Exploring the interplay between mind and matter
By Charlotte Jansen
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Melek Zeynep Bulut’s process cannot be easily replicated. “First, I perceive an abstract energy field, and then I find myself shaping it,” the Turkish, Beyoğlu-born designer explains. A unique creator and capacious thinker with a background in visual arts and architectural design, Bulut, founder of Melekzeynepstudio, has been exploring the interplay between mind and matter “for as long as I can remember”.
It comes naturally to someone with synesthesia, a condition that causes sensory and cognitive crossovers (such as ‘tasting’ sounds) – “it wasn’t an interest in my profession that directed me here, but rather, I naturally found myself doing it.”
Her works often transform abstract, grandiose concepts – time, space, bodies – into tangible, sensory forms and experiences: her award-winning OpenWork (2023), presented at LDF23, comprised massive, moveable metal gates that produced sounds as visitors moved through them – a metaphor to vividly, materially reimagine what it means to transition through doors or thresholds.
For the 2024 edition of LDF, an equally audacious and ambitious new work, Duo, is situated in the Painted Hall at Greenwich’s The Old Royal Naval College. Taking the shape of a rectangular prism, the giant suspended structure evokes the form of ancient architectural thresholds. Conceptually inspired by notions of duality and oppositional forces – centre and periphery, inside and outside, night and day, time and space, or simply, two people in conversation – Duo comes to life through an interdependent mechanical system of magnets, sensors, perception-altering surfaces, and acoustic reflectors that are altered by a visitor’s presence.
The intensity, balance, and oscillation that occurs through the space and its parts depend on the contact with whoever enters it. Bulut sees it as a “game of perception” that turns visitors into active participants – or, as she puts it, “game-changers”.
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“Imagine it like our body – fundamentally not a solid mass, but a sensor. It perceives and responds to stimuli by producing sounds, and has sensory receptors in our fingertips that allow us to feel textures, heat, and cold. Similarly, Duo conceptually treats ‘space’ as a mechanical body.”
The human presence will be amplified through miniature microphones and reflectors, their physical responses animating and completing the work. “Essentially, Duo is a portal, and all my works are portals, offering spaces for dimensional transition and equilibrium.”
Duo also responds to the charged, cavernous setting of the Painted Hall – originally designed in the 18th century by Sir James Thornhill as a dining hall for the Greenwich Pensioners adorned with 3,700 square metres of Baroque paintings of 200 kings, queens, and mythological figures. “Energetically, I believe it serves as a space for dimensional transition, with a very high aura”, Bulut explains.
Like many of Bulut’s projects, Duo is both ancient and contemporary in tenor, tracing a trajectory through our bodies back to our existential core. It chimes with London Design Festival’s continued commitment to championing inclusivity and its role in broadening the scope of design to reveal the profound impact it can have on society.
“Creating here is immensely valuable,” Bulut says of London, the city she now calls home, splitting her time between here and Istanbul. “London itself is like my works: a series of spaces within spaces, stories within stories. I am delighted to be here.”
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