Pınar Çevikayak Yelmi talks about the urban identities of Istanbul and London by comparing cultural sounds of these two cities. Yelmi has been conducting research on the urban sounds of Istanbul since 2010. The talk is based on her PhD research project “The Soundscape of Istanbul” and “London Soundsslike Project” which Yelmi initiated during her research at the British Library. As urban sounds are of great importance in terms of intangible cultural heritage, it is significant and necessary to protect cultural soundmarks of the city to sustain cultural identity and cultural memory. Both projects approach everyday traditions and daily urban life from a sonic perspective and aim to increase public awareness of cultural sounds.
The talk will take place at SOHO House on 12th December 2017 between 19:30-20:30.
September 2017
Pınar Çevikayak Yelmi initiated "London Soundsslike Project" during her research at the British Library (London, UK). The project was developed by Kakare Interactive. Here you can reach London Soundsslike Project and the post written by Pınar Çevikayak Yelmi at British Library Sound & Vision Blog.
Pınar Çevikayak Yelmi will give a talk about her doctoral research "The Soundscape of Istanbul" project and the Kiralık Satılık exhibition. The talk will take place at SALT Galata on 14th September 2017 between 18:00-19:00.
For Rent, For Sale exhibition, curated by Protocinema and İbrahim Cansızoğlu, takes its roots from Kiralık - Satılık posters in Beyoğlu district which emphasize the transformation process. Selected urban sounds are displayed in this exhibition to focus on the transformation process in Beyoğlu district. As an example, nostalgic tramway sounds were displayed from The Soundscape of Istanbul archive as the rail tracks of the tramway were already destroyed and the nostalgic tramway was removed. Therefore, the sound of the nostalgic tramway was gone. The exhibition can be visited at Hamursuz Fırını between 9th September - 14th October 2017.
Pınar Çevikayak Yelmi initiated "London Soundsslike Project" during her research at the British Library. The project is located under The Soundsslike Project with the link: london.soundsslike.com. The symbolic sounds of London were determined by public participation and all recorded by Pınar Çevikayak Yelmi so far. London Soundsslike Project invites volunteers who would like to contribute with their own sound recordings for protecting the sound heritage of London.
Pınar Çevikayak Yelmi was one of the presenters in "ICCKS 2017: 4th International Conference on Culture, Knowledge and Society" which was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia between 5-7 January 2017. Yelmi presented her research titled "The Soundscape of Istanbul: Exploring the public awareness of urban sounds".
December 2016
The Soundscape of Istanbul Collection is now accessible on Europeana Sounds platform which brings together European sound heritage.
To explore The Soundscape of Istanbul Collection on Europeana Sounds platform, click here.
The Soundscape of Istanbul collection opened up to the world. The sounds are now available on WorldCat.
October 2016
Pınar Çevikayak Yelmi was one of the presenters in "NordiCHI'16 Conference" which was held in Gothenburg, Sweden between 23-27 October 2016. Yelmi presented her research titled "Towards a Sustainable Crowdsourced Sound Heritage Archive by Public Participation: The Soundsslike Project".
In the first part of the “Sound and Culture” workshop, we will discuss cultural significance of urban sounds and experience the urban fabric of Karaköy area by soundwalk. In the second part, there will be a subsequent free improvisational jam session which will be guided via skype connection by improvisational musician and sound artist Zsolt Söres (Franz Liszt Music Academy, Budapest). In the jam session, improvisational compositions will be produced with the sounds collected from Istanbul, Konya and Adıyaman by Hakan Çetinyılmaz (voice), Yılmaz Tümözen (piano), Can Tatlıparmak (trumpet), Onur Narin (guitar), Hakan Yasun, Zehra Wellmann (soundscapes) and interested musicians. We will conclude both the workshop and the exhibition while enjoying the compositions.
Workshop organizators:
Date & Time: 23 July 2016 Saturday, 12:00-18:00
Location: Studio-X Istanbul
Language of the workshop: Turkish
For more information: http://www.studio-xistanbul.org/en/events/ses-ve-kultur
In the “Sound and Archive” event, we will talk on the significance of protecting sonic values with retired TRT Sound Effector Korkmaz Çakar and musician Emre Yücelen who have great and valuable contributions to our sound archive. Participants will also have the chance to experience interactive sound archive which was exhibited before.
