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EDITOR 

1 

1 

Dear Readers, 

Last summer, when we published the latest issue of SUdergi 

only on iSabancı Media, we as the production team had taken 

a difficult step. Our journal had been in print since 2007, but 

now it was only going to be available in digital format. We had 

mentioned the inevitability of using what the digital world had 

to offer. We had spoken of a flexible structure leading to fewer 

but more current and better thought-out articles. We put in 

tremendous effort with our publishing coordinator Melek Sarı. 

Marketing and Institutional Communication Director Berna 

Özkul made valuable contributions by suggesting topics and 

expediting the creative processes needed for a totally new 

journal. 

SUdergi now has a completely new design and will be published 

as a tablet magazine on DPS (Digital Publishing Suite). You will 

be able to download our magazine on the Apple Store and read 

it on your iPad and iPhone devices. The magazine will also be 

viewable on the web. 

When a publication is on the Apple Store, everyone has access 

to it, not just Sabancı University members. With a change in 

prospective readership, some changes in concept and content 

were called for. This was a sizable portion of our preparation 

efforts. The magazine is now categorized under sections. Every 

issue going forward will have a DOSSIER. This issue’s topic 

is “Innovative Individuals.” It contains pieces on graduates 

Osman Koç, Canan Dağdeviren and pseudonym “Cins” on their 

extraordinary, creative work in various fields. 

Another section is ADD-DROP. This section will feature a course 

unique to our university. We must thank Ayşe Kadıoğlu for her 

contributions to making this idea come to fruition. 

Every issue will have an ART page. This issue features our 

impressions on the first Film Days event at the Sakıp Sabancı 

Museum in commemoration of the 100th year of Turkish Cinema. 

Another section will be FACES. We will ask someone 10 short 

questions to know them better. 

The CLASSNOTES section will continue of course. We will also 

try to include an article by one of our alumni in every issue. For 

this issue, we spoke to Aslıhan Örüm, who is pursuing her PhD in 

Japan. Another hallmark section of SUdergi, the NEW IN PRINT 

will continue to review new books by Sabancı University faculty. 

Another issue that we had to deal with was the name of the 

magazine. We at the university are quite accustomed to adding

FACES 

3 

1 

Featured in this issue’s 

Faces is School of Languages 

instructor Ali Nihat Eken

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ADD-DROP 

1 

1 

What is 

“fantasy” doing 

in a course title? 

The Faculties of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Arts and Social Sciences and 

the School of Management offer a new inter-faculty (IF) course: 

Fantasy, Reality, Science and Society. 

The course is divided into seven sections (modules) on entirely different subjects: 

• Water in nature and society 

• Gender 

• Jules Verne and the relationship 

of fantasy and reality in 

literature; 

• Economics, politics and finance; 

• Quantum physics and time travel; 

• Cities and accessibility; 

• Phase changes, scale invariance, 

universality, brain and memories. 

The lecturers are, in order of course dates: 

Sondan Durukanoğlu Feyiz, Leyla Neyzi, Halil Berktay, Kemal Derviş, Özgür 

Demirtaş, Zafer Gedik, Zeynep Yelçe and Nihat Berker. 

By Elif Gulez 

The first thing I thought was that our university could be the only place where such a course could 

be offered. To be honest, my second thought was envy: I wish we had courses like this in our time! 

Seriously, it would be nearly impossible for my International Relations department of 20 years 

ago to offer a course under this title. 

Learning about quantum physics and Jules Verne in the same course, while thinking about the 

global water issue and understanding gender – what could be common ground among these? At 

first, the subjects may seem distant and detached, but actually, everything is tied to one another 

in the world. Scientific developments, inventions, groundbreaking works in literature and art, new 

economic systems… Don’t all of these start off as a fantasy? If you are keen on literature like 

I am, think about what you can produce with the things you could learn in this course. Imagine a 

world in the distant future, for example, where all water resources are depleted and water wars 

have ruined the planet. The society based on the nuclear family has collapsed and people are 

segregated by gender, and there is no communication or contact between them. The victors 

of the great war enjoy higher quality of life thanks to their technological progress while some 

societies literally live in caves. 

That’s a dystopia for you. But an utopia is equally plausible: advanced technology has led to 

environmentally-friendly manufacturing systems; new treatment methods made possible by new 

materials and bioengineering greatly increased life expectancy; the availability of education for 

everyone ignited a cultural revolution; art is accessible to anyone; superior legal systems have 

been developed; and time travel has made history courses much more interesting. 

I should put my fantasies on hold now and listen to our President Nihat Berker. I asked him about 

what he had in mind when he took the initiative to offer this course. 

President 

Nihat Berker 

“ I had the idea to create the ‘Fantasy, 

Reality, Science, and Society’ course when 

I comprehended that our faculty members 

have an immense wealth of knowledge 

among them and the enthusiasm to teach, 

but it would be impossible to offer a separate 

course for each subject. Our students are 

ready to learn from their knowledge and 

enthusiasm. Fantasy and reality, science 

and society are all tied to one another and 

are definitive on our lives, and so are the 7 

subjects in the course. We are excited to be 

offering the interfaculty IF 200 course (to 

300 students this semester!).” 

I had to ask some students who took the course what they thought of it if I was to write a proper 

article about this. Let’s hear what Alkım Zeliha Avşar, Betina Reyna and Hüseyin Güven had to 

say about the course: 

Hüseyin Güven 

Manufacturing 

Systems 

Engineering 

“The greatest shortcoming of an engineering education in Turkey is the lack 

of coverage on social sciences and over-reliance on mathematical knowledge. 

In fact, fantasy is just as important for us as it is for a designer; the ability 

to command words as well as numbers is vital for communication. We are 

talking about a truly interdisciplinary course which shows you that you 

don’t have to be a physicist to enjoy quantum physics or a writer to enjoy 

literature, and brings together a variety of hot issues from economics to 

social discrimination, water shortage, and universality in science. It is even a 

greater privilege to learn about all these interesting and current issues from 

the best in the field. Fantasy, Reality, Science & Society is a course that has 

enriched me and will continue to do so.” 

Alkım 

Zeliha Avşar 

Mechatronic 

Engineering 

“Fantasy, Reality Science and Society was more than a course in that it was 

an opportunity for us to expand our perspective and learn to see rather than 

look. I am a third-year mechatronics students, and in this course I gained 

fundamental knowledge from renowned experts on a range of subjects 

from quantum physics, which is in my field of interest, to economics, where 

I think I can improve myself. As students we are racing against time, so it is 

a tremendous chance provided by our university and President Nihat Berker 

that we to get to know about so many topics in just one semester, and from 

subject matter experts too.” 

Betina Reyna 

“I am among the first students of the Fantasy, Reality, Science and Society 

(IF200) course in the spring semester of the 2013-2014 academic year. 

As soon as I read the name of the course, I had said, ‘I’m taking this course 

for sure!’ Imagine a course that offers natural sciences, social sciences, 

literature and economics under the same roof. I thought I was taking just 

one course during the add-drop, but it turned out I had taken 7! Subjects 

from all branches of the sciences rotate every two weeks to become a part 

of the same course, and all you have to do is to take in what the course has 

to offer to you. A topic that you think you have no interest in can break your 

presuppositions – it can even be more influential on you than another subject 

that you thought you would be most interested in. 

