Balkan Karişman

New Media

Balkan Karışman is a generative artist based in Istanbul. He studied Product Design at Middle East Technical University before pursuing multidisciplinary research in Game and Interaction Design at Istanbul Technical University from 2018. His practice draws from urban textures, glitch aesthetics, and illusion, merging analog and digital, past and future, real and surreal. Rooted in the belief that everything around us can serve as both muse and instrument, his work often begins with a simple "what if?", tracing hidden connections between the mundane and the surreal. We spoke to him on his exciting work with generative technologies.

How would you describe your artistic practice?

My practice focuses on perception and the transformation of everyday visual reality through computational processes. I work with familiar everyday imagery, fragmenting and reassembling it to create alternative spatial and temporal experiences. Rather than producing fixed forms, I’m interested in constructing situations where images remain in flux, oscillating between recognition and abstraction. There is usually a tension in my work between control and emergence: I set parameters, but I’m equally interested in what escapes them.

What interests you about working with data and generative technologies?

Data, for me, is not just information but a kind of material something that can be shaped, translated, and recontextualised. Generative technologies allow me to engage with complexity and unpredictability in a way that feels closer to natural processes than traditional image-making. I’m particularly interested in how these systems can reveal patterns that are otherwise invisible, or create forms that are not directly authored but negotiated between human intention and machine logic.

What is your philosophy on art and technology ?

I think of technology as something that already shapes how we see and experience things, so using it in art feels quite natural. I’m not that interested in using it in a “high-tech” way. I actually prefer working with accessible tools and pushing them slightly out of their intended use. It’s more about re-contextualising than innovating.

How are you using technology to engage with our environment?

I approach the environment through how it is experienced in everyday urban life. I use technology to intervene in familiar visual structures, distorting and reconfiguring them to produce alternative readings of reality. Rather than representing the environment, I’m interested in subtly destabilising it.

‍

What do you want the viewer to take away from your work?

I’m interested in creating a slight sense of disorientation, a moment where something feels familiar but not entirely stable. The work doesn’t aim to deliver a fixed message, but to open a space for questioning perception. If it succeeds, it leaves the viewer with a subtle doubt about what they see.