Beauty, violence, fear, pleasure, time and thought are all interrelated. Is it possible to clear violence in ourselves? This is a very complex problem. I want to live completely at peace with myself and with this beautiful world. What is beauty? “How am I to live in a world of violence?” Those are the inevitable questions. What can I do?

Most of us take pleasure in violence, having antagonistic feellings toward others. Each country are in battle with other countries. There is great deal of anarchy in the world. Violence is not merely organized killing in the name of peace. Violence is not merely killing another. Violence is much more deeper. It is violence when we use sharp word, when we obey because there is fear. And to go into a problem I must completely open to it. It must be obvious to me that we are violent human being. We are trying to understand violence as a fact, not as an idea. If you want to understand the actual you must give your whole attention to it. That attention are distracted when you create an ideal. Some of us, in order to get rid of violence, have used a concept called nonviolence. We think we can get rid of the fact but we can not. Is this problem of violence out there? When you call yourself a European or an American, you are being violent. Do you see why? Because you are separating yourself. Here I am, a violent human being, whether I am black or white. I am concerned with it if it is possible to be free from. It is destroying me and destroying the world. I want to understand it. One can not say, “It is part of me and nothing can be done.” Isn’t it important to you that your children are killed? If that doesn’t interest you, what does? Guarding your design job? Having a nice car?

There are terrible wars going on. In the Asia or in the Africa you see immense poverty. Who has brougth this about? Economically, politically, religiously. Who is responsible for all the mess that we have in the world? We are living on this earth, and each one is seeking his freedom. Everything we do is action. What is self-interest? Is this related to the beauty? It is important to understand all this. Self-interest devides people. You and I. My interest opposed to your interest, your country, my country. Can one live without any kind of self-interest? Everybody is against somebody, struggling to arrive at a safer place. We push other people aside because we are trying to become a big man. If I say my mind is crude and I try to become sensitive, the very effort to become sensitive is crudity.

We have experienced violence in anger, in our sexual demands, violence in jealousy, violence in hatred. One of the most common expressions of violence is anger. If you run away with my wife or my sister I get angry. I am also angry when my habits are disturbed. Can we look at anger without any explanation, without saying, “I must protect my idea,” or “I was right to be angry”? Can you look at anger objectively? Neither defending it nor condemning it? Can we go to the root of violence and be free from it? I think one can. Otherwise we shall live everlastingly in battle with each other. If I know how to look at violence, not only outwardly but also in ourselves, then I will able to see the truth. If you are interested then attend with all your mind to find out. Anger is not separete from me. I am anger. If violence is not a major problem for you, then you can not find out why you condemn or justify. You have to understand that you condemn or justify because it is part of social structure you live in. The way you live is your affair. Most of us have accepted violence as a way of life. We might be able to modify ourselves, live a little more quietly, but this will not give total perception.

What is time? Time is important factor in our life. That is the moment that you are sitting there as you are reading. You are what you are now. The present is what we have been and what we are. The past, modifiying itself in the present and the future. Time is tradition. Time is remembrance. Time is knowledge adding more and more. We need time to design a car or a bus. But time creates lots and lots of problems. We have been violent. We have tried to cover it over with logical conclusions but we are still killing each other. Horrible things are happening to the annimals, and the human beings. We are violent people. Competitive, barbarous, antagonistic. If there is no transformation now, I will be the same tomorrow. So simple if you look at it. You can not look for another to help you. You are understanding yourself. You are looking at yourself. Time as we have been, and what we will be. “I am unhappy, but one day I will be happy.” What is the relationship of time, thought to fear?

What is thinking? Thinking is common to all mankind. We all think. We think in terms of time. All our life based on thought. Look at our brains, how it works. We never dig into ourselves. You have to find out what is thinking? What is the cause of thinking? If you understand the cause then you can solve any of the problem. The cause of anything, the cause of a design problem, the cause of a fear. What is the origin of all thought? Is it experience? The experience stored up in the brain as memory and that memory reacts as thinking. Is it so simple? Is thinking based on experience, knowledge, memory? We are full of kowledge of other people. The more knowledge you have the more you think. Science is adding more and more very day. Thought is the basis of our life, working in the design office, or in a design school, or a factory. Look what is happening with the designers and who runs the design offices. Look objectively then we will able to see the truth.

