bal,bilge

M03. aggregative multiplicities: ASSEMBLY AS KINSHIP As Tactical Imaginaries studio, we moved into our final module. In M03, we have been focusing on modular systems, relational logic, and component-based design thinking. We started exploring how simple elements behave not as fixed parts, but as active agents capable of forming larger, evolving spatial systems. We completed with our two initial hands-on making exercises as spanning and resolution for quick reflection and observation to learn from what we made. M3.02-Spanning Systems developed macro-forms out of basic components. It was built on explorations of scoring, folding, and stapling (of blank business cards) as component-based operations, and aggregation logic, geometric exploration, stability, craftmanship, and spatial qualities were intentionally developed. M3.02-Resolution: Linear Spatial Assemblies dealt with spatial assemblies through linear elements. We worked with straight, rod-like components (wooden skewers) to build up a self-supporting structural framework through the processes of joining, repetition, and gradual transformation. The emphasis was on resolution: how decisions at the smallest scale (the joint and the lengths of the skewers) influenced the behavior of the entire system. Precision, fragility were crucial key considerations for sequential structure. In our collective discussion, we grouped our approaches as linear, radial, layered, expanding in multiple directions, and branching systems, and reflected on how different strategies addressed the same design problem. photo credits: Abdullah Mallah, Bilge Bal

Bilgi Mimarlık’ın parçası olduğum için hep ayrıcalıklı hissettim kendimi, bize dağıtmamız ve yaşamamız için kurdukları ortam, yarattıkları çoklu karşılaşmalar, belki öngörmedikleri sıkı arkadaşlıklar, yaptığımız tüm hakiki tartışmalar, paylaştığımız geceler ve gündüzler, partilerimiz, kıtalararası yolculuklarımız ve ciddi ve eğlenceli türlü masalarımız için her zaman minnettarım master hocalarıma, ama en çok da İhsan hocaya. İyi ki başka yer değil de Bilgi’de kurmuşlar bu programı. E3’ün yeri ise benim için bambaşka, santralistanbul birinci yılını doldurmuştu ben kampüse ilk adım attığımda 2008’de; mimarlık lisans programı bizim masterın içine doğmuştu 2009’da. Şimdi yine buluşuyoruz, santralistanbul’da, hem de küçük bir aradan sonra. Ben de 16 Mayıs Cumartesi saat 13.00’te, tüm alt ve üst dönemden arkadaşlarımı, öğrencilerimi ve hocalarımı görmek için santralistanbul’da olacağım. Orada buluşmak dileğiyle. • bal, bilge (Mimari Tasarım’10) • tüm fotoğraflar, elbette @elifsimgef * Önemli Not: Mezun kartları veya /etkinlik/bilgi-30-yil-homecoming-26503 linkinden oluşturulan QR kodla kampüse giriş yapılabiliyor.

Ok, bye!

Tactical Imaginaries Studio recommends. • IND102 – Basic Design II • Tactical Imaginaries: Machines · Islands · Aggregative Multiplicities • A Basic Design Primer in Materially-Grounded Re- Mediated Democratic Practices Studio team: Abdullah Mallah, Bilge Bal, Ceren Balkır, Hilal Menlioğlu, Mert Zafer Kara

spatial aggregations

I had a dream but my head was underwater…

Review Day! Module 02: Islands. Infrastructural Love The Black Stage of Wetness Module 02: Islands is the emotional and ethical heart of the semester. It sounds tender, political and slightly strange. Here, through wetness walks, observation, site reading and writing, material testing, and speculative prototyping, we investigate how an infrastructural spatial gesture operates as mediator and companion, acknowledging patchiness on and around a birds island in Golden Horn. Wetness is approached not as a problem to be drained or controlled, but as a generative condition. Infrastructure becomes an ongoing act of maintenance and affection, a responsive apparatus that supports life by adapting, absorbing, and transforming. IND102 – Basic Design II • Tactical Imaginaries: Machines · Islands · Aggregative Multiplicities • A Basic Design Primer in Materially-Grounded Re- Mediated Democratic Practices Studio team: Abdullah Mallah, Bilge Bal, Ceren Balkır, Hilal Menlioğlu, Mert Zafer Kara Tracks / Critical Practices. Constructions.Ecologies.Speculations * Special thanks to dear final reviewers; Ahmet Sertaç Öztürk, Ali Dur, Ayşe Bıçak, Elif Kendir Beraha, Gizem Kıygı, İdil Karababa, Naz Özbay, Nazlı Güngen for generously joining us with their valuable comments, questions and discussions. Also with our gratitude to Animali Domestici, Amina Rezoug, Ardahan Görkem Tepe, Aslıhan Demirtaş, Burçin Çıngay, Deniz Tümerdem, Ekin Bilgin, Loom, Kemal Utku, Tatjana Scheneider, Toprak Güleroğlu, Veli Şafak Uysal for their critical contributions during the process. photo credits: Abdullah Mallah

