IN-PERSON London Heritages. Section A
Abstract
This study focuses on the multilayered architectural and symbolic structure of Hagia Sophia—one of Turkey’s most significant cultural heritage sites—through the lens of women’s labor in Byzantine and Ottoman social contexts. It aims to reinterpret the potential yet undocumented influence of women who may have contributed to the building and maintenance processes of Hagia Sophia, but were historically excluded from official narratives due to lack of documentation. Although it is known that women were involved in artistic and craft-related production during both periods, their impact is often difficult to trace in certain architectural and ornamental domains. This research seeks to reveal the silent imprints of their presence through the medium of photography.The theoretical framework intersects Aristotle’s concept of mimesis, which defines representation as the expression of not only what is visible but also what is possible, and al-Farabi’s view that symbolic, hidden, and silent knowledge is integral to the domain of existence. From this perspective, Hagia Sophia is approached as a structure in which non-physical, yet meaning-bearing traces may be investigated through artistic and scholarly inquiry.Visual techniques such as multiple exposure and photo reportage are employed to construct narrative layers that explore both manifest and latent aspects of spatial memory. Ultimately, this study offers an alternative reading of cultural heritage by philosophically engaging with traces of labor that have not been officially represented—merging scientific inquiry with artistic expression.
Feyza N. Dişkaya received her B.Sc. in Interior Architecture and Environmental Design from Hacettepe University in 2013. She completed her M.A. and Ph.D. in Interior Architecture at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, including a study period at Sapienza University in Rome through the Erasmus program. She is currently pursuing a second undergraduate degree in Photography at Marmara University. Her research focuses on spatial psychology and behavior, the relationship between space and photography, architectural photography, interior architecture education, and contemporary interior design practices.
Esma Nafiye Polat received her bachelor’s degree in computer engineering in 2010, with a double major in mathematics in 2011, from Maltepe University, Istanbul, Turkey. She completed her master’s degree in computer engineering at Istanbul Şehir University, Istanbul, Turkey, in 2013, specializing in text mining, information retrieval, social network analysis, and natural language processing (NLP). She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in computer engineering at Özyeğin University, Istanbul, Turkey, where her research focuses on large language model (LLM) based networks for conversational sentiment analysis in dyadic relationships. She has 8 years of industry experience and 3 years in academia. She currently serves as a Senior NLP Researcher at Afiniti Inc., where she leads NLP projects. Previously, she worked as an Expert Data Scientist at Kuveyt Turk Participation Bank, leading AI initiatives related to call count estimation, cheque predictions, and credit limit scoring. Her career also includes roles as a Junior Data Scientist at Turkish Airlines and a Teaching Assistant at Marmara University, where she supported undergraduate courses and fulfilled teaching assistant duties. Her research centers on developing innovative NLP algorithms and systems using large language models, transfer learning, data science, and machine learning techniques. She has publications relevant to the fields of NLP, machine learning, and transformer models. Ms. Polat received the Best Track Paper award at the 2013 International Conference on Electronics, Computer and Computation (ICECCO) (IEEE).
4:15 pm - 5:45 pm
Wednesday 25th June, 2025