What is fear? Fear of being ill, fear of death. Fear of losing ones job. Fear of hundered little things. Fear is common to all of us, like power, position. If one can discover the cause, then deal with the cause. Then that cause comes to an end. You do not have to do anything about it. Just to observe the cause as you observe something external. No one is trying to help you. There are others who might help you. You may leave your problems to be solved. They may solve them according to their desires, their power, their position. You have to face the facts. To create an atmosphere in which there is no fear and violence requires a greate deal of thinking.

When in a state of mind in which all violence has come to an end there is joy and beauty. Which is very different from pleasure. What does beauty mean to each one of us? Is it the face, the body, the great pleasure in seeing some of those marvellos designs? Or beauty is the pictures in the museums? Is there beauty in our life? The sense of generosity, the sense of high sensitivitiy? Are we talking about something extreme? Or it is the common all of us that we all go through great periods of suffering. Is everything beautiful? Is everyone living happily? Is beauty love? Is beauty plesure? When you see those hills and the blue sky and the sunburned grass and the calm sea and the sun set, when you look at them, not verbalizing, then what takes place? For that moment you become silent. The sea and the sun set absorbs you at that moment. And you forget yourself. For a moment this immensity drive our pettiness away.

It is only when you are constantly observing, constantly learning, constantly inquiring, then you find beauty, truth or love. Do you know what it means to learn? We learn from everyting. Life itself is your teacher, and we are in a state of constant learning. Your mind must be free to observe it. It must not be occupied with problems. The moment we want to be something, we are no longer free. If you understand the simplicity of it you will also see its extraordinary beauty. It is good to see what is beautiful, but you must also observe the ugly things of live. Freedom needs infinite space. When there is a lack of space there is violence. Because of the limitied space between us aggression must exist. Freedom means infinite space not created by the me. Freedom and love go together. If I love you because you love me, that is not love. That is trade. To love is not ask anything in return. When love becomes pleasure, then pain is inevitable. Love is not thought. Freedom is beyond thought. Freedom is to stand alone, unattached and unafraid. It is thought that gives plesure as sexual and as the plesure of achivement. When this plesure comes to an end naturaly or by accident then sorrow is your shadow. Plesure encouraged by thought. Thought says: ”I like this and I don’t like that.” When I say: “I want more of that plesure.” I am the thought. So I have built a chain of continuity which is time.

When you are doing something with your hole being, not because you want to get somewhere, in that there is no competition. You are not struggling with anyone for better place. The higher you climbe the more misery you cause for yourself and others, because to get there you have to compete.

I wonder if you have ever stopped to observe the marvellous clouds in the east as the sun rise? Often at that time the sea is calm, and everyting is reflected on its surfece. How soft is the sunlight on the waters. It is all very beautiful. Do you ever notice any of that? Or are you so busy, that you forget the beauty of this earth? We all have pleasure in attachment, in achieving position, money, fame. Our brain is caught in repetition. Is repitition indication of old age? Is repitition indication of senility? Probably you have never ask this question. You can not answer it because you have not observed yourselves deeply. We depend on so many things. So many books, so many leaders. If one part of my life is in disorder, then the whole of my life is in disorder. If there is disorder in regard to design business, then the rest of my life is in disorder. You have to be a light to yourself. That can never be given by another, by any designer, by any philosopher or psycohologist, or any teacher.

Why has ceativitiy so important in our life? To understand this, we need to see its enormous implications. Let’s look at it. Not theoretically. Just look at it as it is. Creativeness only comes into being when there is deep discontent.

People are afraid of being discontented. Most of the time we are discontented, not because we want something, but without knowing what we want. Look at your life. You just cling to labels and words. You are striving to become something. In every field you are emphasizing yourself, your prestige and your security. In every activity the self is the important thing. You want to be powerfull. Therefore, you are creating conflict.

Discontent with everything so that you begin to think. Be discontent with your job, with the traditonal pursuit of position, power. When we don’t accept, but question, there is an insight out of which comes creativitiy. When you are discontented with everyting and are not seeking a result, then that discontent brings your thought into focus. Your whole thinking process becomes very simple. And at the same time it is important to be happy. One must be discontented, not complainingly, but with joy. With love.