Spring 2015 Syllabus 

Spring 2015 Syllabus

ADD-DROP 

3 

1 

Tracing the Footsteps of Jules Verne: 

The Realistic and 

Optimistic Dreamer 

of the Industrial Age 

I spoke with Halil Berktay about his two-week module called 

“Jules Verne and the Birth of Science Fiction” that is part of the curriculum 

for the Fantasy, Reality, Science and Society course. 

In Berktay’s office, surrounded by four walls of books double-shelved all the 

way up to the ceiling with additional piles on the floor, my thoughts wandered 

to my old friend Jules Verne. 

While he may not be so well known today, back when I was a child, 

all of us had read at least one Jules Verne novel in their myriad 

renditions to Turkish. It is even more important to read him in the setting and 

circumstances of his own era. That is precisely what Berktay 

and his students do in this course. 

Article and interview by Elif Gulez

ADD-DROP 

3 

The first question I asked Professor Berktay was: “I don’t get the distinction between ‘literature, 

fantasy and reality’. Isn’t literature already fantasy? What is ‘reality’ doing in this course?” 

Berktay surprises me by saying that, as the title of Nihat Berker’s course suggests, “reality” and 

“fantasy” aren’t exact opposites that exclude one another. He says that one can easily turn into 

the other: “People have fantasies that, while being ultimately grounded in reality, may be 

quite whimsical and controversial, roaming the boundaries of their imaginations; these 

inspire projects that are implementable to varying degrees, which create a new reality. That 

new reality gives birth to a new wave of fantasies, and so it goes on.” The works of Jules Verne 

are the best place to view these relationships. His novels are right in between reality and fantasy. 

Such a “shift of reality” was what inspired the science fiction genre, of which Jules Verne (1828-1905) is 

the first and most important of its three pioneers - the others being H.G. Wells (1866-1946) and Hugo 

Gernsback (1884-1967). The critical factor there was the Industrial Revolution. Berktay says, “During 

millenia of agricultural society where technological development was extremely slow, the idea 

that the future would be vastly different from the present in terms of science and technology, 

and the anticipation that the people of the future would be using tools and techniques that are 

unimaginable to us today could not have blossomed.” The rate at which reality changes, the speed 

of inventions that follow one another are what expand the mental horizons of literature and art. “The 

particular thing about science fiction is that the future as depicted is both very different and 

perfectly plausible at the same time. You never say ‘Come on! This is completely convoluted. 

There is no way this will ever happen.’ We are presented with a world that does not exist today, 

but is not altogether supernatural either. We look at it not incredulously but with amazement, 

and it captivates us. It is different from fairytales and vampire stories because part of us always 

believes that this can actually happen. My module within the IF-200 course first seeks to remind 

us of this aspect of science fiction.” 

The other crucial aspect is observations made into the overall setting of the 19th century based 

on Jules Verne’s work. Rapid scientific and technological developments led to a number of “races” 

about who would build the fastest railway engine, which scheduled train service between two 

cities would break the speed record, or which steamship would win the Blue Riband by crossing 

the Atlantic both ways with the highest average speed and shortest voyage time. Who would 

reach the uncharted territories and inaccessible spots of the world the first? For example, who 

would be the first person to reach the North Pole (either Cook 1908 or Peary 1909; still under 

debate) or the South Pole (Amundsen, December 14th, 1911); who would climb Everest first 

(Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, 1953)? Who would soar into the sky on a hot air balloon or 

other means, and how high would they go? Who would use what kind of a vessel to travel to the 

depths of the sea (Beebe and Barton with bathysphere in 1934, 923 meters; Jacques Piccard 

and Don Walsh with a bathyscaphe named Trieste, 1960, Challenger Deep, 10,916 meters)? 

“The possibilities opened up by science and technology gave rise to a mentality that was 

competitive, expansionist and conquering at the same time.” The Cold War years were marked 

by a fierce space race between the United States and Soviet Union: who would be the first 

person on the Moon (Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, July 20 th , 1969)? 

2

ADD-DROP 

3 

The competitive and spectator sports of the present day –horse races, greyhound races, F1 and 

other motorsports, World and Olympic Records all the way to Usain Bolt– are witnesses of the 

same passion for measurement and timekeeping that emerged with modernism. 

Going back to the 19th century, the adventurous among the European elite of the time were 

confident that there could be no obstacle insurmountable with all the inventions, scientific and 

technological possibilities, and the resulting culture. “This impressive optimism is in plain view in 

the novels of Jules Verne” says Berktay. He then gives me examples to this optimism from each 

and every work. 

3 

Official trailer of the 1956 Around the 

World in 80 Days adapted to the scree 

from the Jules Verne novel of the same name. 

Remembering that I had read that Jules Verne was a traveler in his own right in a preface to 

The Children of Captain Grant, I asked Berktay whether this was true. No, says Berktay, Jules 

Verne almost never traveled at all, but he spent most of his time in libraries, reading everything 

available, even the latest discovery reports, related to the subject he was going to write. I admit 

that my memory may have faulted me, and I am ever more admiring of Jules Verne for that. 

When you say science fiction today, a dark world comes to mind with dwindling natural resources 

or the human race enslaved by robots or aliens – and other such clichés. I ask Berktay about this: 

“Why is pessimism and a dystopian world rampant in contemporary science fiction?” 

According to Berktay, the answer is obvious when one thinks back to the history of the 20th 

century: “From the Industrial Revolution to World War I, the 19th century culture and 

mentality was confident that humanity could be perfected through science and technology, 

and that social and personal life in the future would be excellent; much better than what 

it was in the day. I must add that the Marxist conception of a socialist future (which has 

since collapsed) was a part of this optimism and the zenith of utopianism. This overall air of 

optimism was severely marred with the two World Wars. Seventeen million died in the first 

war, and between 68 to 74 million in the second – not to mention other casualties. Thinking 

of Nazi Germany, what good was all that science and technology for? Remembering Soviet 

history, the Stalin era in particular, the Gulags, other communist single-party dictatorships 

and even dynastic states, where are your claims of equality and social justice? Some 

may very well assert that one consequence of all that technological development was the 

scientification of mass murder, gas chambers and genocide. Humanity need not necessarily 

progress towards more freedom, equality and democracy; science and technology can serve 

the establishment of dictatorships that have unprecedented strength and are difficult 

to bring down. Everything doesn’t depend on science and technology; in fact, everything 

depends on culture, thought and politics.”

SPECIAL REPORT 

9 

1 

Crazy 

Turkish 

Woman * 

Interview Elif Gülez 

*This is what one of 

Canan’s professors 

likes to call her.


9 

2 

Canan Dağdeviren received her MSc in Materials Science and Engineering in 

2009, and then won a Fulbright scholarship for her PhD studies in University of 

Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Soon afterwards, she was included in the “Innovators 

Under 35” list published annually by MIT Technology Review, and was even named 

the “innovator of the year” among all the other scientists. The MIT Technology 

Review list is composed of young scholars in technology who find solutions to the 

fundamental issues of the times and change the world. Canan was also a speaker 

in TED Talks last April, where she gave a speech titled “Stay with Love.” 

Canan and I met on campus in September to have a little conversation.


9 

Dear Canan, we are proud of your achievements and rewards since your graduation. You are 

featured quite frequently in GazeteSU. I want to ask you about how important these awards 

are to you. Do they motivate you, or do you have alternative sources of motivation? 

Other sources, really. Almost everywhere in the world, you need to have a strong CV if you want 

to prove yourself. In addition to a lengthy CV, I also worry about how the work I do is connected 

to the future. I don’t want my studies to remain in the form of an article; they should translate 

into everyday life and do good to people. On the other hand, you get noticed when 

you win an award, and being recognized is important too. Awards aren’t 

an end for me, but perhaps a means. 

