Forum:
Water Assemblies
Istanbul Coastline Atlas Vol. X: Deep Listening/Deep Mapping
Gökçen Erkılıç
Salt Beyoğlu
March 4 – December 31, 2025
Istanbul Coastline Atlası
Courtesy Gökçen Erkılıç
Courtesy Gökçen Erkılıç
“Istanbul Coastline Atlas” is an interrogative mapping project focusing on the shaping of the water and land relationships. Built on a long-term study, the project incorporates a layered map archive, an interactive interface, video narratives, and co-mapping workshops.
Launched as part of Water Assemblies, this volume (Vol. X) of the study will deepen the investigation through co-mapping workshops and deep listening activities. Drawing on the power of mapping to reveal the invisible or the silenced, it aims to uncover the political, metabolic, and metaphorical connections that inhabitants of Istanbul create, disrupt, or fail to establish with the underwater world. Participants will personalize and collectivize the atlas through multiple media and data—including archival documents, underwater sounds, activists’ stories, and oceanographic findings—focusing on the narratives of six critical coastline conditions.
This research group is led by Gökçen Erkılıç in collaboration with artist Vardal Caniş, architect Feyza Çınar, and artist Evin Kaçar. The workshops are open to everyone interested in the topic. The program will be held in Turkish and is limited to 10 participants.
The first two workshops will take place on March 5 and 12 at Salt Beyoğlu, as part of the launch of Water Assemblies, and will focus on the themes of “island” and “waterfront” respectively. After these intensive sessions, participants will meet once or twice a month until November 2025. The schedule for these meetings will be arranged in consultation with participants, considering their availability. Participants are expected to commit to the program throughout the 9-month process. Please submit your application via this form by Monday, February 24 at 18.00. Selected participants will be notified on Wednesday, February 26.
PROGRAM
March 5, 11.00-18.00
Workshop Facilitator: Gökçen Erkılıç, Vardal Caniş
March 12, 11.00-18.00
Workshop Facilitator: Gökçen Erkılıç, Feyza Çınar
The workshops will be accompanied by a series of public talks, featuring Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas and Gökçen Erkılıç on March 13, followed by Nazlı Demirel and Gökçen Erkılıç on March 19.
Gökçen Erkılıç is a transdisciplinary artist, architect, cartographer, researcher, and educator. Her practice focuses on mapping watery bodies, borders, and planetary health, using perspectives of critical mapping, feminist geography, and spatial justice. She is the founder of Coastliner Lab, where she challenges traditional forms of mapping to explore its decolonial and social agency, as well as its interaction with art and technology. Her work has been featured on various platforms, including the Sharjah Biennial, Arts Letters & Numbers, Materia Arquitectura, Salt Research, Arter, Yapı Kredi Culture and Arts, Pera Museum, and Manifold Press. Erkılıç completed her undergraduate studies in Architecture at the Middle East Technical University, her master’s in Architectural Design at Istanbul Bilgi University, and her PhD at Istanbul Technical University with her thesis “‘This is not a line’: Critical Delineation of the Coastline in Istanbul.” She ran cartographic research on the Black Sea, Eastern Mediterranean, and Anatolia at the Harvard University Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Currently, she teaches in the Department of Art + Design at Northeastern University College of Arts, Media and Design, and is affiliated with metaLAB (at) Harvard and NULab for Digital Humanities and Computational Social Science.
Vardal Caniş is a multidisciplinary artist who incorporates painting, illustration, and textual materials in her work. She uses these means of production to keep track and create a historical perspective. Her practice is rooted in the understanding that memory carries a conscientious responsibility. Caniş graduated from the Department of Painting at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. She published a fanzine titled Arabesk between 2015-2018 and an online magazine titled Cumartesi Ertesi during the pandemic. For her first solo exhibition, The Places Where I Grew Up (2017), she painted the streets of 15 houses she had lived in over nine years. Caniş has created visual designs for plays produced by Moda Sahnesi, Oyun Atolyesi, Saatler Kolektif, and BKM and contributed to various periodicals, including Calling Mag, Rağmen, Bant Mag, and Avlaremoz.