If you can be in revolt while you grow older keep your discontent alive with the vitality of joy, then that discontent will have an extraordinary significance. Because it will bring new things in your life. Don’t be afraid of discontent. For this you must have the right kind of education. Right kind of education requires a greate deal of intelligence. That is why it is so important for the educator to understand the whole process of life. What we now call education puts the student to sleep. If you ask really sharp questions, the teacher gets very disturbed and say, “Let’s talk about something different.”

Talk with your educators and you will soon find out how ideas and beliefs can also become property. Teaching is not only a job. It is an act of dedication. Teachers can explain things, but their explanations may be wrong. It is good to be sceptical. Because it gives you a chance to find out for yourself whether you need a teacher at all. It is part of education. It is interesting to find out what learning is. We learn how to design from a book, or from a teacher. There is also another kind of learning that comes through experience. To face of discontent, that extraordinary feeling of joy, and not be frightened when it comes. Look at it. Understand it. We try to run away from discontent through sex, through work, through drink, through write and read, through design. What is important is to be your own master. To be both the teacher and the pupil.

Just look at yourself without condemning, without comparing yourself with somebody else. It is you who want to know the meaning of creativitiy and freedom. When you carefully observe, you will see that there is no freedom. Years and years we work in a small room. We work with a little color monitor. Thinking that we have grasped life. And it is extraordinarily difficult to go outside. Most of us think that through the part we shall understand the whole. Just observe what you are and move with it. You will find that it is possible to go infinitly far. And see there is no end. If you do not look through any idea or belief, then everything around you becomes extraordinarily interesting. Tremendously creative. That is the mystery, the beauty of creativeness.

If you don’t know how your mind works, you will never find out what design is. Your mind is not apart from your culture. You are part of the society. From the moment you are born and begin to recive impressions. Your parents are constantly telling you what to do and what not to do. To be free of that pattern you have to understand the whole process. Culture is made up of all your beliefs. You have to see how your mind works. Watch your mind. You are dominated by what your parents and teachers say. You are striving to become somebody. When all this competitiveness is removed that there will be a peaceful society in which we will able to live creatively. To be creative requires giving up one’s egocentricity and selfishness. When there is honestly and sincerely no self emphasis in any design actvitiy, then creativitiy has little meaning.

Love is a productive activitiy. It means caring for, responding, enjoying. If you really love to be a designer, not gain recognition but just you love to do it. Then you will never compete with another. To love what you do. This is the realitiy. If you design just because you need to earn enogh money, or because your teacher expects it of you. This is compulsion, and compulsion creates conflict. Name, property, wealth and family are like your shadow as you walk in the sun. These are based on our desire for security. In the state of joy you don’t relly on anyone psychologically because you are no longer seeking gratification. It is only such a mind is creative.

Discovery and understanding come through self-knowlege. The moment you say, “I have designed, I am a greate designer because I have found out this.” You are lost. If we make problem rosy, then we can’t see the whole. If you look at the problem and see it exactly as it is, then you will be able to understand. How you talk, how you walk, how you treate people, how you design and sell are very important things. Because they act like mirrors. Life and also design can not be understood from a book, nor can be discovered by traveling. You can only understand it only when you are fully alive, watcful. Out of this understanding comes grate love. Then you will see what it is to be happy. Then you will know what beauty is.


www.angelfire.com/ar/birgil
a_birgil@hotmail.com

Dear Anthony Siemons & Geert Stam, Via Cultura;

As an individual free-lancer I have a small design company. In winter time we work in Istanbul, and summer Assos, Çanakkale.

Considering to my work you can find nothing special. You could have seen similar designs all over the world. Anyone can easily observe that all the cars, TV sets, electonic equipments around the world look alike. For me what is interesting is that, their stories behind them. Years ago I have investigated Apple Computers sad, aggresive, time to time violent story. You can also investigate Studbakers and its owners sad story and its designer’s complicated famous life. I have also carefully observed Turkish economics and bussines life. It has real similarity. Without understanding life, design has no meaning at all! You pay a great deal to get educated, but you may neglect life. You have to observe it carefully. You have to know what you think and why. What life is? The educated people all around the world, who have been to college, to university, have got a nice design job, and advance there, they have their own troubles. How are you going to meet all this? One may know everyting about design bussiness. But psychologically one doesn’t know anyting about inner-self. You can get a job, get married, have children. But mind may want something much more then that.