In your speech for TED Talks, I couldn’t help but notice that you mentioned your mother twice. 

What was her contribution in you becoming who you are today? You had said that your mother 

encouraged you on matters that others simply laughed off. 

Yes, absolutely. While my mother was kneading dough in the kitchen, she was 

kneading my life into shape as well. I used to tell my ideas to my mother; actually, I 

would speak to everyone about them. I am a very open person. But my mom was different; she 

didn’t comment on my ideas, but helped me pursue them. My mother has no boundaries. As I said 

in that speech, my mom always says “everyone lives their own life.” And that is true – she helped 

me live my own life. 

3 

Stay with Love 

Canan Dağdeviren at TEDxReset 2014 

You are very fortunate. 

That I’m aware of. 

What else do you do other than science? 

I have a range of hobbies. I collect salt, for instance – the seasoning of life, if you will. I collect 

little packets of salt from all countries and I look at their crystal structure. Ties in to science. I 

also visit salt mines in different countries. 

I love cooking and I’m trying to keep up with the Turkish culture in America. I cook a variety of 

dishes and share them on Facebook. Some people think you shouldn’t be sharing pictures of 

food because there are people who won’t be able to have them. I think just the opposite: I post 

them so people can have a chance to eat them. My friends send me messages about how they 

loved a dish that I posted. I invite them over with suitable containers, I fill them, they take them 

home and eat them. Especially my young students. It’s a little difficult to get used to America, 

and I had a tough time in the beginning. I want students to eat proper food, and I enjoy seeing 

people eat.


9 

I like designing and shaping the dish as well. Everybody can make a good karnıyarık but I 

decorate the platter. I also do awareness projects. The Turkish culture reveres its elderly. 

Parents and grandparents tend to stay within the family, but this is not the case in the US, where 

the elderly are usually on their own, living in retirement homes with few visitors. My friends and 

I visit retirement homes and explain them what we are working on in a language that the elderly 

layperson can understand. It’s great for them, and great for us. We learn about the history of 

America from them. 

4 

What was the last book you read? 

The last one was Kardeşimin Hikayesi (My Brother’s Story) by Zülfü Livaneli. 

What about a book that influenced you greatly in life? 

It could be Tırpan (Scythe) by Fakir Baykurt. It was interesting to see a work of literature 

approach the ways of the rural folk, telling about their lives and hierarchy. I read it as a child and 

I still remember it. Erdal İnönü’s Anılar ve Düşünceler (Memoirs and Thoughts) in three volumes 

was also very influential. 

How about films? Which one moved you the most? 

I watch Kurtuluş (Liberation) [the story of the Turkish revolution] quite often. Interestingly, I 

return to specific parts of it before difficult exams. It contains something that refutes what we 

all know to be true in physics: energy cannot be created. But in that film, we are creating a new 

and modern country out of its completely destroyed predecessor. We are creating something 

out of nothing. 

You have always been interested in physics, but it’s a fact that physics is quite intimidating 

for a number of students. Can you recommend anything for those who believe that they don’t 

have talent for natural sciences? Can it be easy to learn physics? 

Actually, physics was difficult at first for me too. But I guess I was 

lucky because I had a great physics teacher. While I was struggling with 

memorizing physics formulas and rules, my teacher said, “Physics is the 

very essence of life; you can never memorize it. You must learn how it 

works.” This should apply to all sciences. Physics is everywhere in our lives: the displacement 

of water, the transformation of electrons into electricity when you press a button, the 

appearance of a rainbow… What I will recommend students is to be observant about everything; 

when you observe, your curiosity is evoked, and that compels you to ask questions. Having asked 

them, you do research in order to figure them out. On the other hand, you can’t expect everyone 

to love physics. People have different preferences, different tastes, different aspirations. But 

if physics is a vital part of their lives, what they need to do the most is observe. Take how leaves 

change color in the autumn, for example. Normally it’s related to biology, but physics pl ays a 

part in it as well; the arrival and absorption of light, the change in chloroforms, all that.


9 

Is it difficult being a woman scientist? What is challenging about being a woman involved in 

science? 

It is difficult. When I first came to America, I was the only woman in a group of 100 students. 

It has its pleasant sides, but they are fewer and far in between. It’s pleasant when I ask a 

question in a very gentle, polite manner, like “Would you mind telling me how this works?” I use 

the gentleness associated with being a woman to my advantage. But there are disadvantages 

too. Say a man and woman are studying the same subject. My advisor would be predisposed 

against me. I saw several people do this. They would question me more: “Did you ever try doing 

such-and-such? Did you do this yourself?” 

Even in America? 

Yes, there too. 

Did this have to do with you asking different questions, or your being a woman? 

I think it has to do with being a woman. But I did think about what you just asked: was I asking too 

many questions, and did this irk them? But I don’t think that is the case. I’m working on a project 

and the person next to me is working on the same thing, but he is male. The advisor likes his work, 

and then comes to me and asks, “Did you try this before? Do you think it will work? Did anyone 

assist you?” One question we women get often is “Did anyone assist you?” 

As if to say a woman couldn’t do it on her own. 

Yes, “Did you do this on your own?” Not in those words of course – they are more polite about it, 

but if you know anything at all, you get their insinuations. The advisor treats you nicely because 

“you’re a girl;” he doesn’t want to hurt your feelings. 

“Women are sensitive creatures” right? 

Exactly. Now I don’t say this because I’m a woman myself, but I think women are more successful 

in science. They are fertile, more sensible; they worry more about details and they ask more 

questions. They want to work on something to make it better. But I must say I never experienced 

discrimination at Sabancı University. Like I said in the TEDx conference, I lived the best two 

years of my life here. 

Since you like different questions, let me try asking you a different question too: if you were to 

imagine how the world would look like in ten thousand years, what kind of a place would it be. 

Secondly, what kind of a place would you want it to be? 

We can’t speak of the world so far in the future; there will be different worlds and this won’t be 

the only one. We should be doing intergalactic travel rather than intercity travel. There is war 

all over the place, and we are living in times when our country will be drawn into war; people are 

losing their homes, their countries. In the future, boundaries will not exist. I could even say that 

emotions won’t exist. We could be going to Mars for a vacation, or even further. About what 

kind of a place I would want it to be – like I said in a speech, I think we should spend our time and 

energy on doing more research and improving on what we already have rather than fighting each 

other. 

5


9 

We will be technologically more advanced, but I’m wishing for a fairer world at least. With 

wearable sensors and devices implanted in our bodies, we will become electronic beings with 

emotions and logic. 

What is the greatest issue with humanity today? 

The seminars that I take part in affect me a lot. This January, I was in Singapore representing 

Turkey. Nobel laureates were invited to share their experiences with younger students. 

According to the latest studies of a scientist, the greatest issue is energy. That is followed by 

water, and then by small materials, other elements. I agree with him. Energy is a great issue, a 

factor, an element. My studies are related to this. I want to produce my own energy. Humans, 

animals, vertebrates, even invertebrates are living beings that move. We need movement to live. 

What I want to do is to convert the mechanical energy that emerges as a result of everything 

we do into a different form of energy. Energy never disappears; mechanical energy turns into 

heat energy and we lose it, but I don’t want to do so. We need to convert mechanical energy into 

electrical or some other form of energy. 

What do you like most about humanity? 

