#rp20 Speaker Pinar Yoldas—Ecocide, imperceptibility and anthropocene

In her work, artist, designer and researcher Pinar Yoldas focusses on topics like posthumanism, the anthropocene, neuroscience and feminist technoscience.

Already at the age of five, Pinar exhibited her paintings and became the youngest artist with an exhibition in Turkey. Today, she expresses herself through architectural installations, kinetic sculptures, sound, video and drawing. One of her most impressive works is the project “An Ecosystem of Excess”. For this she created a post-human ecosystem of speculative organisms and their imagined environment. With the installation “The Kitty AI: Artificial Intelligence for Governance” she created an artificial intelligence with the affective capacities of a kitten to become the first non-human governor.

Besides her creative work, Pinar Yoldas studied architecture, visual communications, information technology, and new media art. She received a Certificate for Cognitive Neuroscience from Duke University, USA. Here she also wrote her PhD thesis titled “Speculative Biologies: New Directions in Art in the Age of the Anthropocene”. Find Pinar Yoldas Twitter feed here.

ASAP—3 questions for … Pinar Yoldas

We asked Pinar about her talk at re:publica 20, the most pressing issues for her at the moment and her recommended readings, music or movies.

What topic will you talk about at #rp20?
Art and architecture against ecocide / imperceptibility or anthropocene as a problem of aesthetics / senses (my new work for Venice Architectural Biennial titled “3 Oceans”)

True to this year’s motto—what’s the most pressing issue for you personally at the moment?
Cultural/mass transformation from excessive consumerism to other ways of being.

What’s your reading, movie or music recommendation that everyone should check out ASAP?

Reading
I'm reading “Always Coming Home” by Ursula Le Guin. Always recommend a Le Guin book.

Movie
I just watched "Ailo's Journey—The Amazing Odyssey of a Newborn Reindeer" because it's christmas and there are reindeer images everywhere. The documentary created a greater contrast between what we think is going on and what's actually going on. Pregnant reindeers are heavily affected by climate change as shifts in temperature affects their delivery and thorough the documentary while we fall in love with the cuteness of Ailo a baby reindeer, we also feel the agony of a species whose numbers decreased in half within a decade.

We would like to thank Pinar Yoldas for her answers and look forward to seeing her on stage at re:publica 20!