BY EKİNSU POLAT (AMER/III)
Efe Alpay holds a PhD in Industrial Design (2023) and an MSc in the same field from Middle East Technical University as well as a BFA in Graphic Design from Bilkent University, where he was the second-ranking student. His research interests include generative design, 3D printing and data physicalization. He is currently an assistant professor at Bilkent University’1s Graphic Design Department and a Generative AI Consultant for Ay Production. His previous roles include creative director at Reo-Tek Inc. and part-time instructor at Bilkent University. Alpay cofounded Mirror Fabbrica, where he developed and specialized in 3D printing applications for mirrors and glass. He has led notable projects, such as the Museum of Barbarism, TEDAŞ Digital Studio, EXPO 2016 Antalya and İstanbul Cinema Museum exhibits. His work extends to funded R&D projects with TÜBİTAK and patents in 3D printing technology. Alpay’s scholarly contributions include articles on educational digital game design and interactive sound modeling. His exhibitions have spanned major art and design venues globally, and he has received awards including the TMMOB Geological Engineers Golden Hammer Award and first place at the Falling Walls Lab. Fluent in English and Turkish, he is skilled in advanced design software and has a background in professional music. Currently, he is teaching GRA 401 (Graphic Design V), GRA 402 (Graphic Design V) and GRA 335 (Computational Design Methods).
What has been the most exciting moment of your career so far?
When I learned that my mnemonic data sculpture, “Call for Life,” had a very significant recognition from The Lumen Prize & Studios. It was nominated as one of the 65 finalists among 2000 submissions.
Link to watch “Call for Life” https://youtube.com/watch?v=fyEu7-75zG0
Link for the short documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-hfMVl6sV4
What’s one piece of information from your field that you think everyone should know?
Since I’m dealing with a more visual field, it’s advantageous to show something to people. This makes it easier to understand what I’m doing. However, the problem with that is, since they always face the final product, it seems like it happened just in a moment, that it’s only two or three minutes or a day’s work, for example. But the problem is that it’s the result of a very long process. I think the most important information about my field is to not forget the process.
When and where do you do your best thinking?
There’s a researcher called Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. He defines the flow state that one enters. A person does things as if these things are flowing from the mind to the job or the work that the person is doing. The best thinking I do is when I enter this flow state. I usually do that by using music in the background or while walking. It can happen anytime, but it mostly happens at night. I try to do my work during the daytime. However, most of the time, the most intense work I do is at nighttime.
What distracts you?
Most things, as it is for all of us, probably. My mind jumps from one idea to another, since that’s also a requirement of the creative process. I try to find ways of managing those jumps in my mind but, obviously, social media is one ditraction. I try to manage that by putting away my phone.
What are you most curious about?
Probably about what’s coming next, what happens after this. Whenever I do something or achieve something, I’m always curious about what I can do afterward. How can I use this ability or realization to push it further? What’s coming next?
What’s the most common misconception about your work?
The most common misconception is that the end result is conceived as if it has come out of nothingness or as if it has developed suddenly in a moment. Like “aha” moments, obviously, as in most of the disciplines. But reaching that “aha” moment is often a very long process. So, the background work and the process behind that result are often discarded. Because of that, I value the process and do presentations about the process of my work. I believe that even if something has failed, what you have done to reach that failure is very important. A person learns lessons and perhaps the next time they don’t fail, or they fail again and find something new.
What do you like to do when you are not working?
There are different aspects of my work because I’m also researcher, and I do some personal work that I call mnemonic data sculptures. I create visuals for live performances and different kinds of generative digital art which I exibit globally. They are like playing for me. In a way I’m always working, but as if I’m not working.
If you weren’t an academic, what career would you choose?
I already work in different fields, because I’m also a designer. As well, I’m interested in engineering, and
I came from a scientific background in high school. I’ve always been interested in math or physics.
So, it would be some kind of intersection between different disciplines, I guess.
What is the secret of leading a happy life?
I think that the most important thing is to find some inner peace. If you have inner peace then no matter what happens, you will be happy no matter how successful or rich you become and regardless of the main driver of your happiness. If you don’t have inner peace, and if you can’t sleep with peace in mind, it’s very hard to be happy. You will always pursue happiness, but you won’t find it.
