KHORA: Space of Becoming with Mind and Body

Betül Uçkan
7 Haz
3 dakikada okunur

Güncelleme tarihi: 13 Tem

Presented as part of the Istanbul Digital Art Festival (IDAF) 2026 under the theme RETELL, KHORA is a spatial installation that reinterprets the relationship between body, mind, and space through real-time psychophysiological data. Bringing together architecture, psychology, neuroscience, and generative design systems, the project approaches space not as a predefined and static entity, but as a living system that continuously emerges, transforms, and evolves through human experience.

Category: Temporary Installation

Event: Istanbul Digital Art Festival (IDAF'26)

Location: Atatürk Cultural Center (AKM), Istanbul, Türkiye

Year: 2026

Exhibition Area: 100 m²

Design Team: Betül Uçkan, Ayçin Atukeren, Aykut Dağ, Bengü Özmutlu, Tolga Aydoğdu, Umut Pektetik

Support Team: Doruk Sivri, Sevinç Şimşir, Sinan Ayaz, Gaye Arda, İzlem Acar

Advisors: Doğu Yıldırım, Ayşe Hale Kenar, Tülay Karakaş

Sound Design Collaboration: Audio Rituals - Immersive Audio Labs

Supporting Institutions: Istanbul Medipol University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Design and Architecture, Istanbul Technical University, Architectural Design Computing Program, TOUCH Event, FOCAL

Photography: Burhan Canlı, Merve Yumuk, IDAF Çekim Ekibi, Griyer

The conceptual foundation of KHORA lies in questioning the fundamental assumptions of architecture. Rather than understanding space solely as a physically defined environment, the project investigates it as a dynamic formation that constantly transforms, responds, and regenerates through its reciprocal relationship with the human body. Within this framework, space is no longer conceived as a passive object existing independently of its users; instead, it becomes a relational system that evolves alongside the body, the mind, and lived experience. Consequently, the participant is no longer a detached observer but an active agent who directly contributes to the ongoing production of space.

Each participant who enters the installation becomes a generative component of this system. Brain activity and heart rate data, collected through an EEG device and a wearable smartwatch, are transmitted in real time to generative visual and auditory environments. An integrated system combining projection mapping, spatial sound design, and computational generative processes translates physiological signals into light, sound, and spatial behaviour. As a result, every participant produces a unique spatial atmosphere, ensuring that no two experiences are ever identical. Each interaction contributes to the creation of a singular, moment-specific version of the space.

The spatial installation, composed of semi-transparent surfaces, merges with projection mapping and an immersive sound environment to create an immaterial experiential field that envelops the participant. Within this layered environment, where physical and digital realities intersect, visual and auditory components converge into a unified sensory experience. Space is therefore transformed from something merely observed into something felt, embodied, and physically experienced.

The relationship proposed by KHORA is not one-directional. While the body continuously transforms the space, the evolving space simultaneously influences the participant's perception, attention, and lived experience. This reciprocal interaction establishes an uninterrupted feedback loop that shifts space beyond its passive role, revealing it instead as a field of possibilities. The resulting environment is no longer simply a volume surrounding its occupants; it becomes a living experiential field that expands, intensifies, responds, and continuously reconstitutes itself together with them. Within this framework, mind, body, and space are understood as interconnected components of a single dynamic system.

KHORA opens new avenues for questioning how space is experienced through different modes of engagement. A performance artist extending the boundaries of space through bodily movement, a sound artist reshaping and deepening spatial experience through sonic intervention, or the joyful laughter of a child blending into the constantly changing atmosphere each reveal that the same environment can be continuously reconstructed through different bodies, perceptions, and experiences.