Özgün Dilek

About Özgün Dilek

Özgün Dilek is a postdoc researcher at Gothenburg University and working on the political ontology of things concerning various maker practices. She completed her Ph.D. in Industrial Design, in 2020, at Istanbul Technical University, Turkey. Before her current position, she was teaching design theory, product design studio, and critical making studio in the department of industrial design at Eskisehir Technical University, Turkey.

Özgün, conducted research on post-industrial maker experiences in Istanbul in her Ph.D. thesis. She was interested in how design became expertise separated from the making practice through the processes of industrialization. Besides the occupational rhetoric of industrial design which is based on the designer´s decision-making process on outcomes; she aimed to bring the human-thing relations in front in the processes of design. In her Ph. D. thesis, she generated an onto-phenomenological inquiry on agency in maker-thing assemblages. The use of Actor-Network Theory together with phenomenology, allowed her to discuss how human reframing of reality could be shaped by different things. ANT’s contribution to phenomenology highlighted the dialogical side of relationships during the practices in which humans with nonhumans collaborate and transform social reality through agentic actions. In the ecology of maker practices, she explored that shared competencies and artistic interpretation allow makers to generate autonomy in design decisions. She noticed how capabilities gained during the collaborative practices of makers generate socio-political stances and socioeconomic changes.

After her Ph. D., she conducted a research project on critical making with industrial design students. She aimed to understand how critical inquiry on technology works together with bodily interactions in the open learning environment and how this approach fosters design processes through the critical engagement of technology in student works.

Besides design research and teaching, her amateur artistic interest varies among crafts and video making. Her early collaborative works follow a political stand that questions the discourses of institutions or public authorities. She has an amateur curatorial practice within an art collective, Üretim Bandı (Assembly Line), that aimed to stimulate collaborative practices among artists, craft makers, and designers in Eskisehir, Turkey between 2015 and 2016. By being a member of this collective, she contributed to organizing events with different stakeholders including artists, makers, amateurs, art venues, public institutions, and local administrators. During the active period of this collective, she had experience in displaying exhibitions and workshops as well as publishing fanzines.

Journal Articles

Dilek, Ö. & Kaya, C. (2023). A Promising Break in The “Black Box”: Agency of Competences and Interpretation in Istanbul Maker Ecologies. Design Issues, 39(3), 45-59. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/desi_a_00725

Aktaş, B. M., Tok, T., Gürtekin, B., Kaygan, H., Dilek, Ö., Özçelik, A., Akın, F. & Büyükkeçeci, E. (2022). Human-Thing Relations In Design: A Framework Based On Postphenomenology And Material Engagement Theory. METU Journal of The Faculty of Architecture, 39(1), 57-76. Doi: 10.4305/METU.JFA.2022.1.3.

Dilek, O. & Kaya Pazarbasi C. (2020). Multiple roles and enhancements of makers in the post-industrial design practices: An inquiry for non-expertise in design. A|Z ITU Journal of the Faculty of Architecture, 17(2), 53-62. Doi: 10.5505/itujfa.2020.68095

Erkarslan, O., Kaya, N. A., and Dilek O. (2013). Comparative analysis of recruitment qualifications of industrial designers in Turkey through undergraduate education programs and online recruitment resources. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 23, 129-145. Doi: 10.1007/s10798-011-9164-6