Heat-Flux: Bayrampaşa
Photography Series, Installation, Photobook
Various Dimensions
2018—2020
Emerging from the AirBayrampaşa artistic residency hosted at Ramada Encore Bayrampaşa from June 1–13, 2018, Heat-Flux: Bayrampaşa interrogates the dynamics of thermal energy as a metaphor for broader socioeconomic and geographic transitions within İstanbul’s Bayrampaşa district. Framed as a conceptual laboratory, the project maps heat fluctuations to examine how energy—both literal and metaphorical—circulates, transforms, and dissipates across urban systems, offering a lens into the invisible forces shaping the district under conditions of rapid urbanization and turbo-capitalist efficiency.
Central to the research is the premise that energy flows leave traces, though these often remain obscured within systems prioritizing productivity over visibility. In Bayrampaşa, such energy manifests in layered forms: human activity, industrial machinery, transportation networks, and cultural infrastructures collectively generate thermal imprints that reflect the district’s socioeconomic rhythms. Key nodes like the Esenler Bus Terminal, Forum İstanbul shopping complex, and Bayrampaşa Wholesale Market emerge as high-intensity zones where energy converges, driven by round-the-clock labor, commerce, and transit. Conversely, peripheral streets and residential capillaries exhibit slower, fragmented energy dispersal, mirroring the uneven distribution of resources and spatial hierarchies inherent to urban ecosystems.
The methodology for the project is dependent on twin photographic techniques—optical and thermal imaging—to make physical the dynamic relationship between physical and immaterial energy currents. Thermal imaging cameras, especially, are useful for capturing heat signatures across Bayrampaşa's diverse microclimates. By capturing scenes such as industrial workshops, crowded markets, and transport hubs, the technology reveals concealed thermal histories: machines exhaling residual heat after nightfall, crowds radiating warmth behind them, and constructed buildings as pools of heat. These sightings reinforce the district's role as a dynamic repository of energy exchange, where heat serves as a proxy for labor, consumption, and entropy.
Regional specificity grounds the analysis. Bayrampaşa’s identity as a hub of logistics and small-scale manufacturing—marked by workshops, wholesale markets, and transit arteries—informs its unique thermal profile. The research highlights how localized economic practices, such as 24/7 production cycles and informal labor networks, generate distinct thermal patterns, contrasting with the regulated energy outputs of cultural or commercial landmarks. For instance, historical sites and religious spaces, though less industrially active, function as thermal regulators, absorbing and redistributing energy through seasonal visitor flows.
The two-week residency culminated in a multimedia installation and photobook, exhibited at PASAJ Karaköy from January 30 to February 15, 2020. Through juxtaposed thermal and optical imagery, the output visualizes the dissonance between perceived urban order and latent thermodynamic chaos. The installation’s layered maps and time-lapse sequences trace heat’s migration from centralized hubs to peripheral zones, metaphorically echoing the district’s socioeconomic gradients. Meanwhile, the photobook archives thermal anomalies—a street vendor’s cart radiating heat at dawn, a dormant factory cooling overnight—as ephemeral markers of Bayrampaşa’s energy cycles.
By framing thermal imaging as both a technical and symbolic practice, Heat-Flux: Bayrampaşa bridges empirical observation and speculative inquiry. The project positions heat not merely as a physical phenomenon but as a narrative device, uncovering how energy transitions—economic, social, and environmental—are encoded within the urban fabric. In doing so, it invites reflection on the inefficiencies and vulnerabilities masked by turbo-capitalist systems, proposing that even in obscurity, energy’s traces persist, awaiting interpretation.
