About

Ekin Erkan is a Turkish philosopher, a researcher in art history, and an art and cinema critic. Erkan’s research in philosophy primarily concerns Kant & Hegel’s theoretical philosophy, the philosophy of mind/perception, and aesthetics/the philosophy of art. Erkan’s area of concentration in art history is currently on revisionist histories of 20th century Abstract Expressionism and how the story of the State Department’s co-optation of Abstract Expressionism relates to the utopian (viz. “California Ideology”) self-conception of nascent internet art (see: NetTime listservs of the late 1990s and early aughts) and its eventual co-optation by commodity capital (e.g., NFTs, the uniform flat aesthetics of ”corporate Memphis”, and the machinations of the “big five” digital oligopolies). Erkan also works on the art of Gerda Wegener and Lili Elbe.

Education

Current, Philosophy

Spring 2019 – 2020

Post-Graduate study, Critical Philosophy, The New Centre for Research & Practice

+ Teaching Assistant Fellowship + Rapporteur for Sites of Cinema

+ Researcher for Prof. Thomas Elsaesser

Fall 2013 – Spring 2018

B.A., Major in Art History, Philosophy, University of Cincinnati, DAAP (Cincinnati, OH)

B.A., University of Rochester, Political Science & Philosophy (Rochester, NY)

+Dean’s List, 4.0 GPA (for all semesters)

+ Summa Cum Laude with Highest Distinctions

Other Publications

Articles

Blog Posts

    Projects

    “Internation.World” by Ars Industrialis and Institut de recherche et d’innovation (spearheaded by Bernard Stiegler & Giacomo Gilmozzi)

    “The centenary of the League of Nations is on Friday 10th January 2020. In response, we are launching an international critical discussion to send a memorandum to the United Nations with the aim of creating an internation. An internation is an agreement between different localities working together in order to invent and to experiment with a new macro-economic model more likely to address the urgent challenges of the Anthropocene.”

    On the Arrest of Oktay Ince: Activism for Turkish Video Artist and Political Voice

    In Turkey, the amorphous term “terrorist” has adopted folk-lore speculative projections: from a baklava magnate to journalist dissenters and high school teachers, from professors to artists, the unpredictability of being labeled a “terrorist” blankets all such dissenters who dare problematize the ruling AK Party/President Erdoğan. One such case is that of Oktay Ince, a video activist/filmmaker whose work, spanning the last twenty years, was recently confiscated by Turkish authorities after his most recent arrest/being taken into police custody on May 30, 2019. Ince had raised suspicions after attempting to organize a protest in front of a courthouse in the capital of Ankara; he was quickly arrested. Similarly, a month prior, Ince had organized a protest in Izmir and was arrested once again, labelled a “terrorist” and charged with “insulting the president.” The state’s response soon began to appear pathological. Ekin Erkan and other Turkish academics, writers, and intellectuals have worked to spread awareness regarding the unlawful arrest of Oktay Ince, with hopes of helping Ince recover his video archive.

    Upcoming Talks and Conferences

    July 21, 2021

    Invited Respondent, Book Panel: Hegel on Possibility, The Society for Systematic Philosophy

    May 18-21        Speaker, Olfactory Semantics and Cognitive Handles; Dubrovnik Conference on Cognitive Science—Linguistic and cognitive foundations of meaning Dubrovnik Conferences on Cognitive Science

     

    May 14, 2021

    Speaker, Thought as Determination: Bestimmung des Menschen, Fichte’s Measuring Device and Hegel’s Debt; The North American Fichte Society Early Career Researcher Workshop

    April 23, 2021

    Speaker, On Conceptualizing the Binding Problem through a Naturalized Kantian Framework; 24th Annual Texas State University Phi Sigma Tau Student Philosophy Symposium

     

    February 26-27, 2021

    Speaker, Artificial Generative Intelligence and Externalization; Rutgers University

     

    July 15, 2020

    Lecturer, On Predictive Processing and Second-Order Cybernetics; Arter Araştırma Programı Istanbul, Turkey

    November 22-23, 2019

    Speaker, Technology and the God-Command; “Voices” – Italian Graduate Society Conference, Rutgers University

    April 5-6, 2019

    Speaker, Poto and Cabengo: Beyond Lev Manovich’s Database Logic; “39th Cincinnati Conference on Romance & Arabic Languages and Literatures,” University of Cincinnati

     

    March 28, 2019

    Speaker, On Cryptophasia; Medusa Graduate Conference (Linguistic/Anthropology Graduate Student Union), University of Toronto

     

    February 15, 2019

    Speaker, Radical Cryptophasia; “‘The Re/active Image’: 2019 NYU Cinema Studies Student Conference,” New York University

    April 2017

    Speaker, Thomas Demand’s “Pacific Sun”; Dr. Jonathan B. Riess Annual Colloquium, University of Dayton

     

    April 2017

    Speaker, Gerhard Richter and Thomas Demand: Inverted Photo-projection; Architecture and Media Conference, University of Cincinnati

    December 2015

    Organizer, Love, D. A Celebration of Douglas Crimp: Gregg Bordowitz; Craig Owens Memorial Lecture, University of Rochester

    Memberships

    Ars Industrialis

    Pharmakon.fr

    The New Centre for Research & Practice

    Internation.World

    Institut de recherche et d’innovation

    AEQAI

    Columbia

    Ekin Erkan

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    @ekinerkan

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