bang. Prix
bang. Prix program is organized by ArtBizTech and curated by Esra Özkan. It aims to inspire innovative business and technology ideas and support young people from different disciplines such as fine arts, engineering, design and genetics who combine science and technology with artistic perspectives.
JURY
Agah Uğur
Borusan Holding
Board Member
Agah Ugur was born in 1957 in Istanbul, Turkey.
Board Member
Agah Ugur was born in 1957 in Istanbul, Turkey.
Studied industrial engineering at the University of Birmingham, UK then qualified as a chartered
accountant in England in 1985.
He worked in accountancy, consulting and banking firms in England and Turkey before joining
Borusan Group in 1989 as its CFO. Since 2001 he is the CEO of the Group.
Borusan Group, one of the most prominent conglomerates of Turkey, founded in 1944 operates in
steel, distribution, logistics and energy sectors in 11 countries. It has numerous international
partnerships with companies like ArcelorMittal, Caterpillar, BMW, Mannesmann, EnBW.
Agah holds numerous board and advisory board positions in NGO’s.
Married with two daughters; he is also an art collector.
Bige Örer
IKSV
Director of Istanbul Biennial
Director of Istanbul Biennial
Bige Örer was born in in 1977, in Istanbul. After completing her undergraduate studies in Political Science and Public Administration at Marmara University, she completed her Master's degree in Communication Management and Sociology at University of Toulouse. Started her career at İKSV in 2003, she is working as director of the Istanbul Biennale since 2008 and as the director of İKSV Contemporary Art Projects since 2018. In this context, in addition to the Istanbul Biennial, Bige Örer follows Turkish Pavillion at Venice Biennale and other international contemporary art projects in IKSV. Bige Örer is also the vice president of the International Biennial Association and continues to contribute to various publications and her curatorial work. ”
Ekmel Ertan
amberPlatform
Artist, Curator, Educator
Ekmel Ertan works as artist, curator and educator. Ertan is the founder and artistic director of İstanbul based amberPlatform (by BIS, Beden-İşlemsel Sanatlar Derneği /Body-Process Arts Association), which is a research and production platform on art and new technologies. Ertan is the artistic director of the international “amber Art and Technology Festival” in Istanbul since 2007. He curated international amberPlatform exhibitions and events and several others as an independent curator. Ertan is also working as the site coordinator and director of international projects based in Turkey and Europe in the conjunction of art and technology /new media and society.
Artist, Curator, Educator
Ekmel Ertan works as artist, curator and educator. Ertan is the founder and artistic director of İstanbul based amberPlatform (by BIS, Beden-İşlemsel Sanatlar Derneği /Body-Process Arts Association), which is a research and production platform on art and new technologies. Ertan is the artistic director of the international “amber Art and Technology Festival” in Istanbul since 2007. He curated international amberPlatform exhibitions and events and several others as an independent curator. Ertan is also working as the site coordinator and director of international projects based in Turkey and Europe in the conjunction of art and technology /new media and society.
Ertan has exhibited his new media installations and cooperative performance works in Turkey and in international festivals and venues. He has exhibited his photography work in New York and Turkey.
Ertan received his BSc degree in Electronics / Communication Engineering from the Technical University of Istanbul and his MA degree on Interactive Media Design from Yıldız Technical University. He worked as a design and test engineer on telecommunication systems in Turkey, Germany and Belgium. He started a multimedia design company in 1997 in Istanbul. Between 1999 and 2006 he taught new media design at Istanbul Bilgi University, İstanbul Technical University, and Yıldız Technical University; between 2006 and 2014 he taught at Sabancı University. Currently he is living and working in Berlin.
Elif Sürer, Ph.D
METU
Graduate School of Informatics’ Multimedia Informatics Program
Graduate School of Informatics’ Multimedia Informatics Program
Elif Sürer received her Ph.D in Bioengineering in 2011 from the University of Bologna. She received her M.S. and B.S. degrees in Computer Engineering from Boğaziçi University in 2007 and 2005, respectively. From 2013 to 2015 she worked as a post-doctoral researcher at University of Milan in the EU Project REWIRE (funded by the Seventh Framework Programme) where she developed video games for the rehabilitation of stroke and Neglect patients. She joined METU Graduate School of Informatics’s Modelling and Simulation Department in 2015 and worked on the training of children having Down Syndrome using video games, which was fully supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) underTÜBİTAK 2232 –Reintegration Researc Fellowship Program. She is currently working as an Assistant Professor at the METU Graduate School of Informatics’ Multimedia Informatics program. Her research interestsare serious games, virtual/augmented reality, human and canine movement analysis, machine learning and computer vision.
Gözde Durmuş, Ph.D
Stanford University
Genome Technology Center
Gozde Durmus is a postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford University; working with Prof. Ronald W. Davis and Prof. Lars Steinmetz at the Stanford Genome Technology Center. She received her Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Brown University in May 2013, with a minor in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship. She is also an alumna of the Ignite Program at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. She was a Fulbright Scholar at Boston University and received her M.Eng. degree in Biomedical Engineering as a College of Engineering Fellow in 2009. She received her B.S. degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Middle East Technical University (METU) in 2007. In 2015, she has been recognized among the "Top 35 Innovators Under 35" (TR35), as a pioneer in biotechnology and medicine, by MIT Technology Review.
