CORE TEAM
Basak Senova (based in Vienna), the project leader of The Atlas, is a curator and designer. She studied Literature and Graphic Design (MFA in Graphic Design and Ph.D. in Art, Design, and Architecture at Bilkent University) and attended the 7th Curatorial Training Programme of Stichting De Appel, Amsterdam. As an assistant professor, she lectured at various universities in Turkey. In 2017, she received her Associate Professorship from the Higher Education Council of Turkey and a resident fellowship at the University of the Arts, Helsinki, in co-operation with HIAP. From 2020 to 2022, she was a Visiting Professor at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, running a research-based educational platform the Octopus Programme. Currently, she holds a Senior Postdoctoral Researcher position at the University of Applied Arts Vienna with her PEEK project.
Senova has been writing on art, technology, and media, initiating and developing projects and curating exhibitions since 1995. She is one of the founding members of NOMAD, as well as the organizer of the “ctrl_alt_del” sound art project and “Upgrade!Istanbul”. She was the editor of art-ist 6, Kontrol Online Magazine, Lapses book series, UNCOVERED, Aftermath, Obje’ct: Yane Calovski, The Move, The Translation, Scientific Inquiries, Cultural Massacre, Ahmet Elhan—Ground Glass, Lines of Passage (in medias res), The Discord: Benji Boyadgian, Shadow Optics, CrossSections: Processing Artistic and Curatorial Research, Silent Activism. Barbara Holub and The Octopus among other publications. Senova worked as the Turkish correspondent of Flash Art International (2014-2023) and the editorial correspondent of ibraaz.org (2012-2016). She is a member of the editorial board of PASS, the International Biennial Association’s (IBA) journal. Senova acted as an advisory board member of the Turkish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, the Istanbul Biennial, and the Biennial of Contemporary Art, D-0 ARK Underground in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She curated the Zorlu Center Collection for two years (2011-2012) while also acting as the editor of its publications.
Senova was the curator of the Pavilion of Turkey at the 53rd Venice Biennale. She co-curated the UNCOVERED project (Cyprus, 2011—2013); and the 2nd and 5th Biennial of Contemporary Art, D-O ARK Underground (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2013 and 2019). She acted as the Art Gallery Chair of (ACM) SIGGRAPH 2014 (Vancouver), the curator of the Helsinki Photography Biennial 2014, and the Jerusalem Show VII: Fractures (2014). In 2015, she curated the Pavilion of North Macedonia at the 56th Venice Biennale; in 2016, Lines of Passage (in medias res) Exhibition in Lesvos; and in 2019, the inaugural exhibition of B7L9, Climbing Through the Tide in Tunis. Between 2017-2019, she has been worked on CrossSections, a research/process-based art project, and curated five groups and three solo exhibitions in the context of the project in Vienna, Helsinki, Stockholm, and Rome in 2018 and 2019. In 2022, she concluded the Octopus Programme with two exhibitions that took place in Tunis and Vienna. In 2022, she curated three group exhibitions: Ivy (Istanbul), Liquid Saturation (Palermo), and 2Fold (Kyrenia); in 2023, she was invited to curate a design project for Kunsthaus Dahlem Berlin in the context of Erich Buchholz’s exhibition, curated by Dorothea Shöne; and curated a group exhibition Simurgh. Ten Women Artists from Iran (Berlin). In 2022, her Arts-based Research (PEEK) project Atlas (of Creative Mechanisms): [Curating-Conducting] was awarded by FWF Austrian Science Fund (2022-2026).
David Chisholm (based in Auckland), the key researcher of The Atlas, is a composer, curator and producer. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Melbourne, and he is the Head of School, University of Auckland School of Music.
Chisholm taught Concert music Composition and Cultural Studies at Monash University between 2012 and 2018. In 2018 he was a featured guest of the Encuentro Internacional de Compositores in Santiago, Chile and presented at the 2018 Interstices colloquium in his new home city of Auckland, New Zealand, where in January 2019 he commenced his role as Senior Lecturer and Composition Convenor at the School of Concert music, becoming Deputy Head of School in February 2020. With BalletLab, he was part of a company in residence programme at EMPAC, New York and as individual has undertaken residences at Camargo Foundation, Cassis, Centre Intermondes, La Rochelle and HIAP, Helsinki. His collaboration with Russian poet Anzhelina Polonskaya, KURSK: An Oratorio Requiem was a defining work of the 2011 Melbourne Festival and in 2012 he was the recipient of an Australia Council Project Fellowship.
Chisholm was an Associate Artist for Malthouse Theatre in 2014. He composed and produced the polarizing work The Experiment as part of Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne Festivals in 2015. In 2018 he was one of the inaugural recipients of the Victorian Government’s Creator Grants. Chisholm’s work has appeared at Venice Biennale Web Pavilion, Villa Medici Roma, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Edinburgh Festivals, Moscow Museum of Art, ISCM World New Concert music Days, MONA FOMA, Danscenen Copenhagen, Monaco Dance Forum, Australian Centre for Photography and performed and recorded by Ensemble Vortex, International Contemporary Ensemble, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Argonaut Ensemble, Adelaide, Tasmanian and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, The Australian Ballet and San Francisco Contemporary Concert music Players. Chisholm is the founding artistic director of Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Concert music.