GMU:Istanbul/Guess who

From Medien Wiki

Istanbul is a city,that changes in every moment in every corner. Every part of the city is different to the other and so are the people living in.

I wanted to get to know the city not as a tourist or exchange student ,i wanted to get it to know from the view of the young women living in istanbul. What do they think about their future, about Turkey- are they proud of their country and culture?



First step

How to find out what to ask. I thought a lot about what to ask. There are a lot of important question to ask to find out a lot about a country, a culture or persons. In the beginnig I thought it might be the best to ask all the same questions to get a lot of different answers. And i thought too, that not every person can tell an exciting story. So I tried out and I found out, that every answer is really interesting and every person has another story to tell which is really interesting and really important. I made some tests with my friends, because it is so much easier to ask questions to your friends than to unknown persons.




Second step

Who am i going to interview?

The most important and difficult part of this project was, to find young women, they are willing to help me. I just had 10 days in Istanbul, that was a short time to find someone and organise a meeting. So i used couchsurfing to get in touch with some women. Luckily all of them I asked were really helpful and interested in my project.



Third step

How do I get there?

I learned a lot about Istanbul on the way back and to the women I visited. They live in all different parts of the city, which are normally not the typical touristic parts. It took me most of the times more than 1.5 hours to get there and it was really exhausting.


Fourth step

What do we talk about?

To meet people, you´ve never seen before is easy. But to ask people you´ve never seen before private question is hard. I had my questions prepared, but really soon I found out, that just to talk feels more comfortable.So I always tried to talk about the same topics, but it was always surprising how the talks changed. Every talk was interesting and I learned so much about the persons and Istanbul and the women in Turkey.

Here is a small selection of thoughts the women and I shared.

<videoflash type=vimeo>50328076</videoflash> <videoflash type=vimeo>50330436</videoflash> <videoflash type=vimeo>50328077</videoflash> <videoflash type=vimeo>50328079</videoflash>



Fifth step

How do I present it?

I thought a lot about the presentation. I have a lot of audio and photography material and wanted to show both. In the end i made four small books, which were attached to audio files. Unfortunately not so many visitors took their time to listen.