organized by the istanbul foundation for culture and arts (i̇ksv), turkey’s contribution to the 1st london design biennale presents ‘the wish machine,’ a project undertaken by the istanbul-based multidisciplinary design studio, autoban. the inaugural london design biennale (7-27 september 2016) features projects from over thirty countries, which were called to respond to the theme of ‘utopia by design’.

the wish machine’ project takes direct inspiration from the ‘wish-tree,’ a cultural tradition deeply rooted in the ancient anatolian faith and found in ancient greek, kabala and persian believes. it operates on a simple mechanism that involves affixing a note or a memento to a branch of a tree as an act of hope born out of hopelessness. ‘the wish machine’ takes this multi-cultural tradition as the key insight into how design and utopia can cooperate.