Becoming Istanbul Concept Network shows the internal dynamics of Becoming Istanbul’s database as a whole, not visible in individual navigations, is interpreted as an animated network map, a work deciphering the relationships between concepts and time.

Becoming Istanbul explores contemporary Istanbul through an interactive database of over 400 media. An up-to-date collection of artists’ videos, photography series, documentaries, news reports, cartoons and architectural projects, the database is organized according to 80 concepts that instrumentalize typical discourses relating to the city and suggest new points of view. Its media include the visual productions of artists and researchers who have problematized actors and phenomena typically disregarded in urban discourse, as well as the declarations of decision makers involved in Istanbul’s current transformations.

The conceptual framework of Becoming Istanbul was set by Pelin Derviş, Bülent Tanju and Uğur Tanyeli in 2008. The trio also edited the publication Becoming Istanbul, a multi-authored critical dictionary published in Turkish, English and German. Two other books published as part of the project were Tracing Istanbul (from the air), edited by Meriç Öner, which discussed the causes and effects of changes in Istanbul’s urban texture based on the aerial photographs of Oğuz Meriç; and Mapping Istanbul, co-edited by Pelin Derviş and Meriç Öner, a visualization of the city through aerial maps.

Designed by Evren Yantaç and developed by Hüseyin Kuşçu, the interactive database is already online and will remain fully accessible as a contemporary urban archive after the exhibition is over. The graphic and spatial design of these projects, to be presented on SALT Beyoğlu’s second and third floors, is carried out in collaboration with design firms Project Projects and Superpool.