Speakers:
Date & Time: 21 July 2016 Thursday, 18:00-20:00
Location: Studio-X Istanbul
Language of the event: Turkish
For more information: http://www.studio-xistanbul.org/en/events/ses-ve-arsiv
The second event of the Sound Workshops Series, which are held during Duyduk Duymadık DeNeyiM exhibition, will take place on 16th July 2016.
In the “Sound and Children” workshop, we invite children between the ages 7-12 to discover urban sounds. In the workshop, we will create a game scenario together with children and produce sound effects for our story.
Workshop instructors:
Gökçe Elif Baykal (Koç University, Design, Technology, Society Department)
Cansu Oranç (Koç University, Psychology Department)
Pınar Çevikayak Yelmi (Koç University, Design, Technology, Society Department)
Date & Time: 16 July 2016 Saturday, 14:00-17:00
Location: Studio-X Istanbul
Language of the workshop: Turkish
For more information: http://www.studio-xistanbul.org/en/events/ses-ve-cocuk
The first event of the Sound Workshops Series will take place on 30th June 2016. In the workshops which will be held during Duyduk Duymadık DeNeyiM exhibition, we will approach “sound” from different perspectives and explore its relationship with other fields.
In the “Sound and City” workshop, we will create individual sound maps and explore ways for visualizing urban fabric from a sonic aspect. In the end, we will discuss visualization techniques used and classification methodologies.
Workshop instructors:
Date & Time: 30 June 2016 Thursday, 14:00-16:00
Location: Studio-X Istanbul
Language of the workshop: Turkish
For more information: http://www.studio-xistanbul.org/en/events/city-and-sound
June 2016
The experiential exhibition "Duyduk Duymadık Deneyim!" emphasizes the culturally significant urban sounds which are ignored in daily life. As no visual elements are used in the exhibition, visitors are expected to link sounds with textual clues.
June 2016
Istanbul is a huge metropol. Each and everyday the city is evolving, as well as the urban lifestyle. Cultural values are disappearing in the new urban fabric. For example, sounds related to cultural values such as tea, narghile, backgammon are being replaced by the dominant sounds of new lifestyle. This experiential installation draws attention to cultural sounds which are evolving or disappearing in daily chaos and emphasises the significance of sounds that we ignore to hear.
Following an interactive installation, Soundsslike project is displayed via experiential exhibition this time. The exhibition takes place in Studio-X Istanbul and it is open from 24th June to 23rd July 2016.
June 2016
Pınar Çevikayak Yelmi was one of the speakers in "International Archives Day" which was held in RCAC on 10th June 2016. Yelmi talked about "The
Soundscape of Istanbul" collection and the collaboration with Koç University Suna Kıraç Library during the project, under her presentation titled
"Archiving sounds as cultural heritage elements".
April 2016
Pınar Çevikayak Yelmi was one of the presenters in "Museums and the Web 2016 Conference" which was held in Los Angeles, U.S. between 6-9 April 2016. Yelmi presented her research titled "Sounds(s)like crowdsourcing the sounds of Istanbul".
April 2016
Pınar Çevikayak Yelmi was one of the speakers in Sensory Histories of Place Workshop which is organized by the collaboration of RCAC and
Koç University's Department of Archaeology and History of Art on 1-2 April 2016.
This workshop intends to explore ways of developing a crowdsourced sound archive whose main aim is to raise public awareness of urban and cultural sounds and to protect these sounds as a collective work. Providing the opportunity of expanding with future and past soundscapes of also other cities, this crowdsourced sound archive will offer a sustainable system for collecting urban sounds. In the workshop, we will have discussions on already existing sound archives and search ways of developing a crowdsourced one.
The workshop is planned as two sections and each focus group research lasts 2 hours. First section will be held in DesignLab at Koç University on 10th March between 10:00-12:00, and the second section will be held in RCAC on 12th March between 15:00-17:00. The workshop are open to designers, engineers, people dealing with sounds and anyone who wants to contribute.