Competition. Competition is important, but just between countries, but between individuals in 

science. When we begin a study, the first thing to do is go through current literature, see what 

people in other countries or even the same university have done on the subject, and we pick our 

objectives accordingly. We see that someone has built a device with an efficiency of ten percent, 

and we decide to double that. Our purpose is to take an existing thing and improve on it. That is 

why competition is important, but the way you compete is just as important. Competition could 

be constructive or destructive. In science, we want competition to be constructive. Constructive 

competition is better for humanity. 

6 

Canan talks about 

the tattoo-like 

nanotechnology device 

that she developed


9 

In my projects I like to try out different ways. Most of the things I build 

have been cited in literature, but they can’t be bent, flexed or stuck on 

your body. They are rigid substances. By utilizing different techniques, 

I am able to stick them on my arm or on my heart, I can customize its 

mechanical properties. I make them into thin substances, I make them flexible and 

resilient. I don’t settle with simply applying my physics training. I ask myself what I want out of 

life, how the devices I design should be, and design them accordingly. 

7 

Since I work with many students, men and women, from a variety of cultures, the first thing I 

do is to ask them to design a very simple device, say a pressure sensor. The designs of men are 

way different from those of women; Indians draw something entirely opposed to what is drawn 

by Turks – this is something cultural I guess. We then integrate all of their designs and come up 

with something original. There is competition among students as well, I ensure that competition 

stays alive. We pick the best students, there are many ideas and all of us have objectives, and 

we try to find the best way to reach there. There is little time, our lives are short, and I want 

to do everything that I can while can. We should not forget about love though: if you are doing 

something with love, there is life in it. 

Does anything discourage them while you’re doing all these? 

I used to get discouraged a lot. 

Like what? 

Criticism by people or professors I valued very much used to hurt me. But then I decided to 

ask everyone, take their opinions, and then run them through my my own 

thought filter, reaching my own synthesis, if you will. I define my own limits but 

the smaller pieces within those boundaries are formed out of other people’s ideas. I try to glean 

something from everyone. 

It’s a cliché, but what would your recommendations be for young students interested in 

science? 

They should try to find the right people. I was lucky because I had great people to work with at 

Hacettepe, Sabancı and Illinois. But there is something else: there are many valuable people in 

the university, so I looked into their subjects and tried to choose the one closest to my area of 

interest. The person you want to take as an example is very important, much like your skeleton. 

Secondly, I would recommend them to do more research. We almost all speak English today; if 

you can’t get a response from someone in Turkey, you can ask someone else in another country. 

Keep asking questions and you will get an answer somewhere down the line. 

I would also recommend them to seek out busy people. Busy people are usually good at what 

they do. It’s important to be part of their network.


9 

8 

Where did you learn to ask questions? 

At home. I used to ask a lot of questions as a child and even my mother was 

tired of me. But it was her who encouraged me to ask. 

When we came home from school, we did our homework, and then my mother asked how our day 

was, what homework we had, and we told her, learning how to ask questions in the meanwhile. I 

then started asking my mother things: why do you use that soap when doing the dishes? What 

does the soap do to the grease to dissolve it? Why are there suds? What is that rainbow-colored 

thing on top of the bubble? How does the water come through the tap? What happens when you 

turn off the tap, how does water stay in the pipe? Things like that… Sometimes when my father 

was washing the car, I’d ask him why he used a bucket and all that. But of course I used to ask 

unconventional things as well: What is an atom, how can we obtain one? The cartoons I used to 

watch were influential on me too: the Jetsons for example, perhaps you will remember. I wanted 

to know when we could have cars like theirs. 

What does the “I” tattooed on your arm mean? 

It’s the emblem of the University of Illionis. Actually though, it’s not a tattoo; it’s a device. 

Really? 

Yes. You can touch but you won’t feel it by hand. It is 100 times thinner than a strand of hair. 

Since it is so thin, it can be affixed on the skin. It has a thin layer of polymer underneath it that 

has the same mechanical properties as skin, so I can bend and flex it.


9 

The reason it looks like a tattoo is to hide the circuitry beneath it. We have cartoon characters 

for children or infants. 

What does it do then? 

The one I’m wearing is not active at the moment, but this actually is a pressure sensor. It tells you 

your blood pressure when you put it on your arm, eliminating the need for sphygmomanometers 

and all the stranglehold. This is particularly good for elderly people or newborns with highly 

sensitive skin. You wear it on your arm and it tells the pressure and volume of the blood that runs 

through, and can say how old the patient is. 

Does it send all this info to a computer? 

Yes, it’s like a reader and even works with phones. You simply put the phone near the patch and 

it receives wireless transmission to let you know about your vitals. Or you can use very thin and 

flexible cables to connect it to a reader device. 

Thank you for this pleasant interview. 

My pleasure. 

9


7 

Our minds are drawn into a gutter that extends forever. It began to seem like a dream to channel 

our internal energy to creative things without transforming into one of the cogwheels of the 

system. Then, only two months before graduation, I heard something that gave me hope and 

excitement. There was some guy called Osman who did great things; they said he was both fun 

and creative. I decided to go meet him. 

I hit the road on a beautiful Friday to listen to him at Kadıköy TAK (Design Workshop Kadıköy), 

where he would be speaking in an Open School Event. I wasn’t among a masquerade of people 

who defined themselves with whatever wrote on their business card; this place was vibrant with 

people who were conscious of humanity and its creative power. A group of innovative, dynamic, 

colorful people were chatting candidly about what they did, making jokes, and leaving me in 

admiration of their smartness. I had fun, I learned a lot, and I was enthused. 

2


7 

Perhaps I should stop writing about what I felt and try to describe what actually happened. 

Some of you may already know Osman Koç, yet I should say a few things about him. 

It’s obvious that Osman is one of us. He is the real-life incarnation of the interdisciplinary 

education philosophy at Sabancı University. On his website www.kocosman.com, he describes 

himself as a mechatronic engineer and interaction designer. He is among the founders of İskele 

47, and he teaches graduate courses for Yeditepe University. 

There is a personal reason that I add the “graduate courses” detail: I wish all “educators” shared 

such a mentality – we would probably have a breakthrough in the education system. 

What kind of a place is this İskele 47, then? 

İskele 47 is a “maker house” in the Yeldeğirmeni neighborhood of Kadıköy, and as far as I 

understand, it is a friendly and visionary establishment that is open to everyone who wants to 

know and make things. 

What is a “maker”? 

This concept was quite alien to me until I came across a video which I think is quite 

self-explanatory: 

3 

What is a “maker”? 

In his speech at TAK, Osman said “tuning interactive media to everyday life” about being a 

maker. Well, why not? 

Nevertheless, I will note one of my favorite explanations here: 

Being a “maker” is “to question how to produce something, whether there 

is a way to produce it, before consuming it.” 

In short, these makers are a fine bunch, let me tell you. I saw them with my own eyes. They are 

people who cross boundaries, question things, know how to have fun, and transport fun to a 

different platform that is far from the conventional to make use of it. 

What does Osman enjoy doing? 

Osman defines his work as “Making things you see around you more intricate.” 

Apparently he loves everything that he does, but as he pointed out in his speech, his specific area 

of interest is the crossroads of his work on “interactive setting and physical interface design” 

with psychoanalysis. I should say that it is a startling mind that thinks on “how to make people 

aware of their decision-making mechanisms in a different way?”


7 

How does Osman do what he does? 

As far as I have observed and noted a few times above, Osman has fun while doing it. He is looking 

into “experimental, different methods for interactivity” and emphasizes: “When showing an idea 

for which you have received no reaction, it’s not optimal to show the finalized idea straight away. 

