Artist and Researcher Dr. Pinar Yoldas Discusses her Experience at UCLA Design Media Arts
The UCLA Design Media Arts MFA is a rigorous environment for critical thinking and art-making in the
Pinar Yoldas is a cross-disciplinary artist/researcher who lives and works between Durham, NC and Berlin. Pinar’s research explores the collaborative potential between art and biological sciences at the age of the anthropocene. Pinar received her M.S. at Istanbul Technical University, B.Arch. (METU) and her M.F.A. at UCLA, Design Media Arts.
"UCLA Design Media Arts alumna Dr. Pinar Yoldas discusses her practice, a recent project, and tells us what she valued most about her experience at DMA:
How would you define your practice?
My practice explores art in the anthropocene in order to engineer affect and critical thinking in the viewer/participant/audience. I design multimodal experiences in an attempt to create intellectual/discursive disruptions and provoke long-lasting activism.Can you describe a recent project?
One recent project is the Kitty AI: Artificial Intelligence for Governance. I was exploring an alternative to current day politics, specifically a democracy that integrates A.I. I did research on emotion and decision making, released a short film in 2016, currently working on a mobile app where you can chat with the Kitty AI. Working on an update for An Ecosystem of Excess(2013) which focuses on plastic pollution by envisioning a post-anthropocene world where a new ecosystem emerges in our plastic-filled oceans. Genetically Modified Gods is a world-building study inspired by CRISPR and the topic of designing humans.Why did you choose DMA?
I thought the work generated there was more innovative and less mainstream. I wanted tech skills but I also wanted the freedom to instigate critical thinking with my work."— Oct. 25, 2019
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the Hyperallergic website.
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