January 2016
The Soundscape of Istanbul project is exhibited together with the "soundsslike" map in Everyday Sounds exhibition at Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (RCAC). Soundsslike map welcomes urban sounds from contributors which are also presented in the exhibition; thus the participants' sounds become a part of the exhibition too. The exhibition is open from 8th January to 20th March 2016.
Pınar Çevikayak Yelmi talks about The Soundscape of Istanbul Project at Studio X on 22nd December 2015 between 19:00-21:00.
December 2015
We launched our new crowdsourced sound map: Soundsslike. In order to expand The Soundscape of Istanbul collection, we initiate this new project which is basically a crowdsourced sound map that encourages people to record and upload sounds that they consider worth protecting. The intention of the Soundsslike project is to draw people’s attention to urban sounds, to make them aware of their uniqueness and to create a platform in which anyone can share cultural sounds.
Enjoy the map at www.soundsslike.com!
The Soundscape of Istanbul collection which is located in Koc University Suna Kırac Library can be accessible under Europeana Sounds platform now. Europeana Sounds collects sound heritage of Europe in a single platform. Europeana Sounds can be reached at this link: http://www.europeanasounds.eu
Pınar Çevikayak Yelmi participated the "Europeana Sounds International Conference" which was held in Paris, France on 2 October 2015.
Pınar Çevikayak Yelmi was one of the presenters in "IASA 46th Annual Conference" which was held in Paris, France between 27 Sept-
1 Oct 2015. Yelmi presented her research titled "Archiving Istanbul's Contemporary Soundscape as Digital Sonic Heritage Collection".
September 2015
Pınar Çevikayak Yelmi was one of the speakers in "SOIMA 2015 International Conference" which was held in Brussels, Belgium between 3-4 September 2015. Yelmi presented her research titled "Collecting and Protecting the Contemporary Soundscape Elements of Istanbul".
The Sounds of Istanbul that we started to record in February 2015 are now in Koç University Suna Kıraç Library Digital Collections.
Pınar Çevikayak Yelmi was one of the speakers in the conference of "Cultures in Sustainable Futures: Theories, Policies, Practices" which was held in Helsinki, Finland between 6-8 May 2015. Yelmi presented her research titled "Sustainability of urban sonic heritage as part of intangible culture: Sounds of Istanbul".
Every Saturday in April, we walked four different routes in order to understand various acoustic environments. In Soundwalk Workshops, we listened to the neighborhoods of Galata, Karaköy, Beyoğlu and Eminönü. We realized the richness of the urban soundscape which we haven't noticed before and we discussed the uniqueness and the significance of cultural sounds.
You can listen to the most foreground sounds during Soundwalks by clicking on the visuals below.
March 2015
Each one of us hear various sounds all day long, but we generally tend to ignore most of them...
In this context, Pınar Çevikayak Yelmi organizes Soundwalk Workshops to help people realize urban sonic environment and be aware of the importance of the cultural sounds. In the workshops, the concept of Soundscape will be introduced and the relationship between city and sound will be discussed. It is hoped that the participants will perceive the city from a sonic perspective and interpret the urban fabric with an unconventional manner.
There will be 4 different routes to walk in each workshop; Galata, Karaköy, Beyoğlu and Eminönü. The participants will be expected to find out the most characteristic, the most unexpected, the most attractive sounds during their aural experiences in these neighborhoods and they will be asked to record them by means of smart phones or sound recording equipments. These urban sounds will, then, be evaluated at the end of the workshops and their uniqueness will be emphasized.
The Soundwalk Workshops will take place every Saturday in April 2015 between 13:00-15:00, with max. 15 participants. Meeting points will be announced!
December 2014
* %18 Traffic & Car horns
* %13 Ferries
* %12 Crowds
* %11 Seagulls
* %9 Street vendors
* %8 Call to prayer
* %5 Sea & waves
* %5 Animals
* %3 Music from shops
* %3 Sirens & announcements
* %3 Nostalgic tram
* %2 Bazaars
* %2 Tea, narghile, backgammon, kokoreç etc.
* %2 Street musicians
* %2 Construction
* %1 Church bells
* %1 Others