A Smooth Montage A smooth montage is a hybrid representation where we investigated experimentally the visual montage as a technique for juxtaposing bodies, atmospheres, scales, actions, and times that would otherwise be separated.  We will ‘enter’ the image(s). Close-up and far away are brought into dialogue. Infrastructural Love: Caring for Our Architectural Support Systems (Hélène Frichot et. al, Birkhäuser, 2022) • Instructions we <3 * A Smooth Montage: 3-6 Images of a Changing Scene In this in-class exercise, we explored how models, drawings, and photography can combine to create narrative and atmosphere. The emphasis is on observation, framing, and iterative making. * 01: Model photography sprint We freely experimented with photographing our existing models. We were encouraged to think in terms of framing or viewpoint shifts:  close / far / extreme close-up,  unusual angles (more-than human eye level, axo view, ground level), partial views (not showing everything), contrast, light and shadow… 02: Interference Study We combined slice models, cut-out found images referring to the critters and environmental conditions, materials and textures, drawings etc. We built a small “scene” on the table, transforming the abstract physical model into a site:  constructing a small condition and documenting it through a few images. We developed a small visual sequence for this evolving composition. Layering as a design tool, depth, sectional thinking, circulation (how the eye moves through space), thresholds (inside/outside, open/closed), optical and scale ambiguity were our focus cues. 03: A Smooth Montage: One Space, Three Conditions We constructed a visual narrative from at least 3 images. We might rebuild or reinterpret the same spatial setup three times to show different conditions. These conditions might be shifted through atmospheric, temporal, material behavior or structural changes or alternative uses.  We told a story using 3–6 images only by rebuilding the model, adding/removing drawing/cut-out elements, changing lighting or angle, zooming in/out or cropping differently.

Pink Lines not to Cross

Afterthought

An abstracted atmospheric and experiential model + an expedition diary • Tactical Imaginaries studio has been floating in wetness for two weeks. One of our primary motivation is to learn to take responsibility for the gaze. IND102 – Basic Design II • Tactical Imaginaries: Machines · Islands · Aggregative Multiplicities • A Basic Design Primer in Materially-Grounded Re- Mediated Democratic Practices Module 02: Islands – Infrastructural Love Over the past two weeks, we have attempted to understand a non-human inhabitant of the Golden Horn as a bird island through model-making and observation drawings of a focused territorial volumetric slice with a specific subject, condition, and/or relation: Seasonal variations, specific characteristics of living beings, layers, clusters, textures, organic and inorganic matters, formations, rules, relationships, and patterns… as a patchy assemblage: multi-scalar, diverse, and highly specific in its conditions. Through this process, we expected to develop a more intimate understanding of the island, where observation becomes a form of making, and making becomes a way of thinking. Now, the island has been slowly becoming a black stage of wetness: a field where organisms, materials, and atmospheric forces continuously interact. The island is not empty. It has a thickness inhabited by shoreline and migratory birds, insect populations, microorganisms in wet soil, moss colonies, algae communities, worms and crustaceans, plants, sediments, tides, and winds, along with some fragments of human impact, distributed across different layers including the air. These actors already perform complex interactions. They participate in ongoing processes such as wetness, decay, nesting, migration, sedimentation, growth, and erosion. * images credits: Asya Altundağ, Bilge Bal Based on these observations, during following two weeks, we will design a small infrastructural instrument as a metabolic apparatus, interacting with water, organic and/or inorganic matter, sediments, plant growth, and other environmental conditions, relations, and subjects we embraced.

Our floating studio fluctuated on Monday 2 April! Collaborators: Abdullah Mallah, Bilge Bal, Ceren Balkır, Hilal Menlioğlu, Mert Zafer Kara We sincerely thank to our valuable guest-reviewers, Amina Rezoug Ayar, Arda Görkem Tepe, Deniz Tümerdem, and Kemal Utku. • IND102 – Basic Design II • Tactical Imaginaries: Machines · Islands · Aggregative Multiplicities • A Basic Design Primer in Materially-Grounded Re- Mediated Democratic Practices Module 02: Islands – Infrastructural Love In M02, initially and individually, each has focused on quick material experiments and tactical tool explorations, and observations in the forms of making with a territorial slice for micro-relations of wetness and wilderness about the Birds Island in Golden Horn.  A black stage of wetness in super-wicked circularities on and around Haliç Islands was reenacted in our floating studio: situated and spirited Island constructions. * images credits: Abdullah Mallah, Asya Altundağ, Bilge Bal, Mert Zafer Kara