About

co-lexer is an emerging collective that integrates architecture, art, and new media through a transdisciplinary approach.

Our projects explore the anthropology, ontology, and human experience of space—examining its transformation by urban functions and technological processes. We engage in artistic and curatorial endeavors that focus on researching, documenting, archiving, and contextualizing memory spaces. Our work highlights the untold stories of overlooked communities and the subtle actions of everyday life through digital art experiences.

We strive to enrich our network by collaborating with diverse artists, researchers, and curators.

Merve Çaşkurlu

She is an artist/academic exploring spatial narratives through emerging technologies. She earned her BFA in Painting from Mimar Sinan University in 2004 and interned at École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris from 2007 to 2009. She received a full-merit scholarship for her MA in Visual Communication Design from Yeditepe University, completed in 2014. She later pursued a Ph.D. in Film in San Francisco, supported by a Fulbright Visiting Researcher grant from 2018 to 2020.

Since 2020, she has served as an assistant professor in the Visual Communication Design Department at Yeditepe University, Istanbul, where she also directs the Interaction Design MA program. Recently, she has led VR and AI workshops for design students at prominent events, including the Istanbul Festival of Architecture, Umöb 20,5 Urban Dreams XV, and at institutions like the University of Design, Innovation, and Technology in Madrid and Ionian University in Corfu.

Duygu Yarımbaş

Following her bachelor’s (Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, 2010) and master‘s degree (2015, Istanbul Technical University) in the Department of Architecture, she has pursued her doctoral studies in the architecture field (ITU) and working as a research assistant (MSFAU). She improved and expanded her doctoral research scope at the Illinois Institute of Technology provided by the Fulbright Visiting Researcher Grant (2018).

Her research based on “The Bank Lottery Houses Phenomenon” -which is an extraordinary example of a modernist dwelling in Turkey- was awarded by Salt Research Fund (2014). She participated in the publication project focusing on the works of Turkish architect Muhlis Turkmen (2016). She assisted in the digitalization process of renowned Turkish architect Sedad Eldem’s personal archive as a curator. The project is funded by Koç University (2018).

Merve Şahin

She is a Ph.D. student in Visual and Performing Arts at The University of Texas at Dallas. She is the Curatorial Fellow at the Aggregate Space Gallery in Oakland, California where she conducts curatorial research for the non-profit art space along with grant writing and partnership development. She earned her Master of Arts degree from San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) as a Fulbright Grantee, where her thesis research was included in Leonardo Abstract Service (LABS) and invited to The Media, Arts & Design conference in 2020.

Before embarking on her Ph.D. program, she thought art history and visual communication design classes at Sabancı University and Yeditepe University, Istanbul, Turkey. Her research on art and technology focuses on the conceptual and historical analysis of how artists have been problem solvers and cultural engineers throughout history.