I am not a writer—maybe more of a non-writer, just as being a non-artist, non-engineer, or non-sociologist. The word subjectile comes from J. Derrida’s The Truth in Painting (1978), where he expands on Antonin Artaud’s idea of the canvas as something more than a passive surface. It represents a space of tension, a meeting point between the physical and the intangible, where creation and meaning take shape. To me, subjectile suggests a layered way of thinking and writing—one that probes what lies beneath, between what is seen and what is concealed. It is always an experiment.
Ok, I’m biased, but xurban_collective’s research was a bit ahead of its time. 😉 We tackled issues most people ignored, dissecting the dynamics shaping our contemporary political world. In 2009, we launched the Evacuation Series to explore ad-hoc architectural spaces—masjids…
It has been 25 years. On January 15, 2000, I arrived in New York City and settled in Dumbo. Coming from Ankara, NYC was intoxicating—a place alive with artists, intellectuals, and even outlaws. Once I mastered the subway system, I…
I’ve been thinking about AI, language models, tokens, and possibilities of new artistic utterances. This brought me back to Deleuze’s famous long-form conversation with Claire Parnet, “Gilles Deleuze from A to Z,” also published as a book. For Deleuze, much…
In this election cycle, what we needed was transformative imagination—new ideas to ignite the old and inspire the young. Instead, Democrats, as usual, turned away from bold visions and a true commitment to public welfare and peace, ceding ground to…
A review of my architectural intervention, Sandima Modern, just came out at Dwell magazine. https://www.dwell.com/article/construction-diary-hakan-topal-sandima-modern-brutalist-home-country-retreat-3e663820
Forty years ago, in their influential article ‘The Fine Art of Gentrification’ (published in October Magazine, Winter 1984), Rosalyn Deutsche and Cara Gendel Ryan explored the complex political economy of gentrification and the eviction of thousands of Black and Latin…
We are indeed living in dark times: racists/fascists are exerting tremendous pressure to silence dissenting voices, thereby threatening the very foundations of our fragile democracies. In the face of extreme polarization and disappointing positions taken by some intellectuals (Habermas, et…
Continuing Vessel’s contribution to Publishing As Protocol, this new essay by Hakan Topal reflects on his “Radio Materiality” project ‘iTuneZ’ imagined as a direct gesture to point out an extra-legal space to listen to what migrants play for comfort. https://march.international/itunez-a-playlist-project-for-radio-materiality/
Question the notion of man-made borders in nature by examining the plight of the Kelaynak with a poetic installation by Hakan Topal. Showing June 11–November 13, 2022 Location: 1st Floor Exhibition Gallery https://www.agakhanmuseum.org/exhibitions/the-golden-cage