The document summarizes an art installation project that explores Turkish coffee fortune telling as a cultural practice. Visitors are given headphones and encounter stories and meanings created from coffee fortunes on screens. They can listen to interpretations of fortunes from opened coffee cups and record their own to contribute. After drinking coffee, visitors provide their cups which are then interpreted on a screen, and they can record their own creation. They receive an email following up on the process and fortunes. The installation aims to reflect Turkish culture through the meaning-making process of fortune telling with coffee.

2. • The project was developed through combining
design approach with the perspective of the
practice theory and everyday life studies as
these particularly approached by Michel de
Certeau(1988), Pierre Bourdieu(1996), and
Henri Lefebvre (1991). By understanding how
culture manifests itself, the changes in notion
of culture are explored by studying the
dynamics of culture via research of everyday
life practices.

3. • Turkish coffee fortune telling is a practice to learn the unknown future
since the existence of the individual, which is common in almost every
society, and has been needed.
• Fortune telling in our country is deeply rooted in the traditions of the
people with ideas and belief systems like in every other society and
culture. It is the practice that reflects the
beliefs, norms, expectations, and world view that people and society
have through tradition, habits, life styles, mentality, thus it works like
a mirror to the cultural identity of that .
• In Turkey, reading fortune over a cup of Turkish coffee is a common and
widespread practice among friends and within the familiy, a way of
sharing thoughts and beliefs, and attitudes towards the future in a
particular tradition.
• Recently, it is becoming a commercial practice that is a part of everyday
consumption (Güngör,2005). The number of cafes with fortune teller(s)
is significantly increasing in big cities like Ankara and İstanbul.

5. • In our project, we are focusing on the dynamics of culture through
studying fortune telling practice over Turkish coffee. Our argument
is based on a statement of Wright’s (1998) “Culture is a process of
meaning-making.” (7).
• We attempt to reflect upon the Turkish culture through meaning-
creation process over fortune telling. When a person drinks a cup
of Turkish coffee, traces of coffee ground in the cup represent the
trace(s)/life path of that person. These traces are interpreted in
terms of the person’s identity and future, thus fortune telling
practice is a meaning-making process. Each reader creates different
interpretations of what they see through the traces of coffee
ground. Each interpretation stands for a different meaning. The
language used during the reading practice has a potential of
reflecting cultural values and norms. Language is important in
fortune telling process because metaphors and proverbs/idioms are
used, thus these reveal the what is cultural through the use of
language.

12. 1.Visitors who came to installation are given headphones at the start.
2.When they enter to installation, visitors will encounter the stories and meanings that are created related the fortune
on the screen.
3.They will read the language of Turkish coffee fortune telling and they will see cultural values are attached to them.
4.They will proceed the second part of the installation which they will see the opened coffee cups. They will use the
headphone to listen each comment on the certain coffee cup. If they want to contribute their own
interpretation, visitors will record and leave their meaning They can either leave or choose contribute to installation.
5.They will take their coffees from main desk and drink at sitting area.

14. 6.After finishing the coffee, they will give their coffee cup to staff and their email address will
be taken.
7.The staff will open the coffee cups and position them in projection area.
8.They will go to projection area and they will record their own meaning creation with their
friends.
9.They will see how their own story on the screen.
10.They will later get an email about the process and all recordings about their fortunes.Then
can follow the process from website.