Photos: Zeynep Fırat @ Sanatorium
| Primary Treatment
Influent enters, flows so wide, Bar screens hold back what cannot ride. Rags and plastics block the way, Grinders crush them day by day. Cyclone chambers spin the grit, Dense bits settle, forced to sit. Sand and gravel form a bed, Water moves on straight ahead. Screens and sturdy chambers do their part, Pull the heavier bits far apart. Skim the grease and let the surface rise, Sludge is gathered, thick, inert, it lies. Oils and fats are lifted high, Surface skimmers pass them by. Sweeping scum into the trough, Clarifiers filter out the rough. Now gravity steers the parted flow, Heavier solids slowly sink below. Surface fats get removed on their cue, Yet dissolved matter will always slip through. Screens and sturdy chambers do their part, Pull the heavier bits far apart. Skim the grease and let the surface rise, Sludge is gathered, thick, inert, it lies. |
| Secondary Treatment
Air is lifted, bubbles climb, Feeding forms that work in time. Microbes shift in layered streams, Breaking bonds where nothing seems. Oxygen steers the measured race, Carbon fades without a trace. Ammonia bends, begins to wane, Nitrates form, then slip the chain. Shifted, shaped, but never gone, Moved ahead, yet carried on. Circling back, dispersed in flow, What remains, we’ll never know. Trickling stones, a surface tight, Holding fast but out of sight. Flowing slow in silent rings, Taking what the water brings. Shifted, shaped, but never gone, Moved ahead, yet carried on. Circling back, dispersed in flow, What remains, we’ll never know |
Filters press and waters glide,
Trapping what the rest let slide.
Layers catch what light conceals,
Binding traces, turning fields.
Chlorine flows, the currents turn,
Oxidation strains the burn.
Ozone strikes where none can see,
Breaking bonds that used to be.
Falling slow, the cycles weave,
Some will pass and some will leave.
Clearer now, but never bare,
Something lingers in the air.
Membranes stretch, the pull is tight,
Pressing through the smallest light.
Carbon grips what clings too long,
Locked in place, yet not for long.
Drifting, turning, stripped away,
Yet no end, just slow decay.
Nothing holds and nothing stays,
Only shifts in different ways.
Softened, brightened, pulled apart,
Still it moves, it does not start.
Filtered clean, or so it seems,
Something flows beneath the streams.
Read all lyrics here
2025
AI-generated lyrics and vocals. Five-track composition on wastewater treatment processes.
The lyrics holders design: Selin Erdemirci.
exhibition: Check Valve
“Treatment” is a five-song album that describes the wastewater treatment process through AI-generated lyrics and AI-synthesized vocals. Each track focuses on one of the key stages—water intake, primary separation, secondary biological treatment, tertiary filtration, sludge processing, and final discharge. The music features a smooth, slow groove with R&B influences and soft vocal delivery. AI-generated lyrics romanticize technical concepts such as filtration, aeration, oxidation, microbial activity and sedimentation.
This work was exhibited in the basement of the gallery, in the section where the wastewater discharge well and pump are located, as part of the “check valve” exhibition.
Arıtma
2025
Yapay zeka tarafından oluşturulan şarkı sözleri ve vokaller. Atık su arıtma süreçleri üzerine beş parçalı kompozisyon.
"Artıma", yapay zeka tarafından üretilmiş sözler ve sentezlenmiş vokallerle atık su arıtma sürecini anlatan beş şarkılık bir albümdür. Her parça, su alımı, birincil ayrıştırma, ikincil biyolojik arıtma, üçüncül filtrasyon, çamur işleme ve nihai deşarj gibi temel aşamalardan birine odaklanır. Müzik, yumuşak vokaller, R&B etkileri taşıyan yavaş tempolu bir ritme sahiptir. Yapay zeka tarafından üretilen şarkı sözleri, filtrasyon, havalandırma, oksidasyon, mikrobiyal aktivite ve çökeltme gibi teknik kavramları romantik bir şekilde işler.
Bu çalışma "çek valf" sergisi kapsamında galerinin bodrum katında, atık su deşarj kuyusu ve pompasının bulunduğu bölümde sergilenmiştir.
Şarkı sözleri