian subjecthoods based on rationale, transcendental agency, and coherency. It embraces lived body as a central theme in the poems and abandons the conventions of poetry analysis which have regarded poems as separate works, unaffected by the geographical and chronological locatedness the poets. With the aid of Elizabeth Grosz’s corporeal feminism which adapts the notion of lived body, the thesis applies feminist critical discourse analysis to explore the poetry collections An Atlas of the Difficult World and Afiş [Poster], published by Adrienne Rich (US) and Sennur Sezer (Turkey), respectively. Identifying the common discursive categories in the books as corporeality of subjecthoods and locatedness of subjecthoods within a community, the thesis suggests that together with FCDA, (feminist) lived body provides feminist scholars the grounds to approach poetry as a cultural text and identify the discursive methods in poetry to defy patriarchal power relations.
Media representation of migration to Turkey :|a diachronic perspective
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2020., 2020.) Kavaklı, Sezgi Başak.; Akar, Didar.
This thesis investigates the effects of empathic motives of the political power holders on the treatment and media representation of large groups of displaced people that arrived in Turkey between 1950 and 2017. It provides a diachronic analysis of the terms through which the print media and Turkish migration policies identified different groups of displaced people along with the themes of discussions that surfaced in the collocates of these terms. The findings suggest that the media identification of the displaced people depends on the societal predisposition towards them and political motives of the government at the time rather than the definitions in the law The narratives on Bulgarian Turks and Turkmens adapts a positively inclusionary tone, in line with Turkey’s economic and social motives of improving farming practices and orchestrating an ethnically and culturally homogenous population. The terms used in media and by political representatives correlate in this period. On the other hand, the representation of the Iraqi Kurds and the Romani in the media are highly avoidant and exclusionary; and similar terms are adapted once again by the government and the media.The representation of Syrians is a mixture of these tones and parallels the polarized opinions in the political context. Thus, strong parallels between the economic, political, and social motives of political power holders and the representation of displaced people in the media are observed.
Negotiating community engagements and alliances :|Queer People of Color and Turkish migrants in Berlin
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Altay, Mehmet Tunay.; Milagros Garcia, Maria Pilar.; Savcı, Evren.
This thesis focuses on the relationship between queer people of color communities and new wave Turkish LGBTQ migrants in Berlin to understand how the perception of race/ethnicity plays a role in forming political alliances. In doing so, the thesis is centered on three main questions: "How do QPoC politics and place-making practices influence new wave Turkish LGBTQ migrants’ mobility in Berlin?", "What are the impacts of QPoC on new wave Turkish LGBTQ migrants’ understanding of race and ethnicity?", and finally "What are the impacts of QPoC communities on new wave Turkish LGBTQ migrants’ understanding of solidarity and transnational alliance?". Qualitative research of this thesis involves in-depth interviews with twelve participants between 24 and 33 years old, qualitative content analysis, and participant observation. The findings of this thesis argue that the experience of the participants as a group of racially ambiguous new migrants in Berlin complicates the binary distinction between "white" and "person of color" both in participants spatial interactions with QPoC safe space strategies and in their racial / ethnic self-identification. Moreover, this thesis shows that the study of critical ethnicity and identity have to take into consideration the racial dynamics of migrants' "homeland”. Overall, the ambivalent relationship between the participants and the QPoC challenges to the classic representation of Turkish migrants as being stuck "between-two-worlds" and discusses that the participants have expanded to multiple trans-local activities interconnected with other urban minority groups under QPoC in Berlin.
Nietzsche and the self: the 'dissolution of the subject in The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil and disconnected by Oğuz Atay
(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2008., 2008.) Talay, Zeynep.; Baş, Işıl.
The thesis discusses Nietzsche’s critique of the constitution of the modern self and explores the ways in which this Nietzschean theme appears in literature. I will focus in particular on the Nietzschean theme of the dissolution of the subject as it appears in The Man without Qualities by Robert Musil (1880-1940) and The Disconnected by O"uz Atay (1934-1977). In the first chapter I investigate Nietzsche’s critique of the modern constitution of the self and his own account of the self. In Chapter II, I treat Nietzsche's account of the self as an important background to The Man without Qualities, and in Chapter III, I do the same for The Disconnected. In doing this I not only attempt to indicate the positive meaning of the dissolution of the subject in these novels, but also seek to demonstrate how even experimental or exploratory approaches to the living of a life set limits to such an idea.
Reconstructing the city and the citizen through the İstanbul courses
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2014., 2014.) Çakıroğlu, Miray.; Baş, Işıl.; Aksan, Güneş Ekin.