If you could go back to your undergraduate/graduate student years, what advice would you give to your younger-self?
It would be to communicate what I do more and talk about what I do more. Usually, in the works we designers do, often, only the result is known. But when you talk about the process and try to better communicate what you’re doing, it creates more opportunities to be known for what you do. This opens new possibilities, new collaborations, and unexpected connections in and out of your field. I think in a world where the boundaries between different disciplines are blurred it is very important to be able to communicate between the disciplines. Innovation happens at the intersection of different disciplines.
Why did you choose an academic career?
Because I’m curious. I think academia is a broad route to different ways of acquiring knowledge and through different networks. It allows for new ways of sharing knowledge and new ways of doing things with other people. It’s like pursuing knowledge through different networks.
What do you like the most about being at Bilkent?
Firstly, the people here. Since I’m a graduate from this department, I know many people from different departments. When you enter academia, some of the most important things are the social networking that you do and the opportunities that you can have to do collaborative research. Doing your thing in your own room might also be a path and that might be a path for many disciplines. But for me, it’s collaborating and networking with people and finding different opportunities for research and funding.
What projects are you working on currently?
I use collective memories and transform them into three-dimensional forms. I’m interested in using sound data to design three-dimensional objects, three-dimensional forms, so that we can create meaningful products in the future. One of my projects is combining industrial design knowledge with an artistic perspective and using art as an exploration tool. For example, the sculpture on my desk is from my “A Giant Leap” project. It is made from an audio recording of the Apollo 11 mission when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon and said, “It’s one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind.” All its forms are representations of that. So, although it is a physical object, there is also an NFT and a digital version that accompanies it. It allows us to understand how it is formed and which forms correspond to which words. I have another sculpture that I did for the Kahramanmaraş earthquake. It’s made from a sound recording that was made during a rescue one day after the earthquake, in which the rescue team was shouting toward a wrecked building, “Does anyone hear my voice?” This sculpture is generated from the sound data of that audio moment. It’s called “Call for Life.” It represents a hope for life. It was published as an NFT, and 100% of the proceeds were donated to the aid organizations. I also consult on artificial intelligence in the creative industries around how to use AI to help facilitate creative processes.
What is the coolest thing about your work?
I think it acts as a bridge between different disciplines because, as I said, I’m also coming from a scientific background. I studied graphic design and then moved into industrial design. I had a creative director role in METU Technopolis in a software and design company. In that role, I worked with and in different disciplines of software engineering, mechanical engineering with museum design, exhibition design, content creation, augmented reality, virtual reality and other disciplines. So, using different technologies and methods in unexpected ways excites me the most, especially creating forms out of data.
Could you share a turning point or defining moment in your career?
In 2019, in that company I mentioned, we did the “Göbeklitepe, The Gathering” exhibition in Cermodern. It was a very fast process. The exhibition lasted two months from start to finish. That was a very intense experience because the timing was very short, but it allowed me to see that no matter what you do and how hard you try, you can’t please everyone. This is especially valid in our field of design and arts. Design is not always like that, but art is more fragile. So, you cannot please everyone, but that realization provided some relief from the pressure that things have to be perfect, or have to be something that changes the world. However, the exhibition was a successful project because it was selected as the ‘most liked’ exhibition in Ankara at that time. When you see some comments and when you are fixated on the negative parts, you always become very depressed. So, no matter what you do, don’t focus on the bad parts or what people say. That was a big revelation in my job, in my career maybe. Another moment came after I graduated from Bilkent, when I worked in a sector that involves manufacturing. We cofounded a brand called Mirror Fabbrica, in which we always dealt with manufactured products. We designed from the beginning to the end: the branding, the product designs and all that kind of stuff. These experiences allow you to see the impact of your work on different scales. For example, if you are dealing with a design profession doing your job in front of the screen all the time, you become very isolated from the other possibilities that can arise. However, if you deal with manufacturing, if you deal with the projection of your work onto giant walls or tiny objects or very large sculptures or very large interactive parts or large products, tangible products, then it allows you to see the impact and applications of what you do in the real world. These are turning points for me.
Why did you choose Bilkent?
This is a place I call home because I am a Bilkent graduate. Additionally, for collaboration possibilities, networking, international and national collaboration possibilities. There is a combination of many different reasons I chose Bilkent.
