GIANT Spotlight: Meet Hazal!

Tell us a bit about yourself… My name is Hazal Mestci, and I am from Ankara, Turkey. I have been living here in New York for the past five years. I am left handed, I have a twin sister, and I can do handstands. I also hugged a shark once!

I call myself a creative technologist and interactive designer - one that is in love with learning and teaching. I studied design and technology, communication design and film production at Parsons School of Design. I’ve thought children of all ages for many years in after school programs and informal settings. It means the world to me when I see excitement in their eyes as they learn something new or when they build something they’re proud to share.

What topics are you most excited to teach about? I love teaching at the intersection of art, technology, design, and engineering. That’s basically what creative technology is all about: using diverse media and tools to convey the message you want to tell, support the cause you care about, or solve a problem that bothers you.

Drawing, painting, doodling, film, animation, graphic design, 3D design, fabrication, coding, game design, and interactive robotics - these are just some of the topics I’ve thought over the last several years. I also really enjoy teaching my native language, Turkish.

My favorite moments of teaching come up whenever we (participants/students and I) brainstorm and collaborate together, and get inspiration from life to come up with ideas and design solutions. My students’ personal perceptual, physical, and analytical abilities are integral to my teaching process.

Favorite projects you’ve worked on… In my education, I majored in design and technology, and I double-minored in film production and communication design. During school and post graduation, I did many projects that I feel connected to and am proud of. Here is a sample of my work:

I did a drawing that lights up, with Arduino and conductive fabric that allows you to interact with the piece itself by touching it - contrary to the common rules of museums, where the art piece is beyond the audience’s physical accessibility.

For my thesis, I explored power structures in the context of political protests in Turkey. I designed a 3D world and a Virtual Reality (VR) experience that helped my audience to immerse themselves in the reality of these protests. You can read all about it, but immersing yourself (even virtually) in a protest, helps you to actually feel it, and hopefully take actions.

I was bothered about my experience buying clothes online and not knowing how it would actually look on me. I transformed this idea of transitioning from physical to digital world into a toy concept. A wooden toy called Ari that connects the two worlds together - as the player dress Ari in physical life, the avatar changes costumes in the digital world.

I collaboratively worked on a hand shadow puppet with flex sensors and an LED board, which provides a fun way of teaching sign language.

I grew up dancing, doing gymnastic and yoga - and I always find our body movements fascinating. Every move we make tells a little bit about our story, our thoughts, our emotions and frankly shape those thoughts and emotions. I brought this fascination into one of my projects: A movement tracker where you dance in front of a Kinect camera and the code draws the dancer moves in a Processing sketch. It’s so strange and cool at the same time when you see your body movement being mirrored into another character or avatar. It makes you to pause and really pay attention to every little move.

I can think of many more… I take pleasure in an interdisciplinary attitude - constantly being inspired by nature, our bodies, and our environment, think about important issues in education, humanity, and politics, and use diverse set of tools and media to convey a message.

What are some of the current projects you’re working on? I am working on a painting about the pandemic and the city, which explores the memory scope. I am also paying more attention to electronic music scene and working on few creative videos and design projects, involving logo design. Isn’t it so interesting how one symbol is supposed to convey your whole identity?!

Something you want to learn, or are learning right now… I truly believe in the importance of constantly learning, adapting, and bringing new tools of expression into your practice.

During the pandemic, I started learning more about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning - partly because I really wanted to know what is it all about (hey! AI is integrated in every layer of our lives), and partly because I’m very intrigued of ways I can bring it into my own design practices.

I want to learn how to make special effects for movies where they use a green screen and digital softwares, such as Houdini and Nuke, to create illusions and visual tricks, and to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual world. It’s a powerful way of storytelling - needs to be done responsibly.

Outside of the STEM field, before the pandemic, I was working on my back flip and wanted to learn some other tricks. I am also a tattoo apprentice, learning to make my art forever on people’s skin!

Your favorite thing to do in New York City… I love going to small bookstores and wandering around. I love going to street food festivals and farmers markets. I also love going to Prospect Park, and reading or drawing while sitting there. I am in love with MoMA and the Met.

Art Instagram: @hazalmestciart