Contemporary Istanbul, 7 October 2021-7 January 2022
Environmentally Interactive Synthesizer
Volkan Dinçer’s video, Umwelthesizer/ Environmentally Interactive Synthesizer (2021), which is being displayed at Açıkekran, opens with the image of nature’s sublimity presented within the quiet of its magnificence. Next, images highlighting environmental protection and living in harmony with nature are followed by sudden eerie, uncanny sounds. These mechanical sounds mix with the sounds of nature, of animals, birds and frogs in the images that flow, reminding us of how nature is not left alone in all its grandeur. While coming to this realization, we also witness how civilization and its technologies are not experienced independently, but alongside nature.
When nature presents its sublime image again, it portrays how the quiet fog, which was also presented at the beginning, is connected to the environment in a most natural way. The images remind us how nature, a preterhuman being, becomes a part of even the most primitive life forms. Next, the blending of the glow from the technological synthesizers with the shades of the night connects nature’s sublimity to the sublimity of technology. The effect of this technique makes us forget about humans and existence and carries us to another place of synthesis, where we ponder the combined power that nature and its technology have over human beings.