You need iteration.” He is focused on creating together, avoiding excessive personal exposure 

in the production process, not being afraid to make mistakes, and embracing all outputs of the 

process. Osman says that he works with people from all walks of life which adds a lot to him, and 

when you see his work you will agree that they are quite unlike the fairly stable, low-risk tolerance 

jobs the examples of which we see everywhere around us. They are as striking as Osman, and 

as varied and colorful in their appeal as the people he works with. I strongly recommend that 

you check out the projects that Osman takes part in to see how he can redesign interaction and 

experience in the most effective way. The projects Osman wanted us to see in particular and 

shared at Kadıköy TAK are below: 

4 

“Hyperpresence: 

Telepresence via 

Quantum Cinema” 

“The Brain Race: 

Brain controlled car race” 

“The Language 

of Silence” 

“On Air: Interactive 

Dance Performance” 

If you’d like to see more, be sure to check out his website at


7 

5 

My questions 

to Osman 

What can you say about İskele 47? I haven’t had the chance to visit it myself, yet I was quite 

excited about what I heard. What can we say to the readers? 

Our intention was not to build a brand and become an agency. In there, we’re all independent. 

İskele 47 is an umbrella, an address. It’s not a business. It’s everyone’s 

studio. When we couldn’t agree on a name, we went back to the idea of this being an address, 

and decided to let the address define the place. We’re located at İskele Street, number 47. 

Once we got going, things changed greatly. The interaction with each other was a catalyst 

for many things. For example, Bager paved the way for teaching graduate courses here by 

persuading schools. Teaching courses in workshops isn’t very common in universities. We 

overcame some obstacles (insurance, security and such) and signed various contracts to create 

this education model. For the time being, Yeditepe, Bahçeşehir and Yıldız Technical universities 

give some of their courses in the workshop. We are also undertaking paid jobs, artistic work and 

others. There are no videos for many of the jobs. We’re not that good in documentation. We didn’t 

redesign the place in the beginning, by the way. We let it go through its natural, organic process of 

evolution and change. 

İskele 47 is a two-floor house with a small garden. Upstairs is the workshop; Bager and I are there. 

The girls are downstairs. They have an advertising agency there and do concept design. They 

work with us too. It’s good for them as well because we’re right there for them. As the top floor, 

we’re not keen on growth. When you grow, you need to manage things. We don’t like to manage, 

we like to create. We try to keep to the R&D side of things. We can say that we do custom work. 

What makes İskele 47 different has to do less with us and more with the sustainable business 

model here. I can take a leave for 6 months but nothing will happen to İskele 47. 

I said that İskele 47 is an umbrella. Once we opened this place, we had organizations we worked 

with who needed a place like this, so they came too. Amber is one. Amber is behind the Open 

School as well. Amber closed their place and came to İskele 47. Many other organizations are 

based here. 

Once the Maker Fair became popular in Turkey, our place came into focus. This motivated us to 

do more intricate projects. Taking the course out of the school liberates the students. This is a 

workshop where a project is always in the building. Some projects start as course assignments 

for a number of students, and for others, they are completely separate from the assignment. 

They become more productive. When the projects attracted the attention of the market… 

I can also speak about the Maker Dojo and Coder Dojo.


7 

Coder Dojo is a universal organization which was the first to arrive; the Maker Dojo came later. 

We teach coding to children between the age of 6 to 15 on Monday evenings, between 6 and 8 

pm. I don’t have anything to do with the Coder Dojo, and I’m not qualified to teach children either. 

But Bager has a daughter who is four, and he knows how to work with them. Coder Dojo is a 

global organization that acts locally. We are the Kadıköy Yeldeğirmeni leg. 

6 

In cities like Istanbul, you expend much more energy as distances increase, and this tends to 

exhaust people. This motivated us into being more local. To save on the energy consumed while 

traveling in the city, we reduced distances and kept our office close to our homes. İskele 47 itself 

is a place that we can use however we like. 

The Maker Dojo was then established based on the courses Bager taught at the university to 

add to the Coder Dojo. There is no age limit for the Maker Dojo, but it is more oriented towards 

university students and new graduates. They gain the ability to make things when they grow 

a little older. We provide an environment where the work is translated to projects, hoping 

to achieve a sustainable model. The workshop is open for use free of charge, and numerous 

projects are made. We then try to sell the projects via an agency by making videos of them. This 

might be called a fundraising model. We also try to get them to work as mentors in the Coder 

Dojo. The schools aren’t limited to the schools we offer graduate courses for, but we started out 

with them because they were our first point of contact. 

After all this, we did the Maker Fair. The Maker Fair has a core organization team of about 20 

people. We are among the curators. The Fair was divided into six and each section had its own 

area, İskele 47 had an area as well. That is how İskele 47 works: Maker Dojo on one hand, Coder 

Dojo on the other, our own jobs and such. 

Where does this vision come from? How were they unable to win you over to the side of 

money, and you continued creating, making, getting carried away? 

I was never interested in that way of life since childhood. In my senior year in high school, I was 

playing in a band at the Kemancı bar; I was thinking of making music. This went on in university 

as well. When I was a student, my department was called Microelectronics. Microelectronics 

is the design of the interior of a microchip. I didn’t see it applied in real life. There was cardlevel 

design, but no chip-level design. Meanwhile, I was taking compulsory art history courses 

outside of the faculty of engineering. I learned how to print copper circuits. I did my first circuit, 

and the second impression was an album cover of Smiths. This was an advantage of being at 

Sabancı. The isolation was also an advantage. I could concentrate fully on my research. Since 

all labs were accessible all the time, I spent most of my time there. I was pulling an all-nighter in 

the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (FENS) while my friends were doing the same 

in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS). We met whenever we got bored and those 

conversations went places. When surrounded by productive people, you feel the 

need to be productive too. I pitched in to their work, and they did to mine. Then they had 

the idea to make all VACD graduation projects interactive. I did projects for many people when 

I was a master’s student. There was almost no one working on interactive jobs. We set up the 

Fass G032 Interaction Lab.


7 

Then, I met the dance department in the Istanbul Bilgi University. There was a society called 

BODİG (Body-Focused Expressions Initiative Society) and I started working with them too. 

Since there were few people in Turkey working on such projects, I got invited to many exhibitions 

that would have been out of my league otherwise. I traveled extensively because of these, and it 

was a great motivator as well. Then I started accepting paid jobs, set up the workshop, and here I 

am. 

I was thoroughly bored of regular small talk. I wanted things to have an 

effect on me. During my time, being very active was very important at Sabancı. That peer 

pressure compelled me to do these things, probably. But there are things I’d like to change about 

Sabancı now. For instance, I want to review the syllabus for SPS303. The problem with academia 

is that syllabi are not updated as quickly as the world is. Everyone who graduates from this 

school will produce “ideas” whether they are engineers or artists. And I think we must set aside a 

week or two on intellectual property rights in a course where we discuss ethics. 

Another thing on my mind is spreading the maker business around the nation. The social 

responsibility aspect is kicking in. I had worked within the CIP during my second year anyway. 

I must give credit where it is due: I realize just how much Sabancı contributed to me as time 

passes. 

I’m curious about why you are interested in psychoanalysis. 

Family reasons. I lost my father when I was 10. I was quite early to discover what I enjoyed 

and what I didn’t. In time, I switched from reading Russian classics to texts on Zen, Reiki and 

such. All of these came together in psychoanalysis. I love the predictability of decision-making 

mechanisms. The system interacts with you without “your” control and based on “your” data – 

I love the inherent tension there. 

