autoban represents turkey at london design biennale with 'the wish machine'

autoban represents turkey at london design biennale with ‘the wish machine’
all images © autoban

london design biennale: set to take place from 7 to 27th september 2016, the inaugural design event will feature projects from over thirty countries. called to respond to the theme of  ‘utopia by design,’ by celebrating the 500th anniversary of the publication of sir thomas more’s classic, utopia (1516), turkey will be contributing for the first time with ‘the wish machine,’ a design project undertaken by the istanbul-based multidisciplinary studio, autoban.

the installation located in west wing g1a appears as an interactive pneumatic system operating in a mirrored space

named ‘the wish machine’ autoban‘s installation is directly reminiscent from the ‘wish-tree’, a cultural tradition deeply rooted in the ancient anatolian faith and found in ancient greek, kabala and persian beliefs. to be displayed inside the west wing of somerset house during the london design biennale, the installation operates on a simple mechanism that involves affixing a note or a memento to a branch of a tree as an act of hope born out of hopelessness. the installation takes this multi-cultural tradition as the key insight into how design and utopia can cooperate. visitors will be invited to walk through a tunnel that is made of transparent hexagonal tubes and to share their hopes and wishes, vision of utopias, and aspiration for the future, by writing them on paper, and feeding them to the wish machine. notes will then travel back through the tubes to a place out of visitors’ sight, as if their destination is a place unknown.

visitors will be invited to walk through a tunnel that is made of transparent hexagonal tubes

in creating ‘the wish machine,’ seyhan özdemir and sefer çağlar, the founders of autoban, were motivated by the utopian idea of detaching from all known parameters belonging to the past and the present to dream for a better future. this positively provocative approach to suggest solutions for humanity and the act of dreaming was their biggest influence, reflected in their own field of design. the common problem they identified in today’s world is the inability to express an idea or a dream about a more positive future, without constantly having to struggle with the chaos of the present.

feeding the notes to the wish machine, they will travel back through the tubes to a place out of visitors’ sight

the visual identity of the turkey exhibition in london design biennale is designed by umut südüak

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