Written by Pelin Daldık
Project "Nomad" - Gözde Erdem
Ters-Yüz: Re-thinking the potentials was realised at the santralistanbul campus on 28 May – 16 August 2019. The exhibition, which featured the senior design projects of Department of Industrial Design students at Istanbul Bilgi University, invited designers and users to reconsider the relationships they form in a social, cultural, and economic context. Six students who took the course titled IND 324 Design Writing and Editorship wrote about six projects from the exhibition. The relationship between the pieces and projects coincides with one of the aims of the Istanbul Design Biennial, which is forming a space of constant learning and reflection. In order to encourage young people to reflect upon issues that revolve around design, the IDB will be publishing these six pieces every week.
Next up is “Nomad” by Pelin Daldık.
‘Göçebe’ the Turkish word for nomad, is used to express ‘someone that moves inside a specific region with tents, animals, and other vehicles due to various conditions; person or community that is not settled, migrant, nomadic,’ and is derived from the word ‘göç’ (migration), which means ‘the act of transporting from one residence to another, moving on, emigration, settling in a new country by individuals or communities for economic, social, political reasons’.
People migrating for various reasons bring their lifestyles, knowledge, and habits with them. As they try to adapt to the new setting, their habits lose their dominance over time. A lot of their values change –and sometimes disappear–, both because of an effort to get used to the new habitat, and because of economic reasons. Weaving is among these values.
Primary inspiration of Nomad by designer Gözde Erdem is the ‘yörük’, the nomads that migrated from Central Asia to Anatolia. Nomads do not feel a sense of belonging to any place. They are always mobile and never settled. They settle temporarily to their habitat and pick up when the time comes.
The aim of the project is to question the craft of weaving –a craft that increasingly disappears in Turkey– through practices like inside learning and learning by doing. It also aims to examine this craft through how the concept of learning is transferred in relation to cultural structures, learning environments; hence to open these conditions to discussion and provide alternative suggestions in order to ensure this crafts’ continuation today.
The craft of weaving is a very valuable heritage that is on the brink of disappearing and cannot be sustained mainly due to economic reasons. Industrialisation had an impact on the craft of weaving over time. While weaving by hand takes a long time, it became faster and easier with machines. Although it is done faster with machines, the lack of positive effect that comes from the human soul reduces something in the process.
Hand weaving is a craft that emphasises hand-brain coordination and is learned by doing. Weaving takes on different identities in different regions. Each region has their unique codes of colour and pattern, compositions that are special to their geography. This wisdom and knowledge is a closed space that is not shared with anyone. The ropes are dyed with root paints that come from that region; hence they become exclusive to that region. The weaver usually weaves the motifs from imagination and calculates knots while weaving. This and similar situations leads to an active role of brain in weaving. The tradition of weaving is transferred to the weaver’s children, grandchildren and from generation to generation. However, today this value is almost nonexistent in cities and is on the brink of disappearing. New generations that know how to weave pursue different fields because weaving is not given the same value as before and because they cannot make money from this craft.
As a result of this inference, Gözde Erdem reimagines handcraft’s possibility of sustainibility and ways of transferring it to today’s world. Taking references from daily life in the design process, she aims to carry the tradition to today. The aim is to be able to include weaving in today’s lifestyle. Taking reference from the habit of picking up carpet by rolling it, she designs her hand-woven rug in a way that can be rolled around a cylinder surface. The product, which enables activities like sitting on the floor and lying down,adapts to today’s world with different functionalities.
The product can be positioned and picked up in any desired place. This way, it speaks the same language with both the name nomad and the migration of knowledge. As it is designed as a cylinder to ensure this, this makes it both easier to carry, and it emphasises the comforting feeling of a cylinder.
