Interview Ceren Arslan — Digital artist and architect of “pre-fictional” spaces
“I like to tease people or the audience. (…) I can make images that are so perfect that they are almost imperfect”.
“Where did you take this photo?” “Where is this building?” “How did I miss it?”
Many questions that people ask Ceren Arslan when they see her digitally designed fictional spaces, so realistic that the people think they actually exist. It is because the digital artist masters at capturing “one moment of a space that looks so real it is not real”, enjoying the current big hype for digital design.
Ceren Arslan, a New York City-based architect and digital artist explores the huge and growing set of possibilities that the immensity of available shared data allows today for creators and artists. She creates what she calls “pre-fictional spaces” using textures, materials, patterns and data from other realities to create a new visual and experiential reality, so realistic and perfect that it’s almost imperfect.
For a long time, Ceren has been interested in digital resources and the growing spectrum of 3D-modeling tools that assist hyper-real image-making, which led her to curate the first Pratt Institute alumni-curated exhibition “Prosthetics of Aesthetics” in 2019 along with Alican Taylan, Irmak Ciftci and Can Imamoglu, where exhibited designers focused on the question “How do you use prosthetic tools to expand your design abilities?”. Deeply inspired by architects such as Ricardo Bofill and Luis Barragan, Ceren started creating fictional buildings named after existing cities using shared data that is available on the Internet for her first project Episodes. In 2021, Ceren Arslan expanded the concept of her Episodes project to the EXIT series, creating hyper-real, pre-fictional spaces to deepen her investigation of the influence of shared digital data on architectural design.
As a multi-skilled artist, Ceren is influenced by her crafting techniques including drawing and collage as well as her digital technique. Echoing this, for her future projects, Ceren wants to continue to explore the mixes of techniques and media, which she has already done in the 9th piece of EXIT, The Ultimate Vitrin piece. She used sounds by DJ Carlita to enhance the animated visual experience. She is now working with a painter to create a unique piece.
We talked about Ceren’s current and future projects, her influences, her vision on digital creation in 10 questions and she shared with us 3 personal insights at the end of the interview!
- What do you do?
I’m an architect and a digital artist. I have been creating pre-fictional spaces for the last year, mainly taking advantage of the pandemic slow-down. I design spaces that don’t exist but hopefully will exist in the future. That’s where the”pre-” comes from.
2. Can you tell us about EXIT and your previous projects?
EXIT is a series of hyper-real, pre-fictional spaces which investigates how shared digital data can influence the culture of architectural design and image-making of an architectural space. With the amount of shared data and access to resources any space or scene can be achieved and made into a reality. It’s my take on the traditional practice of architecture where you design the image first.
The series is called “EXIT” because each one of them is an exit from real life to a fictional reality. Every texture and material exists somewhere else in the world, but it is taken and used to create a different reality, your own reality. Each exit depicts a well-crafted composition with a convincing level of information and recognition. They include familiar objects and materials or one would call lifestyle details that are found online or embedded in the three-dimensional modeling software to cater more engagement for the audience. In that sense the architecture is crafted as aesthetically pleasing scenes in familiar context yet it still deciphers its reality in detail.
EXIT is really evolving. It is becoming more adaptable to collaboration for different mediums of art. For example, I am collaborating with a painter at the moment. We are turning one of his pieces into a three-dimensional digital space of his imagination.
In September 2019, I curated the first alumni-run exhibition Aesthetics of Prosthetics at Pratt Institute School of Architecture along with Alican Taylan, Irmak Ciftci and Can Imamoglu. It was a collaborative exhibition where young designers like myself submitted work which responded to the question of “How do you use prosthetic tools to expand your design abilities?” My answer was: we are using digital tools to enhance design abilities, but we can also use digital data. With that, Episodes started.
Episodes is a series which tackled our access to the abundance of data available online. Each “Episode” is a collage of material samples and textures made into a frontal view of a fictional building. They were named after a city that it reminded me of. The one that stood out the most was Los Angeles. It is very colorful and vivid in terms of energy and materials. It felt like it was a street in LA, maybe a street in Santa Monica. Every image has its own narrative and character, so when you look at it the name makes sense. It was the first attempt of my fictional digital world. You’d be surprised how many textures you can find online.
Episodes was a two-dimensional collage series just made on a computer. With EXIT, I started experimenting with three-dimensional spaces with the same idea of using online resources. It was basically moving to another dimension which is exactly how it feels like. In each exit, I can actually design the space while I am in it, turn around, create movements and curate the narrative of the story. EXIT is liberating to test different media like videos and animation and not just images so there is more room to expand.
3. How are you working with the painter?
It was a challenge that I wanted to take. A painting is a single unique object that exists only once. I want to create a space with the texture of an original painting made for EXIT, adapting a physical media of art into the digital space. Rather than taking an already existing painting, it’ll be made with the style of the painter which will inform the design of the space.
