Reimagining Yeşilçam // Queer Reflections on AI

Workshop by Orhun Mersin aka Kekik

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As AI becomes embedded across everyday life, its exclusionary mechanics become ever more consequential. Since technical standards determine what is possible today, envisioning alternative futures requires finding new modes of engaging with them. The workshop delves into Orhun's artistic practice at the intersection of such critical engagement with AI and drag. Rather than treating AI as a merely "neutral tool", they approach it as a performative one, and treat systems like deepfakes, voice cloning, and lipsync animations as "drag technologies"

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that can be turned against themselves through their own failures. The practical part centers on using these technologies to reimagine old Turkish movies, particularly Yeşilçam, and other diasporic media in new and queer ways, reflecting on where the models fail and what ideologies those failures expose. Through artistic practice and queer-ious explorations, the workshop aims to create awareness around what we actually understand under "artificial intelligence" and around the philosophical implications of using these systems.

Orhun Mersin a.k.a. Kekik is an Izmir-born, Berlin-based transdisciplinary researcher and artist working at the intersection of academia, exhibitions, nightlife, and theatre. Trained as a contemporary dancer, and holding a bachelor's in computer science, they have been part of the research platform New Practice in Art and Technology at TU-UdK Berlin.

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Von:

Orhun Mersin a.k.a. Kekik