About

Ekin Erkan is a Turkish writer, a researcher in art history, and an art 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

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

KCWorks

Publications

Articles

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

Internation.World

Institut de recherche et d’innovation

AEQAI

Ekin Erkan

Profile picture of Ekin Erkan

@ekinerkan

Active 11 months, 4 weeks ago