For some, time is money; for others, it is the moment itself. What do you think about time? 

I prefer not to think about it at all because it’s no use. One should find something better to think 

on. If, at the end of the day, what I want to do is to improve my own effectiveness, that only 

happens if you shut down the brain and let the body produce. To quote Douglas Adams: “I love 

deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.” And I love meetings for 

the same reason: it’s great to be late to them. I haven’t set an alarm for years. I 

don’t even have an alarm clock. 

Osman is a lovable person for his respect for the flow of things, for being creative and dynamic. 

I wish I had room to tell you everything he said to me. But if you’ve felt like “he reminds me of 

myself” be sure to show up at İskele 47 sometime. You can also check a previous interview with 

Osman Koç in SuDergi, and get an idea about his journey rather than limiting yourself to what the 

present-day Osman is. If every person is a book, make sure to pick up this one. 

7 

Enjoy!


6 

1 

Digital work by Cins titled Gerg 

“ Cins ” 

Marks 

The Streets 

Interview Cansu Özdemir


6 

2 

“Cins” is a pseudonym that appears beneath many graffiti works in Istanbul’s 

Kadıköy and other districts, as well as other provinces in Turkey. The artist 

has a unique form and dynamic, colorful creations. When I found out that 

he was a Sabancı University graduate and would be visiting the school in 

the days to come for a project, I went to the Yeldeğirmeni neighborhood 

of Kadıköy to visit Cins’ workshop to get to know him better and ask him 

about his upcoming project. I arrived half an hour early, so I walked around 

in Yeldeğirmeni. Climbing up the hill from the coast, I was greeted by a 

neighborhood that was unexpectedly warm in such a central location. Small 

cafes and eateries, numerous art studios, kids playing ball outside, street 

vendors walking up and down made me feel that I had traveled two or three 

decades back in time. I was even more eager to meet Cins after I saw that 

many buildings in the neighborhood were decorated with graffiti and the 

majority of them were signed Cins. I went to his workshop after taking 

countless pictures of the streets.


6 

First of all, I must ask you about your pseudonym. 

In an undergraduate illustration project we were required to create a character and give him 

or her an identity and a story. I had named that character “Cins”; in time, it stuck with me and I 

decided to use it as a pseudonym. “Cins” is a weighty word in Turkish; it not only means “genus, 

type” but also “gender” and is at the root of “sexuality” with an additional connotation of “quirky” 

– since I was using organic forms and working on a different, independent genre, the name 

became me. “Cins” is not a nickname that someone gave me, but a pseudonym that grew on me in 

time. 

In your paintings and graffiti, you use a form that is unique to you, and, just as you said, 

“organic.” What can you say about this form in general and how it emerged? 

In fact, I enjoy using anonymous pieces as much as I use unique forms in 

my work, because I love that anonymity of the street. But yes, the organic form 

takes up the majority. As for why it is organic, it wasn’t an observable process. I was drawing 

all the time and experimenting with all sorts of figures, but then I realized that I was leaning 

towards these curvy lines. This could have been the influence of the cartoons I watched when I 

was a child, of Walt Disney characters. The form took shape in time; I didn’t start drawing like 

this overnight, but arrived at this point through experimentation, evolution, trial and error. 

3


6 

You have a bachelor’s degree in Graphics Design from Yeditepe University, and a master’s 

degree in Visual Communication Design from Sabancı. How did you choose this field? When 

did you first discover your talent for design? 

I have been interested in graffiti since middle school. Starting then, and even though I was a 

mathematics student, I drew sketches in the sidelines of my textbooks instead of solving the 

problems in them. I was 16 when I did my first graffiti in the street. I wasn’t very successful 

of course, and I was simply writing on the wall rather than doing what I do today. Being a 

mathematics student and good at geometry, I wanted to study architecture – indeed, I believe 

there is something geometrical, architectural to my work. Anyway, I wasn’t admitted to the 

architecture department I wanted, but I didn’t want to let go of my passion for design. I was 

visiting my older sister in London in those days, and flicking through design books in her school’s 

library, I decided that graphics design was just what I wanted. I can say that by complete chance, 

I made my mind in a day. Although I’m doing illustrations now rather than graphics design, I owe 

my fundamental education to graphics. 

“Being an artist in Turkey” is, unfortunately, something insecure, to be avoided. What was most 

difficult about being an artist in Turkey for you? 

Not “was” – it still is difficult for me. For a number of reasons known to everyone, we don’t live 

in the middle of art like a European does, and there are fewer people here who understand and 

appreciate art. That makes it very difficult to make a living out of art. I went to Sabancı partly 

because I worried about what I would do and how I would earn money in the future; I enjoyed 

doing what I did, but I wanted to learn more so I could have more options. So yes it is very 

difficult, the making and even worse, the selling of art, but I enjoy what I do and if we only 

have one shot at life, we’d better fill it with the things we like. 

4


6 

There are people whose view of graffiti is that of vandalism. What’s your take on this? What 

can be done to put a perspective on things, to make sure that the society understands that this 

is art? 

There really are people who use graffiti as a form of vandalism. There is the “paint bomb” 

method where you fill a thin plastic bag, light bulb, condom or balloon with paint and throw it at 

the wall. This may not be the same thing as breaking someone’s window or slashing a tire, but 

for people who are indifferent to the esthetical aspect of it, it’s easy to view this as an act of 

vandalism committed against “their” streets and homes. Many people do miss out on its esthetic 

aspect. This has to do with awareness. 

5


6 

I have been offering a free workshop at Istanbul Modern for 4 years where I work with high 

school or university students and participants who are older than me, and at the end of the day, 

I can see that many people’s attitude towards graffiti changes. Such informative events could 

help to change the view. 

6 

Your graffiti art is found on many walls across neighborhoods like Galata, Bomonti, Taksim, 

Moda, Erenköy, Suadiye, Çanakkale and Sakarya. How does it feel to “leave a mark?” 

It feels awesome, but you must not be carried away with the sense of belonging because you 

need to accept that your work is not permanent. Except the joint projects with the municipality, 

all of it will be gone at some point. I used to have a lot more graffiti near Suadiye where I live, 

but most were “cleaned” in time. Of course, seeing my work on a wall while passing through a 

neighborhood does make me feel that I belong there, much like a dog marking his territory. 

What is your design process? Are there any works that take weeks of your time and several 

drafts to perfect, or are you inclined to work spontaneously? What are you most inspired by? 

My commissions are more systematic; I know where to start and end, and how many days it will 

take me to complete each part. To be honest, this type of paid work does not excite me much 

– they are there to make a living. Others are improvised variations on things that have been 

going around in my head for some time, and develop spontaneously during the actual application 

phase when I add and remove some elements on the spot. I like letting myself loose, I am more 

eager to work, and I can’t wait to get up in the morning and come to the studio because even I 

don’t know what will come of it in the end. 

I had the chance to walk around Yeldeğirmeni before I came here, and I saw that almost every 

wall was a different work of art. I couldn’t help but regret all that I may have missed while 

walking along the streets. How is the “Cins” view of the street; how do you walk in it? 

Like you said, people tend to miss out on much of the beauty that surrounds them when they are 

embroiled in the workaday world. But I think people have become more conscious after Gezi 

Park. Starting with the reaction against the painting-over of the rainbowcolored 

steps, people are more aware of street artists and their views are 

changing. 

