53 different projects and side event series are going to search to find the answer for the question "What is the future now?" in biennial. What do you feel about the end result of the projects?

I see the projects in Biennial as incomplete.   Projects are testing different things in different times. Therefore it is not yet finished for me. I took the back seat during the formation of projects. You feel a bit funny -the feeling of being deciphered- every time when it is open to public after conducting it privately. Yet I aimed that these projects will be perceived as complete after the spectators see these projects. The works in the biennial should not be perceived as limited by a frame or defined thought patters. I hope the spectators do not feel that way.

The future involves both hope and fear for everyone. What is the role of design in transforming and shaping our feelings for future? 

Most of the work in this exhibition deal with urgent and critical issues. According to me, a design should always be courageous and have to take risks. It has to be in search of new methods and approaches in order to understand our relationship with the world and life.

In New Survivalism, Charlesworth and Parsons couple question this with a work aimed to determine daily survival and what we will find valuable in near future or Sissel Tolaas with her work called Nasalo Dictionary of Smell, make us rethink existing standards and order. Therefore, while she is making things that we have ignored to see or gone unnoticed, visible, she helps us to perceive our place and our interaction on earth.

Designers, who achieve interesting works in biennial, do also deal with this kind of issues. This is only reason why I have chosen 'the manifesto' as the theme of biennial; yet when we look into the history, we see that there exists manifestos, in which big statements and plans are suggested.  

Let's take the concept of beauty: it sounds like a simple and innocent word; but it is a concept, which can be interpreted in various ways according to who we are, how old we are, the place we live in and the place we come from. The designers worked on developing different approaches related to this and a lot of other concepts like this. 

Formafantasma team in resource section are giving a different point of view to carftmanship by constructing electronic and digital tools by uniting paper and electronics.  They unfold technology, innovation and social interaction of limitless resources from a different point of view. 

The designers have very different infrastructure and equipment. We see the practice of complex subjects in different diciplines. 

We all do have fears; yet these projects help us to deal with change.  They make us understand positive and negative outcomes of our actions and confront with the reasons why we have those fears.

You have been in Istanbul for quite a while. This is a city containing beauties within itself, although it is over chaotic. Just like our relationship with future...  How did you benefit from the city?

This was the most exciting and interesting fact for me; it definitely effected me in a positive way and it was quite beneficial for me to be here. I am from UK and I went to States for internship. I wanted to experience and live this by working and living there rather than being a tourist. I feel the same way for Istanbul. I came here previously for holiday; yet being here to work as well as being in close contact with design world and work with designers was a privilege for me. A lot designers, who have had their education in various parts of the world and returning their acquisitions as well as their accumulations back here, makes this city really interesting for me. They get design education in really different fields and they try to apply these experiences in Turkey. We aimed to unite all these with each other with new dialogues and practices in biennial. 

İstanbul is a city which is in constant state of change and redefined continuously. The city looks a bit more different each time we come over here. I will be back here in December and we will see how this city and the biennial will look then.

What is your expectation from the spectators of biennial to change future? 

My biggest wish is them coming to the biennial. The doors are open to visit and the visits are free of charge. Turkish projects consist 30% of the biennial and it deals with subjects related to the city they live in. I think they will have new point of views and big aspirations, when they are walking around the exhibitions. We can say that they will leave the biennial by gaining a different point of view. 

Jürgen Mayer's manifesto, in which he says "Sleep more in the future." has attracted my attention and made me smile.  What do you think the effects of being awake for such long hours and be in the state of awareness in modern life style to our lives are? 

We couldn't have thought about a better project for the biennial! It appears as a place to rest when we see a lot of things and feel tired. It questions to get a good sleep and its relation to our health as well as giving a break. 

Sleep: it is a magical thing. Having a good sleep charges our body. It is regarded as weird when you sleep in public and regarded as rude. This is also a convention. Why shouldn't we have a nap during the day? Why should sleep have to be that special? Jürgen Mayer is asking these. He is breaking the taboos and makes the spectators rethink. 

Also life styles are changing. We don't always work in the office. Cappeille's manifesto suggesting to re-design night time is like a calling for night workers and changing the perception with night. Why don't we make use of night more?

I love these kind of projects questioning settled perceptions: why has it been so and where can it go to?

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The future is an unknown and abstract concept due to its nature. So how can the designers be more productive and beneficial despite this obscurity?

I can say that although the biennial was about future, in fact it is more to do with today. It is not only about the future: there are so many things we need to change now... The changes we do are going to effect future. This was really important for me. We didn't create anything directed to a different time. I think all those projects in the biennial has got the possibility to be realized in near future. It can be tackling with existing conditions again and to have a look at what we have now from a different point of view- it can be dealt with a different point of view just like in the night manifesto of Capeille. None of us have crystal ball and we are not trying to make a guess on future as designers. We are only trying to make a change by working on issues, which are important today and will be important tomorrow.

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Thank you for sparing time for us in your hectic schedule...