As a designer do you know what is happening in the world? Deception, revolt, chaos and the misery all around in this country or any other countries. When you consider all about it, what does it mean to you? Do you want to be swallowed up by the culture in which you live? Or are you going to oppose it. Opposing would be another problem and not a total understanding. What is your relationship to the confusion that man producing? What is your innermost response to all this? Get married and settle down! If that is the end of it, then what? Is education help you to get settled down in this system? I think that is where the sadness lies. The world is that way; deceptive, money-minded. If you are not aware of it, you will just slip into it. You know all the tricks people are playing on each other. Are you going to fit into the mechanisim of the present disorder, or do you think it should be some other way? There must be a way to live happily, intelligently, activly, with a greate deal of energy.

You have to find out how to live. That demands intelligence. Fear is probably the gratest problem in the world. Enquiring into what fear is, your mind becomes intelligent: that intelligence will show you how to live in this chaos sanely. If you know how to live, you will never be frightened. In this everything must be questioned. Important question to ask yourself is; how to live in this insanity and yet be sane? I may go to an office and earn a living. I need to find out if I am dependent on people. Not only on people, on drink, money, design, business, talking endlessly about nothing.

What is our relationship to the whole? If you are not enquiring, questioning, looking at yourself what you think, later on it will be much difficult. We are human beings in relationship with each other, therefore we must understand each what it means to live together in freedom. To live a life without effort, without conformity, without suppression, without following the crowd, to understand the whole greedy process of modern existence. We can create Designs for the Real World. Design for humanitiy. This issue will exist right through life, if you suppress it there is danger it will explode in other directions. If you play trics with it, it will destroy your mind and your life. You can only be free when you have understood how deeply you are conditioned. İf you examin carefully to the writers, painters or designers who lead terrible lives, in their relationship with others. This misery gives them a tremendous energy. To break down that conditioning you have to be aware of what you are doing. Life can not go on if there is no co-operation. If I have any form of selfish regard, a self- interested motive, can there be co-operating in the sense understanding the world? I have to learn that; I don’t want to become like Christ or Buddha or Sottsass or Starck. We have to see and design things differently. I have to find a way of living differently. The moment I have an idea, I am already confused.

I may be very good at designing a car and getting huge amount of money. Then what? And the whole of the rest of my life neglected. How shall I educate myself? So how do you know what life is? What is happening in the world, wars, the people who have take drugs, and the hatred between countries? This is not a simple problem! To understand this complex problem, I know what I would do. I would just observe all this. I wouldn’t take sides. And also I would observe my litlle self. I would find out what it means to think. Why you think? What is the background of your thinking. Watch yourself. Don’t become self-centered. Be tremendously concerned in that waching.

So what then is the sense of beauty? Does this beauty lie in the products, in art, in design magazine, in things outside? It may come to you when you are physically very sensitive. Not only about yourself but sensitive to others, to everything; the way you talk, the way you design, the way you sell your design. Do you aware of what you are doing, or you do it otomatically. When you become aware of your life, you become sensitive. Without the sense of inward beauty you may design most marvellous things, but it won’t contain love and joy. Surely education is not merely to give you knowledge, but also to give you the capacitiy to observe the world objectively. People generally don’t need to see the whole. They only want to pursue their little desires. Their pleasures. But if you saw the whole and understood your place in it, your relationship to the whole would be fearless and beautifull.

Armagan Birgil




Dear Mr / Mrs,


We as a student organisation are planning a study trip in Octobre of this year. The trip is intended for students who study Industrial Product design at the The Hague University of Professional Education. It is organised every year for approximately 35 students, varying from first year- to last year-students. The idea is to acquaint our students with design in an international perspective.

In the past we have been to London, Berlin, Milan, Paris, Copenhagen.
This year we are planning to go to the interesting city of Istanbul. Our goal
İn this trip is to broaden our horizon in design to the Eastern culture. We would like to visit companies and studios, as yourself, in this city.

As a group we are dieing to know everything about your company and the way you work within your branch, the cultural differences within design between Turkey and the Netherlands.

Our question to you is the possibility to visit your company when we are
visiting Istanbul. We are in Istanbul from the 17th to the 23rd of October.

If you are interested in our plans we would like to hear from you as soon as
possible to make further arrangements for this visit.


Or you can send a letter to:

Via Forma
Postbus 19011
2500 CA The Hague
The Netherlands

With kind regards,

Anthony Siemons & Geert StamVia Cultura