Aylin Kalem

is a writer, lecturer, researcher and curator in the fields of dance, performance, the body and digital culture. She studied English Language and Literature (BA, Bogazici Univ.), History (MA, Bogazici Univ.) and Dance and New Technologies (DEA, Univ. Paris 8). She is instructor at the Management of Performing Arts Department of Bilgi University and at the Modern Dance Department of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University with courses on Performance Studies, Theories of the Body and Arts and New Media: Digital Performance. She has been giving lectures on New Technologies in Contemporary Performance, exhibiting interactive installations, leading workshops and writing critical articles on dance, performance and digital technologies. She is the curator of the international programme and co-organizer of TECHNE 06 International Istanbul Digital Performance Platform held in April 2006. Aylin Kalem is the co-founder of a multidisciplinary arts initiative "boDig" that focuses on the issues of the body in contemporary arts, performing arts and digital culture.

Beliz Demircioglu Cihandide

Choreographer/New media artist Beliz Demircioglu Cihandide has moved her base from New York City to Istanbul in 2006. She has received her MPS degree from Interactive Telecommunications Program and her BFA from Tisch School of the Arts Dance Department both at NYU. Her multimedia dance piece "Vantage Point" (in collaboration with Jamie Allen) was selected by Mikhail Baryshnikov for a residency at the Baryshnikov Art Center. Her INTOUCH project became the first interactive installation to be exhibited at the United Nations Headquarters. Her video/installation and multimedia dance works have been showcased at Codice-Idee per la Cultura, Eyebeam Gallery, Jack H. Skirball Center, Bushwick Arts Project, Vancouver NIME, Ask the Robot, Kasa Galeri, URA!, Tedance Festival (Lisbon) and Tanzquartier Wien among other venues. Beliz is a founding member of boDig (an Istanbul based arts initiative focusing mainly on the issues of the body in contemporary and digital culture)

beliz@bodig.org

Armando Menicacci

Armando Menicacci is a musicologist and dance researcher. He has studied several years of dance (Vaganova technique), piano and music composition in Italy. He has a BA in History of Music at the Rome University La Sapienza and is now a PhD candidate at Paris VIII University on the use of digital technology in dance education. As a member of Anomos he organized with Emanuele Quinz a section of the international symposium ISEA (2000) on the new interfaces between body and machines. He is the director of Mediadanse at Paris VIII Dance Department laboratory (created with the support of the Anomos association). Mediadanse is mainly oriented towards research about dance and digital media, and in the lab he teaches Computer Assisted Choreography.

Armando also works for different institutions and choreographers as an artistic consultant and dramaturge. At the 2004 Monaco Dance Forum he co-directed the week-long research activities of the Tech Lab ("Extending Perception"), which has the aim of exploring how interactive technology systems might be customized to create a feedback environment (using sonic and visual cues) for a trained dancer/ performer that might increase their already high level of body awareness and perception. Among his artistic/research work are the generative dance score website "Underscore" and the interactive installation "Terra Incognita" (Museum of Contemporary Art in Fortaleza-Brazil (2005).

Burcu Yasemin Seyben

She received her BA degree in Playwriting from Bennington College in 1999. She completed her MA in Visual Communication Design in Ä°stanbul Bilgi University in 2003. In 2009 she is expecting to finish her PhD in Theatre Criticism and Dramaturgy. She worked as a research assistant in the Management of Performing Arts from 2001 to 2005. Since 2005 she has been teaching in the same department.

Tolga Tüzün

Tolga Tüzün is an electro-acoustic music composer.  After receiving his BA in Political Sciences, he studied composition with Pieter Snapper and Marc Wingate and advanced orchestration with Ilhan Usmanbas and Hasan Ucarsu at the Istanbul Technical University, Center for Advanced Music Studies.  His compositions have been performed in various cities throughout US and in Amsterdam, Paris, Dresden, Darmstadt, Klangfurt, Birmingham and Istanbul. During his studies for a Ph.D. in Music Composition at CUNY Graduate Center, he studied composition with David Olan and Tristan Murail in New York and with Philippe Leroux in Paris.  He has given lectures on music theory and electro-acoustic music at several international conferences.  Between 2003-2005, he taught harmony and composition at Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music.  Tolga Tüzün participated in the yearlong composition and computer music course at IRCAM during 2005-2006.  He is currently teaching composition and computer music at Istanbul Bilgi University.