Akbank 41st Contemporary Artists Prize Exhibition
Exhibition Talks: "Spinoza'ya Saygı"
Date: September 21, 2023, Thursday, 18:30 - 20:30
Moderator: Ferhat Özgür
Speakers:
Eylem Canaslan "Distinct Imagery" and Art as a Form of Knowledge”
Gaye Çankaya Eksen "Conatus as a Concept of Existential Dynamism"
Pelin Dilara Çolak "Body in Aesthetic Construction: Thinking Artificial Intelligence Art with Spinoza's Mind-Body Theory"
Eylem Canaslan
He completed his undergraduate studies at Boğaziçi University and his master's and doctoral studies at Galatasaray University. His master's thesis was on the concept of "multiplicity" in Hobbes and Spinoza (2009), and his doctoral thesis, titled "Spinoza: God, Method, Democracy," focused on the methodological and metaphysical foundations of Spinozian democracy (2019). During his doctoral studies, he was a visiting researcher at Paris VIII University (2012-2013). He contributed to the preparation of Dost Kitabevi Yayınları's "Spinoza. Collected Works" series. He prepared compilations with Cemal Bâli Akal, "From Marx to Spinoza, From Spinoza to Marx: Contemporary Interventions," and "Naturalism or Remembering Nature While Losing It," and with Güçlü Ateşoğlu, "Encounters with Spinoza." He has two publications on Spinoza abroad, one as a book chapter and the other as an article. He is the translator of Antonio Negri's books "Wild Anarchy" and "The Uncommon Spinoza" (with Nurfer Çelebioğlu). In 2023, he obtained the title of associate professor in the fields of modern philosophy, and social and political philosophy. Besides these areas, he also conducts research on ecological philosophy and literary philosophy. Currently, he works as an assistant professor of philosophy at Kırklareli University.
Gaye Çankaya Eksen
She completed her Ph.D. within the framework of a joint doctoral program at Paris I-Sorbonne University and Galatasaray University. She received her doctoral degree in 2013 with her thesis on the relationship between ethics and politics in Spinoza and Sartre. Her doctoral thesis, titled "Spinoza and Sartre: From the Politics of Singularities to the Ethics of Generosity" (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2017), was published as a book. She also co-translated Jean-Paul Sartre's "Being and Nothingness" into Turkish with Turhan Ilgaz (Istanbul: İthaki Yayınları, 2009). In addition to her work on the thoughts of Spinoza and Sartre, she has various writings in Turkish and French on ecology and the question of animals in contemporary philosophy. She is a faculty member in the Philosophy Department at Galatasaray University, and she continues to teach courses on Spinoza's ethics and political philosophy, Sartre's phenomenology, and animal ethics.
Pelin Dilara Çolak - Ph.D. Candidate & Content Creator
Pelin Dilara Çolak was born in Istanbul in 1992. After completing her undergraduate and master's degrees in the Philosophy Department at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, she pursued a second master's degree in art history at Istanbul University due to her interest in art theory. She is currently working on her Ph.D., contemplating the meaning of being human in the triangle of mind-body interaction, artificial intelligence, and art.
In addition to her academic work, since 2018, she has been producing philosophical content that is accessible to everyone, primarily on platforms like YouTube and various digital platforms. With these contents, she aims to break down the notion that philosophy is solely an activity confined to academia and strives to build a bridge between academia and society.