NOHLAB INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIO Interview

Especially in the perceptual dimension, the concept of time and space will be replaced by the concept of timelessness and spacelessness. Because we will come to the point of living in a completely digitalized reality. This will actually be possible by detaching our consciousness from our physical bodies and transferring them into virtual reality.

First of all, can we briefly get to know you, Nohlab? How do you define this branch of art that emerges from the coming together of science, technology and art?

Actually, our priority has always been to look for the intersection of science, art and technology, to build bridges between them and to create interdisciplinary experiences.
We started our education by studying classical art at Fine Arts High School, but we were always interested in technology. We studied animation at the university. And in our artistic togetherness that has been going on since then, even in our official definition, we emphasize that design, art and technology are blended into a new form of narrative. So rather than seeing this union itself as an art form, we can talk about a way of approach that we focus on that process. That’s why we have a point of view that focuses on producing tools, designs and stories where the connection between man and technology can be expressed in different ways.

If we express digital arts as making art in an unlimited virtual reality; Could you make an assessment by thinking about both the material used and the sources of inspiration?

One of our inspirations for building as inclusive realities and experiences as possible is actually being able to put a physical reality and a digital reality together and build a hybrid structure. Yes, of course, the digital world offers a more unlimited scope of production, a wider freedom for ideas that can not be realized in the physical environment, but we actually question how we can increase the potential of experience in it by examining the physical from another perspective. So instead of using digital as an unlimited material alone, we’re looking for ways how to create an unlimited experience from the combination of these two, how to enhance and empower the experience of the physical that people are accustomed to. Therefore, physical materials, fields, structures can be the starting point in our digital designs. But our real inspiration is people’s perceptions in real life, and that by manipulating those perceptions, we can move their perceptions of reality higher. We are thinking about how we can integrate the concreteness that people are accustomed to, a more abstract / emotion-based / perceptual abstract structure, so that they can be perceived unlimitedly in a similar way.

With the Covid 19 process, there was a rapid adaptation to digitalization and technology use in almost every field. Can you look at the textile and fashion sector window and consider both the designs and the digitalization of the magnificent fashion shows and fashion events within the framework of the use of 3D design and Augmented Reality?

These technologies, which have existed for some time but people are starting to realize and accept their existence through this new process, have indeed provided a great opportunities to enhance the user experience.
In such virtual environments, with the help of VR and AR technologies, it has become much easier to install spaces that would normally mean both time and cost to manufacture and install, laying and presenting them as requested, thereby increasing the user’s experience much closer to the shape imagined by the industry. People began to bring to life the space/physical object designs they had dreamed of for a long time but could not perform in digital environments.
Apart from that, the establishment of virtual environments and fairs with web-based technologies also ensured the continuation of the events without any pause. Of course, it will take some more time for sectors as well as users to get used to this transition. However, we can say that the more frequent encounters with such applications, thanks to this period, provide an acceleration in adaptation to technology.

What can be done to combine digital art with industrial design to produce works/products that can touch every area of life? Do you have any work on this subject?

In fact, as we have mentioned, as we are focused on bringing physical and digital together and delivering a hybrid reality experience, that’s a point we are already working on. Bringing together the possibilities of digital and the user experience in the physical environment makes it much more likely. Augmented reality glasses, for example. These technologies are now very initial, but in the future they will become a part of our lives just like smartphones. Of course, these are mostly functional designs for the use of users, but when we look at it from this perspective, art will also be seriously affected by these developments. Since our focus is on human perceptions and experience, the projects we have developed actually give people empirical clues about what might happen in the future. This enables people to experience and internalize hybrid realities.

We can say that this was actually an experimental prototype of such mixed reality products. Because art has always been more experimental and pioneering than industrial design for mass use. In fact, we can say that art, like science fiction, always gives clues as to what can happen by asking questions. At this point, we produce sketches of experiences that may be in the world of the future. For example, a fully 360 inclusive experience is actually a clue to the reality experiences we will experience in the future. Our perceptions of space-time and reality as we are currently used will change greatly. Simulating what these experiences might be like now actually means we can design the future to some extent.

What does the art of the future and “design” mean to you? Digitalization is now in every moment and every part of our lives. In that case, do you think the definition of art will be different?

Yes, it will be totally different, there is no way out of this! What we need to do now is to be open to this idea and to accept that humanity and the evolution of living things have always been based on this basis. Change has always been and will happen. Many of the things we use now, or our level of consciousness, were not like this before, or our current image when we look evolutionarily was not that way.

Especially in the perceptual dimension, the concept of time and space will be replaced by the concept of timelessness and spacelessness. Because we will come to the point of living in a completely digitalized reality. This will actually be possible by detaching our consciousness from our physical bodies and transferring them into virtual reality. On the other side, when we look at our evolutionary process, we see that organic evolution is evolving to the point of synthetic evolution. Humanity has now begun to take control of the evolutionary process thanks to biotechnology, and this actually brings our deity with it at some point. It also allows us to design our own perceptions and bodies by questioning our own limited perceptions.

At the end of this kind of developments in the coming period, the perception of art and design will change completely. Artists and designers will now be able to create different forms of reality designs and perceptions. In fact, this will allow us to perceive art and design more cognitively and physically than ever before, and will cause us to cease to be spectators and fully be in artistic designs.