Feyza Çınar is an architect and researcher. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Gazi University and a master’s in Architectural Design from Istanbul Technical University, with her thesis titled “Queer Reading: The Potentials of Digital Values in Architectural Products.” Her research interests lie at the intersection of digital culture, architecture, and queer-feminist studies. Her work investigates the critical distance in the relationship between digital technology, culture, and architectural practices, focusing on fostering critical literacy within contemporary cultural contexts. Outside her academic and professional pursuits, she has a lifelong passion for comics, which inspires her amateur drawings reflecting everyday life.
Launched as part of Water Assemblies, this volume (Vol. X) of the study will deepen the investigation through co-mapping workshops and deep listening activities. Drawing on the power of mapping to reveal the invisible or the silenced, it aims to uncover the political, metabolic, and metaphorical connections that inhabitants of Istanbul create, disrupt, or fail to establish with the underwater world. Participants will personalize and collectivize the atlas through multiple media and data—including archival documents, underwater sounds, activists’ stories, and oceanographic findings—focusing on the narratives of six critical coastline conditions.
This research group is led by Gökçen Erkılıç in collaboration with artist Vardal Caniş, architect Feyza Çınar, and artist Evin Kaçar. The workshops are open to everyone interested in the topic. The program will be held in Turkish and is limited to 10 participants.
The first two workshops will take place on March 5 and 12 at Salt Beyoğlu, as part of the launch of Water Assemblies, and will focus on the themes of “island” and “waterfront” respectively. After these intensive sessions, participants will meet once or twice a month until November 2025. The schedule for these meetings will be arranged in consultation with participants, considering their availability. Participants are expected to commit to the program throughout the 9-month process. Please submit your application via this form by Monday, February 24 at 18.00. Selected participants will be notified on Wednesday, February 26.
PROGRAM
March 5, 11.00-18.00
Workshop Facilitator: Gökçen Erkılıç, Vardal Caniş
March 12, 11.00-18.00
Workshop Facilitator: Gökçen Erkılıç, Feyza Çınar
The workshops will be accompanied by a series of public talks, featuring Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas and Gökçen Erkılıç on March 13, followed by Nazlı Demirel and Gökçen Erkılıç on March 19.
Gökçen Erkılıç is a transdisciplinary artist, architect, cartographer, researcher, and educator. Her practice focuses on mapping watery bodies, borders, and planetary health, using perspectives of critical mapping, feminist geography, and spatial justice. She is the founder of Coastliner Lab, where she challenges traditional forms of mapping to explore its decolonial and social agency, as well as its interaction with art and technology. Her work has been featured on various platforms, including the Sharjah Biennial, Arts Letters & Numbers, Materia Arquitectura, Salt Research, Arter, Yapı Kredi Culture and Arts, Pera Museum, and Manifold Press. Erkılıç completed her undergraduate studies in Architecture at the Middle East Technical University, her master’s in Architectural Design at Istanbul Bilgi University, and her PhD at Istanbul Technical University with her thesis “‘This is not a line’: Critical Delineation of the Coastline in Istanbul.” She ran cartographic research on the Black Sea, Eastern Mediterranean, and Anatolia at the Harvard University Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Currently, she teaches in the Department of Art + Design at Northeastern University College of Arts, Media and Design, and is affiliated with metaLAB (at) Harvard and NULab for Digital Humanities and Computational Social Science.
Vardal Caniş is a multidisciplinary artist who incorporates painting, illustration, and textual materials in her work. She uses these means of production to keep track and create a historical perspective. Her practice is rooted in the understanding that memory carries a conscientious responsibility. Caniş graduated from the Department of Painting at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. She published a fanzine titled Arabesk between 2015-2018 and an online magazine titled Cumartesi Ertesi during the pandemic. For her first solo exhibition, The Places Where I Grew Up (2017), she painted the streets of 15 houses she had lived in over nine years. Caniş has created visual designs for plays produced by Moda Sahnesi, Oyun Atolyesi, Saatler Kolektif, and BKM and contributed to various periodicals, including Calling Mag, Rağmen, Bant Mag, and Avlaremoz.
Feyza Çınar is an architect and researcher. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Gazi University and a master’s in Architectural Design from Istanbul Technical University, with her thesis titled “Queer Reading: The Potentials of Digital Values in Architectural Products.” Her research interests lie at the intersection of digital culture, architecture, and queer-feminist studies. Her work investigates the critical distance in the relationship between digital technology, culture, and architectural practices, focusing on fostering critical literacy within contemporary cultural contexts. Outside her academic and professional pursuits, she has a lifelong passion for comics, which inspires her amateur drawings reflecting everyday life.