Genome Technology Center
Gozde Durmus is a postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford University; working with Prof. Ronald W. Davis and Prof. Lars Steinmetz at the Stanford Genome Technology Center. She received her Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Brown University in May 2013, with a minor in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship. She is also an alumna of the Ignite Program at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. She was a Fulbright Scholar at Boston University and received her M.Eng. degree in Biomedical Engineering as a College of Engineering Fellow in 2009. She received her B.S. degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Middle East Technical University (METU) in 2007. In 2015, she has been recognized among the "Top 35 Innovators Under 35" (TR35), as a pioneer in biotechnology and medicine, by MIT Technology Review.
Dr. Durmus develops and applies translational micro/nanotechnologies to study cellular heterogeneity and complex biological systems for single cell analysis and precision medicine. Her research philosophy is to apply these platforms to fundamentally understand and address the mechanisms of disease, with a specific emphasis on cancer. She has demonstrated magnetic levitation of living cells and applied this unique tool to perform ultra-precise density measurements, magnetic sorting and profiling of thousands of cells in seconds at single-cell resolution, which was not possible before with a bench top analogue. Her research in this field has led her to become deeply involved in cancer biology, single-cell sequencing and the development of new clinical diagnostics for precision medicine. These technologies are used for wide range of applications in medicine, such as, label-free detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from blood; high-throughput drug screening; and rapid detection and monitoring of antibiotic resistance in real-time. During her PhD, she has engineered nanoparticles and nanostructured surfaces to decrease antibiotic-resistant infections. Her passion is to bridge the gap between biology, engineering and medicine; to develop simple, inexpensive, easy-to-use, yet, broadly applicable platforms that will change the way in which medicine is practiced as well as how patients are monitored, diagnosed and treated for precision medicine.
Dr. Durmus has authored papers in journals including Nature Materials, PNAS, Advanced Materials and Nature Scientific Reports. Her work was recognized and highlighted by various prestigious journals and media outlets, such as Science, New Scientist, Popular Mechanics, AIP News, Tech Times. Her research achievements have been recognized with ITI Young Investigator Award from Stanford University, STAR Award Honorable Mention by the Society for Biomaterials, Graduate Student Recognition Award from Brown University, Entrepreneurial Fellowship from National Science Foundation (NSF) & Slater Technology Fund and Fulbright Scholarship. She was also a finalist for the national CIMIT Student Technology Prize for Primary Healthcare in 2012.
Ozan Türkkan
New Media Artist
New media artist, Ozan Turkkan was born in Turkey. He worked many years in the field of multimedia and digital art in different places in Europe, Istanbul and the U.S. Before the very first steps in digital media, he studied and practiced different art disciplines in Istanbul, Philadelphia, Salamanca, Florence, Barcelona and Bruxelles. After he graduated from The University of Salamanca, he received his Masters in Multimedia at BAU (Escola Superior de Disseny) in Barcelona, where he lived and worked many years as a new media artist.
New media artist, Ozan Turkkan was born in Turkey. He worked many years in the field of multimedia and digital art in different places in Europe, Istanbul and the U.S. Before the very first steps in digital media, he studied and practiced different art disciplines in Istanbul, Philadelphia, Salamanca, Florence, Barcelona and Bruxelles. After he graduated from The University of Salamanca, he received his Masters in Multimedia at BAU (Escola Superior de Disseny) in Barcelona, where he lived and worked many years as a new media artist.
He showed his works in variety of Art Centers, Museums and Galleries like; Santa Monica Art Centre Barcelona, Reina Sofia Museum Madrid, Centre of Contemporary Art Luigi Pecci Florance, Torrance Museum Los Angeles, Victoria House London, Lincoln Center NY, Banannefabrik Luxembourg, Europalia Art Festival Brussels, Les Brigittines Contemporary Arts Centre Brussels, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Santral Istanbul, Akbank Sanat Istanbul, Gallery Mitte Barcelona, LOOP Videoart Festival Barcelona, Rotterdamse Schowbourg…
He is currently based in Vienna.
Living in numerous cities throughout of his life Ozan Turkkan has developed a sense of multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism that characterize in his works. Complicated structures, conflicting and coexisting colors and diversity have been a parameter to push the artist to stress on complex field which is converging around the art, new technologies and the sciences of nature.
His work is centered on experimental media and digital arts with a focus on Virtual Reality experiences, generative computer art, fractals, algorithmic art, interactive art, moving images and motion as a reflection of impermanent nature of existence, human and social behavior. He uses technology as a canvas to create innovative and engaging digital art installations to observe forms of interaction, social exchange, participation and transformation.
He likes to explore the many-folded boundaries between science, art and new technologies, and combining different media elements in a creative process.
Studio-X Istanbul
Opening: 2019, June 14th
