me
hi. I'm the creator of this project -someone lucky enough to live, breathe and be in the City.
i have known the City as "Ä°stanbul."
I argue that the City has never been owned by any state or nation – the City is instead its own entity formed by tensions and coexistence, a transnational space that harboured and still harbours various ethnicities, countries, religions, and cultures.
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I attempt to combine and connect the various forms of humanities such as the historical works based on the City, the literary narratives of the City and the visual arts inspired by the City in my project to evoke the senses of my audience through the use of digital art components, including but not limited to digital images, videos, photographs, sound, music.
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I wish to reveal the diversity of cultures, values, and stories within the past and present of the City by creating a digital humanities project based on the human experience reflecting my perspective of Istanbul as the "beautiful mess" and the place that feels most like home.
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I'm pelin. I lived and loved in the City. she hurt me. i wanted to run. i ran. then i took a step back to see the City from an ocean away. i realized that i cannot heal if i do not feel. i sat with my pain. as stephen levine once said, to heal is to touch with love we previously touched with fear.
welcome to my love story. I lived, loved, and fell in love with the City.
see
tremendous perils power splendid
decays of time immortality coexistence
imperturbable eyes a veil of grandeur myth
formidable fantastic legend Miklagard
divine command intervention sick with desire
enchanted between the sublime and the sinister
reality remarkable aggressive hungrily
Antoniniana the bulwark against Islam
elaborate colourful ceremonial defiantly
artistic intellectual centre extravagant display
most extraordinary sharply charismatic
gleams dazzlingly apocryphal Stamboul
carnal splendid ineffable opposed levantine
ambiguity natural man-made hostility
a bone in the throat of Allah patriciate
the holy City commercial magnet hopes
unsettling miraculous supernatural
dreams of conquest full of an otherworldly grace
ignites an earthy desire pluralism endless
most eloquently of all majesty Byzantion
complacent a spiritual aura antagonistic
sources of magic divides the continents infidel
complexity the artifice of eternity imperial city
the City of the world desire ushered mythical
the backdrop of a medieval painting messy
overt power fear of siege etched deep mystery
two great monotheisms lustily violated
stark everyday reality Constantinople
gentler undulating shibboleths and myths
centre of wealth and power crusading
unbelief the true faith astonishing
pageantry of power and spectacle the New Rome
smoldering ruin love affair accentuated
technical ingenuity luck cowardice prejudice
beyond its boundaries limited thriving chic
the Gate of Happiness resistance urban marvel
different versions of truth orientalist
nuanced wretched unbelievers multivalence
taught with expectations violence intrepid
despicable infidels Allah’s Eternal City
art of siege warfare identity artisans
a potent of the world’s end refashioning
political myth divinely appointed inescapable
the City of Saints dimension of the struggle
that of faith a verdant peninsula papacy
key to imperial destinies inter-continental
exotic mysterious wonderland archetypical
Christian bulwark against the East al-Quastantiniyye
links Asia to Europe abstractions a jewel
cusps of change the political prison awe
vibrant violent dynamic cosmopolitan home
enormous web of welfare Queen of cities
a City above all others grazed by gunfire
exceedingly prosperous protean pyretic place
the Ancient Mediterranean a glistening capital
near Eastern worlds the Greatest Christian City
unrivaled splendor noisy malodorous chaos
mantle of the Muslim caliphate pleasure
systematized the great siege unforgettable
Islambul inter-continental unwavering complex
two continents they almost kiss multilayered far-reaching
sparked out to fire the wider world a fantastical city
a breathtaking panorama independent succinctly
enemies of the faith sophisticated Stimboli
cultural effervescence den of debauchery
adversarial character world power a continuum
Konstantiniyye ardent Islamic desire the megalopolis
multi-dimensional the New Jerusalem
ghosti the complex code of medieval vassalage
stitched together xenia breaches Eurasia permeated
a tale of human courage and cruelty vibrant energetic
tenacious theocracies welcoming mastery of war
where stories match their weight to histories Tsargrad
cemented in one intense moment of history
Ä°stanbul of what is past or passing or to come
hovering uneasily on the border of dream and reality
feel
heal
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inspiration
I looked at you yesterday from a hill, oh beloved Istanbul
Sana dün bir tepeden baktım aziz Ä°stanbul
I saw no place which I have not wandered through and loved
Görmedim, gezmediÄŸim, sevmediÄŸim hiçbir yer
As long as I live, use my heart as it pleases you
Ömrüm oldukça, gönül tahtıma keyfince kurul
Just to love one neighbourhood is worth a lifetime.
Sade bir semtini sevmek bile bir ömre deÄŸer.
Many splendid cities exist in the world
Nice revnaklı ÅŸehirler görülür dünyada
But it is you who have created enchanted beauties
Lakin efsunlu güzellikleri sensin yaratan.
I say that they have lived in a beautiful and everlasting dream
YaÅŸamıştır derim, en hoÅŸ ve uzun rüyada
For those who have lived many years in you, died in you and lie buried in you
Sende çok yıl yaÅŸayan, sende ölen, sende yatan.
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Yahya Kemal, Aziz Ä°stanbul (Istanbul, 1989), p. 4.