In Memory of Didem Yalınay

In Memory of Didem Yalınay

I am very sad to share that my doctoral student, friend, and colleague, Didem Yalınay, has passed away. She was a rare combination of artist, researcher, and media professional, and her absence will be deeply felt by all who knew her.

Didem was a generative artist based in Istanbul and a PhD student in the Communication Sciences program at Istanbul Bilgi University. In her academic and artistic work, she explored generative art, data, and narrative, constantly searching for new ways to think and feel through technology. She insisted on keeping art and critical thought together, and this insistence shaped every project she touched.bmct.iksv+3

Her path to academia was anything but linear. Didem had been an actress in TV series and films, and also worked as a screenwriter. She served as Channel Director for the Discovery Channel and later founded her own consultancy, developing media and cultural projects for various institutions. She brought this rich professional background into the classroom and seminar room, grounding theoretical discussions in lived experience.citedesartsparis+2

Didem’s artistic work received national and international recognition. She was selected by Institut Français Türkiye as one of only 24 artists worldwide for an artist residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, where she worked for six months from October 2021. Within programs such as “Be Mobile – Create Together!” and her residency at Le Cube in Paris, she created immersive generative installations and workshops that connected artists and audiences across borders. Her projects, including the generative artwork “Edge(s)” (commissioned by the World Health Organization and shown at venues such as Sonar2019 Istanbul) and installations like “Bağlantı(lar)” and “Veri Dünyasında Ara Boşluk,” asked us to rethink the data-saturated worlds we inhabit.bilgi+6

As a doctoral student, Didem worked at the intersection of technology, narrative, and generative systems, bringing together artistic experimentation and rigorous inquiry. She was never content with easy answers; her supervision meetings were always conversations that moved in unexpected directions, full of curiosity, humour, and critical questions. She also gave back as an educator, teaching courses on critical thinking on narrative at Gazi University and generously sharing her experience with students.bmct.iksv+2

Didem was part of a family deeply tied to academia and design; she was the sister of Professor Şebnem Yalınay Çinici, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture at Istanbul Bilgi University. Beyond her impressive CV, those of us who spent time with her will remember her warmth, her sharp and playful sense of humour, her commitment to collaboration, and her stubborn belief that we can still imagine different futures together.[tr.linkedin]​

Her passing is a devastating loss for our doctoral program, for Bilgi, and for the wider artistic and academic communities in Turkey and beyond. Yet the traces she leaves behind—her artworks, her writings, her conversations, and the students and friends she inspired—will continue to speak.

I extend my deepest condolences to her family, friends, colleagues, and all who had the chance to know her. May her memory live on in the stories we tell and the worlds she helped us imagine.