London-based Turkish-born designer and artist Melek Zeynep Bulut will unveil her latest work, Duo, this October, bringing the London Design Festival to a close. The installation, located in the Painted Hall at Greenwich’s historic Old Royal Naval College, marks another bold exploration by Melek into the realms of perception, space, and sensory experience.
Known for her distinctive approach that melds art, design, and architecture, Melek’s creative process is informed by her synesthesia — a condition that causes sensory crossovers, such as tasting colours or feeling sounds — allowing her to discern sensory fields that she translates into tangible works. "First, I perceive an abstract energy field, and then I find myself shaping it,” she explains. This ability has propelled her to explore the interplay between mind and matter, creating pieces that invite audiences to become an active part of the experience.
Duo is an impressive suspended structure in the form of a rectangular prism, evocative of ancient architectural thresholds. Set within the cavernous and richly adorned Painted Hall, a space originally designed by Sir James Thornhill in the 18th century, Duo responds to its historical context with an avant-garde interpretation of duality and oppositional forces—such as centre and periphery, inside and outside, night and day, time and space, or simply, two people in conversation. The installation employs an interdependent system of magnets, sensors, perception-altering surfaces, and acoustic reflectors that respond dynamically to the presence of visitors.
Melek describes Duo as a “game of perception,” where the intensity, balance, and oscillation of the structure are influenced by those who engage with it. “Imagine it like our
body—fundamentally not a solid mass, but a sensor. It perceives and responds to stimuli by producing sounds and has sensory receptors that allow us to feel textures, heat, and cold. Similarly, Duo conceptually treats ‘space’ as a mechanical body.”
As visitors move through the installation, miniature microphones and reflectors amplify their physical responses, animating and completing the work. “Essentially, Duo is a portal, and all my works are portals, o