During the Arab Spring, the people of Egypt resorted to graffiti to make themselves heard. 

How do you think graffiti serves democracy? 

The street is where I contact and communicate with people through my 

visual work. I believe that the street is a great power that is instrumental 

both in individual liberation and social integration. Writing something on a 

wall in the street makes you heard by more people compared to writing the same thing on your 

Facebook wall, which was inspired by wall writings anyway.


6 

I have heard that you are beginning a project with Sabancı University to make housing 

buildings more colorful and attractive Can you tell me more? 

I was sitting in my studio one day when Onur Yazıcıgil called and spoke of a project to decorate 

the walls of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, where the Visual Communication 

Department is also located. The project is not finalized yet; we’re still shaping it because we 

don’t want the walls to be covered with my work only; we definitely want students to be involved 

as well. We intend t light a spark and hope that the fire spreads to other walls and faculties – so 

the process is unknown and unpredictable for us too. It’s particularly important that Sabancı 

University is giving this a chance, because the campus is a place that is outside of the city and is 

populated mostly by students who spend much of their time there, so its decoration should be 

close to how the students want to see the place. 

As students who live there, we are quite eager to see our everyday locations livened up and 

infused with color. The school will be a busy place in the days to come and we are excited to be 

a part of it. Thank you for this great interview. 

6 

Images courtesy of: http://cciinnss.tumblr.com/graffiti • http://mixerarts.com/sanatci/cins-cins

ART 

4 

1 

By Elif Gulez 

Celebrating 100 years 

of turkish cinema 

A Warm 

November 

Evening 

In Emirgan

ART 

4 

2 

When Berna (Özkul) suggested we go to the first 

“Film Days” in the Museum together, my first excuse was “How on earth do we get 

to the Museum during rush hour?” I followed with, “Assuming we ever got there, 

how will we get back?” The Sakıp Sabancı Museum had planned a series of events 

to commemorate the 100th year of Turkish Cinema, and starting on November 19, 

ten films picked from Atilla Dorsay’s book 100 Yılın 100 Türk Filmi (100 Turkish 

Films of the Century) were to be screened every Wednesday over the course of 10 

weeks. The first was the 1987 Muhsin Bey. What made this screening special 

was that director Yavuz Turgul and lead actor Şener Şen were joining 

Atilla Dorsay for a panel discussion after the screening. 

I had seen Muhsin Bey in the ‘90s, probably on TV. 

When I racked my brain to remember something about the film, I was quite 

surprised to realize that I had nothing to remember. Watching it again could be 

interesting. Listening to Şener Şen and Yavuz Turgul was also appealing. 

I decided that I should stop excuses, and got in the car straight after my meeting 

on campus and zipped to the Museum (I actually did – miraculously, 

there was no traffic). 

When I walked into the conference hall in the Museum at a quarter to five, 

a full house greeted me. They had even had to place additional seating! 

(A retired literature teacher who spoke in the panel after the event said she had 

come all the way from İzmir for this event.) 

The film started right on time and ended towards 7 pm. 

When Yavuz Turgul and Şener Şen entered the hall with 

Atilla Dorsay for the panel, they received a standing ovation. 

I have to admit that I don’t know enough about film to comment on the whole 

discussion, so I will share my notes with you.

ART 

4 

ZÜĞÜRT AĞA 

3 

Şener Şen was a grade school teacher by profession, but he had acting in mind. He started in 

theater. At first, he didn’t take film seriously. What made him take it seriously was the difference 

in how Arzu Film worked. When Ertem Eğilmez interviewed him for the lead role in Züğürt Ağa, 

he took one look at him and said he was going to play the part. Yavuz Turgul said that Şen had 

everything an extraordinary actor needed to have, and caused a tremendous difference in the 

established “bad guy” in Turkish cinema with Züğürt Ağa. 

Director Nesli Çölgeçen was, in Turgul’s words, kind enough to not change anything in the script he 

wrote. Turgul spoke of his irritation with some directors completely reworking the script. 

Şener Şen liked the script for Züğürt Ağa so much that he lost sleep over it. 

MUHSİN BEY 

When the film opened in 1987, it was a box office bomb. When Turgul was in the theater watching 

the film, there were only five people in the audience, including him and his wife. “Every film 

has a fate” says Turgul. Apparently, Muhsin Bey’s fate was solemnly accepted. When, years 

later (I think) director Elia Kazan ran into Şener Şen for some reason, and warmly hugged and 

congratulated him for his acting in Muhsin Bey, this felt more precious to Turgul than many 

awards. Turgul said that he was always self-conscious of “meaningful” words when writing a 

script, and that he was happy if he could achieve “purity.” Later he added that he was specifically 

after achieving this purity and casting off the excesses. 

EŞKİYA 

This film did what Muhsin Bey couldn’t in the box office, and, according to Dorsay, “avenged 

Muhsin Bey.” When Dorsay asked Turgul how he made this remarkable achievement, he simply 

said, “I don’t know. This was one of my routine productions.” (I must be honest: we are living in 

times when everyone knows everything perfectly, so his candidness about how he had no idea 

stirred something in me.) About the film, Şener Şen said, “No one can predict box office success, 

but I knew it was a great film.” He added, “Good things are noticed, they never disappear.” 

They said that the first week was crucial for a new film. A film that will be successful starts with a 

high number of viewers in the first week and slowly declines as weeks go by. This was exactly the 

opposite of what happened to Eşkiya: the number of viewers increased over time. 

GÖNÜL YARASI AND AV MEVSİMİ 

Turgul said that these were the work of his “casting off excesses” period. He also said that for 

these films, he didn’t let Şener Şen “shine” as an actor; rather, he “blotted” him instead. It appears 

that Şen enjoyed the opportunity to do a “different kind of acting” in Av Mevsimi.

ART 

4 

4 

“Collective Writing” at Arzu Film 

In the 1980s, film business in Yeşilçam was a 

collective affair. There were times when the 

script was written on the set, together with 

the actors. This was part of the business 

model of Arzu Film, the production company 

owned by director Ertem Eğilmez, particularly 

known for his Hababam Sınıfı series. 

At the Bak Cafeteria in Beyoğlu, actors and 

actresses like Zeki Alasya, Metin Akpınar, 

Halit Akçatepe, Adile Naşit, Ayşen Gruda and 

Müjde Ar would meet with Ertem Eğilmez and 

chip in to the story. Some sort of “collective 

creative writing” I suppose. 

Behind the Scenes 

of Gönül Yarası 

ŞENER ŞEN DOESN’T DO INTERVIEWS 

One final thing: during the Q&A session, another teacher told Şener Şen that she called him time 

and again on his mobile for an interview for their school newspaper, but was unable to get one. 

It turns out that Şener Şen never did interviews. 

The teacher then asked Şen whether he preferred tragedies or comedies as an actor. Şen avoids 

answering with subtle humor that becomes him. I can’t accuse him: I think asking a question is no 

joking matter. To ask a question, you need to be curious about something. To ask a good question, 

you need to be curious about something that is different from what everybody else wants to 

know about. 

You shouldn’t ask questions that don’t have an answer, or questions that have been asked to 

death before and didn’t exactly make history with their answers. A snobbish statement to end my 

article.

ALUMNI & ALUMNAE 

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3 

2 

After completing my master’s in Materials Science and Engineering at 

Sabancı University, I relocated to Japan for my PhD, and I am now a 

doctorate student in the Future Industry Oriented Materials Science and 

Engineering Program implemented by the Toyota Technological Institute and 

Toyota’s R&D company. This is a three year program, and I have been in 

Japan for over a year. I’d like to share my impressions of this place and 

the challenges I had in a different culture. 

