Under the Shadow of the Sun

Changes in communication technologies have affected the living styles of humans around the world. As television transformed the world into a global village, it also laid the groundwork for a monotonous society made up of consumers. Not only has new internet technology widened the borders of this global village, but it has also wiped out concepts of time and location and gradually reduced our human experiences. Today, we live in a networked society that is squeezed into the electronic atmosphere of a virtual world. Despite all of these technological developments, there are traditional villages where internet networks cannot reach. It is a good thing that life still continues in these locations where people spend their days touching water and soil, ignored by (and ignoring) technology. They will be able to survive in the midst of a computer or network disaster because they know how to deal with difficult natural conditions. To a large extent, they meet their own needs. They exist quietly in places where technology is not superior, but rather assistive. The dominance of nature on their culture is absolute. Van, located in the eastern Anatolia region of Turkey, emerges as an archaic settlement with its villages, mountains, lakes and islands. Its inhabitants take their strength from this quiet life. When you take steep roads and reach distant mountain villages, a life welcomes you that is unfamiliar to many of us—a life that we haven't seen since childhood, and that we will never see again. This life is the antithesis of the "techno-life" we live in now, where we are surrounded by objects.