object*oriented*magic creates new superstitions as an antidote to our relations to the material world, framed by a rationalist way of apprehending reality. Drawing from vernacular folk beliefs, psychomagic, witchcraft, alchemy and astrological methods; o*o*m creates ritualistic assemblages with everyday objects, re-charging them with magic, mystery and myth and revealing their inherent vibrancy.
Using everyday objects as ingredients for spells, “the manual of object*oriented*magic” offers guidance to the lost souls of the modern world for handling everyday problems. By introducing a layer of irrationality, o*o*m suggests alternative narratives that go beyond the normative human-object relations and re-frames the meanings assigned to the things that occupy our environment.
Merve Tuna is a designer and an artist with a product design B.Sc. from ITU and a fashion design MA from LCF. She crafts prosthetic objects for everyday life that project the libidinal aspect of social relations. Investing in the noumenal dimension of prosthesis with hidden narratives, she makes films and examines the cultural and emotional meanings of these fictional objects, how they mediate intersubjective relations and whether they trigger shifts in existing perceptions. She works in various mediums as mervetuna; designs objects, games and rituals; and teaches workshops.
Ayşenaz Toker is a product designer and instructor at the Istanbul Bilgi University, with a B.ID. from METU and MA from RCA. Interested in the implicit language of things and the meanings and histories surrounding the objects; she extracts the associations attached to the things that occupy our environment. She collects, combines and transposes these references to design objects that are based on visual and physical memory.
She also teaches workshops, organizes exhibitions and writes on relations between craft, design and education.
Both interested in the construction of associative meanings connected to objects, they initiated object*oriented*magic to design experiences that suggest a change in our perspective in interrelating with the material world. Employing a parallel approach, they design and run workshops together.
aysenaz.toker@network.rca.ac.uk
mervetuna@gmail.com
With Thanks:
Ahmet Baytar, Ahmet Cihat Toker, Alev Oksay, Ali Taptık, Atıf Akın, Aydın Epikman,
Ayşegül Turan, Aysun Akdeniz, Bahar Haser, Berkan Kaplan, Çağrı Alver, David Graham,
Deniz Yenihayat, Derya Engüles Tuna, Dilan Bozyayla, Ece Alkaya, Eelko Moorer, Gül Dur,
Halit Kandemir, Iraz Uran, İz Öztat, Kerimcan Güleryüz, Kübra Sarıaydın,
Mehmet Arıoğul, Mehmet Gölge, Mehmet Uluşahin, Mehpare Toker, Mert Topuz, Muhammet Tekin, Mükerrem Tuna, Nazlı Cila, Nur Gürbüz, Nuray Çağlar,
Özgür Şentürk, Reyhan Şahinoğlu, Sarah Kaye Rodden, Semra Şakar, Sinem Mucur, Tonguç Veysel Özdemir, Ümit Sevgi Topuz, Zeynep Bilgehan
email: