Smellscapes of Istanbul

June 17-30, 2012

Eminönü, Istanbul, Turkey

A part of Urban Cultural Heritage & Cultural Heritage

Hosted by Koç University

Interdisciplinary researchers and creative practitioners from the six partners of the international research collaborative Urban Cultural Heritage & Creative Practice will be meeting in Istanbul, Turkey this summer for their first summer research field project. Working alongside students and faculty of Koc University Istanbul, the research team will collaboratively explore, document and find ways of exhibiting smellscapes in the district of Eminönü in Istanbul. Archival and historical research is currently being undertaken by faculty and students at Koc University to find traces of sensorial expressions (smell, sound, taste, touch, etc.) within the histories and heritages of Eminönü, Istanbul. A bustling spice market, adjacent to flower markets, coffee roasters, the city’s central transport depot of buses, taxis and ferries as well as the pungent fish restaurants and fisherman of Galata Bridge and some of the city’s well known mosques, Eminönü is a complex cacophony and palimpsest of senses. Broad theoretical questions around how ephemeral senses of smell, taste and sound persist over time and generations as well as practical questions of how to encounter, capture, document and share/exhibit these persistent olfactory and acoustic heritages will be explored.

Watch Prof. Lucienne Thys-Senocak’s (Koc University) introduction to Eminönü and the project scenario here.

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Photos by Özge Akpinar