Life starts early, and not just during the week. It’s possible to see 

packed cars in the first metro or train of the day, or run into heavy traffic 

very early in the morning. Seeing students in uniform on the weekend 

is something to be expected in Japan. What really amazes me is their 

ability to work very long hours and still take pleasure in and have fun with 

what they do. Older generations even work on weekends, but a friend 

of mine said that this was a remnant of the redevelopment efforts after 

World War II. The young generation prefer to make time for themselves 

and their families rather than working for long hours like their fathers 

or grandfathers did. They believe that working long hours is a form of 

slavery that reduces efficiency. Even though my friends and colleagues 

say I work hard, I can’t help but feel lazy in their presence. Something 

that changed with the young generation is the place of women in the 

working world. Beforehand, men used to work outside and women would 

take care of everything else at home, including the budget. Now with 

younger generations, men are sharing the responsibilities with women. The 

government is also working to encourage women to work full-time rather 

than part-time, but for some companies full-time means 12 hours! That’s 

why some women prefer to work part-time after marrying. 

Another thing that drew my attention regarding their working principles is 

the importance they place on teamwork and their being solution-oriented. 

Teamwork perhaps has its origins in their culture. The Far Eastern culture 

values “we” over “I”. That philosophy leads them to be secretive about 

what they feel. They always have a smile on their face and they rarely 

ever say anything even if they are positively irritated. You are expected 

to realize what they think and feel by looking at their gestures and 

expressions. This was particularly difficult and challenging for me at first. 

The smile doesn’t mean they are happy. They believe that an angry face 

will send the wrong message to others, and by sending a positive message 

despite what they may feel will create good harmony. They are confident 

that doing so will overcome all difficulties and disasters. I think the land 

itself compelled them to find solutions rather than complain. Being an


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CLASSNOTES 

1 

1 

Mezher Adlı ’02 – Biological Sciences and 

Bioengieering, Graduate 

Spoke about his GENOM research in 

the United States to columnist Vahap 

Munyar of the Hürriyet daily. Vahap 

Munyar commented that Mezher Adlı and 

his team covered significant ground in 

cracking the code of cancer. 

Melih Özsöz ’04 – Social and Political 

Sciences, Undergraduate 

He spoke to the June issue of Esquire 

Business Class about the “Çöpmadam” 

project, of which he is a founding partner. 

Özge Akbulut ’04 – Materials Science 

and Engineering, Undergraduate 

Also a member of faculty, Özge Akbulut 

received the first investment for her 

startup company Surgitate from the 

Arya Women’s Platform. After starting 

mass production and receiving support in 

other areas, Surgitate intends to make a 

difference in plastic surgery. 

Arzu Bolgül ’05 – Cultural Studies, 

Undergraduate 

’12 – Management for Executives, Graduate 

Had a baby boy named Ozan on July 24th, 

2014. 

Hande Çayır ’05 – Visual Arts and Visual 

Communication Design, Undergraduate 

Plays the part of Şükran in “Medcezir,” a 

TV series made by Ay Production. 

Özge Akçizmeci ’05 – Economics, 

Undergraduate 

Two market surveys she conducted with 

her teammates were chosen among 75 

submissions to receive 

Send in 

two 

your 

“Visionary 

news to... 

Owl” awards in the “Owl Awards” given 

Ebru Hüsrevoğlu ’09 – Materials Science 

and Engineering, Undergraduate ’11 – 

Industry Leaders Materials Science and 

Engineering, Graduate 

Vehbi Baysak ’09 – Mechatronic 

Engineering, Undergraduate’11 – MBA, 

Graduate 

Our graduates married on September 27, 

2014. 

Sena Suerdem ’10 – Management, 

Undergraduate 

Spoke on behalf of her company which 

won the Service Industry Competitive 

Strength Grand Prize at the fourth 

Competitive Strength Awards held by 

the Federation of Industry Associations 

in partnership with TÜSİAD-Sabancı 

University Competition Forum. 

Sinan Tuncay ’10 – Visual Arts and Visual 

Communication Design, Undergraduate 

is videHis His video installation project 

“Annem Evde Yok – Mom’s Not Home” 

inspired by woman figures in old Turkish 

melodramas was accepted to the 

permanent collection of the “Istanbul 

Modern” Museum of Contemporary Arts. 

Alper Yılmaz ’11 – Social and Political 

Sciences, Undergraduate 

He was chosen in the elimination rounds 

of the “O Ses Türkiye” TV talent show to 

compete in Team Mazhar-Özkan. 

Can Altunbulaklı ’11 – Biological Sciences 

and Bioengieering, Undergraduate 

He is currently pursuing a PhD on asthma 

and allergy in the Swiss Institute of 

Allergy and Asthma alumni@sabanciuniv.edu 

Research of the 

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology 

in Zurich (ETH). His doctorate project

NEW RELEASES 

NEOLİBERALLİZM, İSLAMCI 

SERMAYENİN YÜKSELİŞİ ve AKP 

HAZIRLAYANLAR 

Neşecan Balkan 

Erol Balkan 

Ahmet Öncü 

YORDAM KİTAP 

2014 

THE NEOLIBERAL 

LANSCAPE and THE 

RISE of ISLAMIST 

CAPITAL IN TURKEY 

EDITED BY 

Neşecan Balkan 

Erol Balkan 

Ahmet Öncü 

BERGHAHN 

DISLOCATIONS 

2015

CITY UNDISCOVERED 

3 

1 

Photos Melek Sarı


3 

2


3 

3 

The breathtaking graffiti work on the empty walls of Yeldeğirmeni buildings 

was made within the Mural Istanbul project of the Municipality of Kadıköy. 

For more information (in Turkish), please click here:

TAG 

Issue 1, 2015 

Complimentary 

Owner Sabancı University 

Editor-in-Chief Elif Gülez 

Editorial Coordinator Melek Sarı 

Editorial Board Member Berna Özkul 

Authors in this issue 

Cansu Özdemir 

Elif Gülez 

Melek Sarı 

Pınar Bozkurt 

Contributors to this issue 

A. Nihat Berker, Ali Nihat Eken, Alkım Zeliha Avşar, Ayşe Kadıoğlu, Betina Reyna, Canan Dağdeviren, 

CINS, Hüseyin Güven, Halil Berktay, Nursi Aslan, Osman Koç, Sabancı University alumni and Sezen 

Gülşen Kama, Sıla Okur, Türker Soner 

Production MYRA 

Coordination Engin Doğan 

Design Supervisor Rauf Kösemen 

Design and Execution Harun Yılmaz 

Cover and Logo Animation Volkan Ekşi 

Proofreading Ece Çelik 

Type of publication 

Semi-popular culture journal published for the University community 

Advertising Coordinator 

Melek Sarı 0216 483 91 06 meleksari@sabanciuniv.edu 

Management Location 

Marketing and Institutional Communication 

Sabancı University Orhanlı, Tuzla 34956 Istanbul 

T +90 216 483 91 06 

F +90 (216) 483 90 45 

email: scripta@sabanciuniv.edu 

© All rights reserved. 

Sabancı University is exclusively authorized to duplicate and reprint any 

articles, images and illustrations in this journal in electronic and other media. 

Sabancı University may issue written permission to duplicate part or all of this 

journal’s content from time to time.

Scripta english

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