This study investigates into the imagination of the city, specifically İstanbul and the projection of identity for the İstanbulite urban subject within the context of İstanbul courses. The courses, inspired by an educational project carried out as part of İstanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture, became part of the primary school curriculum for the state schools in İstanbul. A similar course, “City and Culture: İstanbul”, was also designed to be offered as an elective for universities in the city. It is argued that the courses constitute an example of the consumer-capitalist ideology in the urban space and constitute one of the strategies of urban entrepreneurialism. They create and disseminate a normative discourse about the urban space with the help of the reproductive function of education. The thesis analyzes the course books in terms of the three criteria of “the world construct”, “history” and “the urban citizen”. It is argued that within the world construct that the courses project, İstanbul emerges as a postcard-city emptied out of its social and historical context for purposes of place marketing. History functions as a reservoir to contribute to this construct by providing myths concerning the city’s past. In this context, the desirable urban citizen that the courses aim to bring about is imagined as spectator, a tourist and a tourist guide. The courses therefore enable the reproducing of the consumercapitalist ideology in the urban space and raise the individuals that are properly integrated into it.
Resignifying the mainstream: transgender embodiment in cinema in Turkey
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2011., 2011.) Şeker, Berfu.; Baş, Işıl.; Erdoğan, Nezih,
This study focuses on the mainstream representation of the transgender phenomenon in the cinema of Turkey during a forty year period starting from the 1960s. In studying these images, the main argument of this thesis is that although mainstream cinema has been conceptualized as incapable of producing meanings that are anti hetero-patriarchal; factors such as audience reception, textual incongruity and directorial intentions might produce ambiguities in order to trigger subversive readings and identifications with these images. By reaching masses of audiences, mainstream representation of transgender embodiment might offer a possibility that might challenge the binary thinking and normative identificatory mechanisms. Conceptualized within their specific historical milieu and in relation to each other, these images also refer back to a historical subconscious in which the repressed desires return back to haunt the heteronormative binaries of gender and sexuality. Reading these films through gender parody, masquerade, heterosexual melancholia, shame and transnational circulation of transgender images, this study explores the relation between performance and performativity in order to resignify the mainstream from within.
The construction of space and audience in contemporary public art practices: three examples from Istanbul
(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2005., 2005.) Sönmez, Beril.; Baş, Işıl.; Sarıkartal, Çetin.
Temporary art projects taking place outside conventional art institutions like museums and galleries have become common and popular practices in urban areas especially within the last decade. The selection of a public space to make and display "art" opens a new ground to discuss and reconsider contemporary art practices invarious aspects. The main question of the present study is to understand in which extent contemporary public art practices can contribute to overcome the hygienic distinction between the realms of art and everyday life by opening a different level of interactivity where these two separate realms are juxtaposed. This study argues that public art practices can be considered as suggestions about an overall and multi-dimensional transformation in the field of art. Two main axes based on which the transformatory potential of public art practices can be studied are the construction of space and audience. The construction of space, publicity and audience are critical issues in public art practices since different constructions of these concepts in different projects can result in totally diverse practices. Considering that there are multiple manifestations of public art the presentstudy highlights temporary public art projects in which space is conceived in terms of spatial practices of the agents using that space, interaction with the audience is emphasized, people living around or passing-by are considered as creators and participants of the project together with the artists. The whole project, in that sense, refers to a process during which space, artwork and participants are mutually constructing each other. Furthermore, this study points out that public art practices have also the potential to suspend social hierarchies by underlining the possibility of different subject positions for each contributor at least during the project period. Inother words, public art practices are claimed to have the potential to open an alternative platform of changing positions, new sociabilities, interactivity and play. Based on this theoretical framework, specific examples selected from Istanbul are studied in detail in terms of the continuities and discontinuities with museum and gallery practices. With reference to space and audience construction of these three public art projects this study exposes in which dimensions they propose to challenge and transform established definitions of the art world, and to what extent they managed to diverge from conventional art practices and offer new alternatives of making and experiencing art.
The cosmopolitanization of culinary "Consumption" : |Steakhouses as instances of the culture industry
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Akgül, Erdem.; Akar, Didar.
This thesis is one of the firsts in Turkish context and literature in analyzing how culture industry and transforms culinary consumption into a cosmopolitan practice through steakhouses. Using the methods of thematic analysis and discourse analysis, the data collected from 40 interviewees including both the people who have been to steakhouses and who have been not has been theoretically and practically analyzed. As a result, it has been observed that steakhouses have an expert, western-connoting, and socioeconomically high perception in the eyes of the consumers; and this perception promoted by culture industry has been observed to be reproduced in popular discourse. Furthermore, steakhouses have been concluded to be effectively functioning ideological instruments of culture industry operating in the co-existence of cosmopolitanism, globalization, and capitalism by selling perceptions full of associations symbolizing better life standards and high-level capitals. It has also been found that in addition to the primary and secondary functions of eating as existing theories suggest, dining-out at steakhouse can also be regarded as a tertiary activity in which people try for meaning-making via symbolic performance activities through which they continue to spend money, construct ideal identities, and buy cultural products such as high-SES experience.

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