4. Do you find the images and textures that you use online?
To produce images in architecture and spatial design, you really rely on what is available as a texture source. When you go on websites to find textures, Almost all the images available on texture websites such as textures.com or architecture.com are cropped from real photos, so they are perfect. You can take whichever you want for free and apply it into your modelling software. It seems super real because it is already real somewhere else.
5. For your projects you often talk about the use of shared digital data and software for image-making. What do you think of the use of software for architectural representation and for creation in general? Is it limiting or increasing creativity or both?
There is a big hype for digital design especially for the younger generation of designers like myself. The culture of production of a space or an object is really expanding into the digital world where you can sell digital furniture for thousands of dollars these days. One of the reasons for that is that the software has become very user-friendly and more accessible to everyone, so there is more room to explore your creativity. It is kind of expanding beyond its boundaries of what it can do. I think it is liberating, you can explore and produce more. In the past, exploration used to be physical, with model making and different materials. I think when you work digitally, it is faster, you can test out multiple options, you can always scratch it to zero. It is more time-consuming when you do it physically.
6. You talk about the hyper-real that software allows. Why do you like to represent the hyper-real?
It is very personal, because I like to tease people and the audience. The idea of Episodes was that I could make anyone believe in any reality I want, if I make it real enough. Now that I discovered more of the software, I can make images so perfect that they are almost imperfect. I use real-life objects or textures in the spaces so they look familiar and relatable. With every image, I try to capture one moment of a space that looks so real it is not real.
When I had a show in a gallery in Soho before Covid, I showed 3 pieces from Episodes named after 3 cities. I swear a lot of people were asking me “Where did you take this photo?” “I did not see it when I went there!”, and I loved that. Even with Exit now, everybody is asking me “Where is this building?” “How did I miss it?”. I love teasing people in that way, it shows that what I want to achieve is happening.
7. Your practice is related to a lot of different techniques: architecture, but also to image-making, collage, drawing, experiences. What is your relationship to all these practices? How do you use them to create?
I draw in perspective a lot to explore moments. I put myself into the space I design and try to understand how it would feel like to be in that space. I think that’s where the wow comes from.
I also love to draw elevations. I think this taste for drawing is very present in Exit artworks, because they are mostly one-point perspectives. I love painting and drawing to space out in my free time. I often exit to not think about anything. I think it really reflects on the spaces I create and capture.
In terms of design, I am more flexible on the software. When I first start, I never know what it is going to look like and in which direction it is going to go. I start with a blank canvas of the software and go with how I am feeling, what I am listening to, what I am wearing that day! Overall, the way I produce is very consistent through every medium of art. I space out, I exit :)
8. What inspires you?
The architecture that has been done in the past, definitely. I feel that architecture is a profession where you learn so much from the past, then you make it your own. You reinvent it. I look up to multiple architects like Ricardo Bofill, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Luis Barragan, Peter Zumthor. Also some other digital artists like Filip Dujardin and Philipp Schaerer. They do fictional architecture and their work is incredible. Also movies and animations. Like Wes Anderson, what a controversial genius. I also travel a lot and observe real textures, lighting, echoes. I try to reference what is out there and make it my own.
9. What are your future projects?
I work full time as an architectural designer at KPF, based in NY, on their Brazil team. I will visit the project sites for overseeing the construction once things settle down there. I got invited to participate in Milano Design Week with a physical show of EXIT in September and until then I am collaborating with multiple artists and designers for new images. One is a passion project to be built IN Los Angeles actually which is the ultimate goal for each Exit, to come to life.. I feel like the weekly releases are really engaging the audience, so I want to start the EXIT Weekly. My plan is to hold onto the brand and turn it into anything I create basically.
10. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I will be 35. Hopefully by then I will have my own practice and a few established projects. I would love to make it 30 under 30 though!
BOX OF CHOCOLATE INTERVIEW: now Ceren, why would I be the only one choosing the topics we are discussing? I propose you participate in the interview journey by picking 3 questions out of a 10-questions list, the same way you would choose the most mouth-watering chocolates out of a box of delicious candies.
What is your dream collaboration? It would be a collaboration with Diana Vreeland, Chief editor of Vogue in the 60s. I collect Vogue and I am a huge fan of the establishment. She’s a creative genius. She set the standard for what Vogue is right now in my opinion. It would have been amazing to design a space with her.
What is the last song you’ve listened to? Page One by Lemon Jelly
What do you enjoy doing when you are not working: I bike and paint a lot. Sometimes I bike to pick up paint! I bike on the Hudson and in the city too. Early hours are better, before everybody wakes up.
Interviewed by Emma Renaudin in 2021
Find Ceren Arslan’s work on her website and follow her on instagram
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