ISTANBUL DIGITAL ART FESTIVAL (IDAF) AS AN INFRASTRUCTURAL INTERFACE AND ITS REFORMED CURATORIAL AGENCY BETWEEN 2021-2025 EDITIONS
Öz
This study examines the Istanbul Digital Art Festival (IDAF) across five editions (2021-2025) through longitudinal document analysis of the festival's official activity reports. Drawing on theories of operational images, post-humanist agency, post-representational visual culture, and curatorial theory, the article develops the concept of synthetic visuality, a regime of algorithmically generated image-making that distributes creative agency across human and machinic actors. Thematic analysis is organized along three axes: (a) the curatorial shift from a single human curator to a distributed human-AI apparatus featuring Turkey's first AI curator, Avind; (b) the spatial progression from heritage architecture to the Atatürk Cultural Center; and (c) the diversification of mediums from video and installation to XR, VR, generative AI, bio-art, and game engines. The article argues that the contemporary digital art festival functions as an infrastructural interface where the operations of synthetic visuality have materialized and opened to critical engagement.
Anahtar Kelimeler
synthetic visuality, digital art festivals, AI curation, infrastructural image, posthumanism, operational image
Destekleyen Kurum
The Istanbul Digital Art Festival Final Activity Reports used as primary data sources in this study were provided for research purposes by the festival's organizing body, Mezo Group (Mezo Grup).
Etik Beyan
This research is based on document analysis of publicly available institutional activity reports. No data were collected from human participants; the primary data sources are the Final Activity Reports (Nihai Faaliyet Raporu) submitted by the festival's organizing body to the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Teşekkür
The author wishes to thank Dr. Nabat Garakhanova, founder and producer of the Istanbul Digital Art Festival, for providing research access to the festival's Final Activity Reports and for her collaboration throughout the research process.
Kaynakça
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