:MENTALKLINIK-02.{GAME} ISTANBUL 2002
TÜL AKBAL SÜALP

If life is a game, what is game?

Games may be all about life, experience, production and giving a try to live in different ways. It most probably takes away the socially well-defined boundaries and rules. It is like another country or at least an unlimitedly open domain for its players in which everything can be switched, replaced, shifted; child can become an adult, an adult can become a child. One can put everything upside down; inside out and vice versa.

Game might be an experience of getting dirty or purifying oneself, having filled with satisfaction, pleasure but at the same time feeling disposable, emptied or exhausted. It is on the thin border of being god like or being a dust. Therefore it comes close to bakhtinian carnival where death can rebirth; joy intervenes dullness. For, it is the most harmless way to discharge anger, aggression and violence. It can be the best well-known address for refill and disposition of energy according to Freud.

In games there is always a space for irresponsibility, for staying untouched, for surviving sterilized since whatever you do is just a game; you cannot be held responsible for any harm because you are just being someone or something; you don't need to carry the burdens on your shoulders, you don't need to pay for damages you caused.

yet games carry and hold the possibilities of being social since they can be about experiences of being in and through a society in which players can also produce a new world and unknown, untold experiences.

Tül Akbal Süalp
cinema, media and cultural studies

curator: yasemin baydar, birol demir
editor: tül akbal süalp
participants: zehra tümertekin, ela cindoruk, nermin er, dara kılıçoğlu, /a/p/o/g/s/; sofie fischer, carl connaughton, ture anderson, mads quistgaard,
özer yalçınkaya, ayşin aşkar, serkan şedele, melis ağazat, asuman krause, demet yoruç, göksun çam, yasmin iris yağlıyan, ulaş eryavuz,
teri roditi, yael roditi alau, aysim türkmen, ethem özgüven, aykut erdoğan, dd, yasemin baydar, birol demir, ethem özgüven, dilek winchester,
aleksandra seculic, snezana skoko pabic
graphic design: ulaş eryavuz
book design: :mentalKLİNİK, pınar akkurt
photography: serkan şedele
moving images: ethem özgüven
jingle: özer yalçınkaya, dd
supported by: açık radyo 94.9, avrupa baskı merkezi, beydur group, derin design, enforma IT, illy, lumina,
mimeray, nova, imaj, sony, timeout istanbul, wall, stil matbaası, studio, gökhan plastik