Zeynep Nal

Zeynep Nal is a new media artist and creative technologist based in Istanbul.

A computer engineer by training (Istanbul Technical University), she spent five years writing embedded software at Siemens in Istanbul and Karlsruhe before turning to Visual Communication Design in 2010. In 2012 she joined the team behind the opening gala performance of Ars Electronica in Linz — and decided that this was what she wanted to do. In 2013 she founded the interactive studio monolab, and in 2014 she co-founded İskele47 in Yeldeğirmeni, which became an unexpected meeting point of Istanbul's digital art scene.

She usually begins with a story and a character, then asks which technology, material and interaction could bring it to life: a mime that photographs you back, a typewriter that writes petitions in Turkish, jewellery that only speaks to those who come close, a dress that wants to become someone. Behind them all are two questions — how mechanical have we become, and how human can machines be? With monolab she has carried the same thinking into more than twenty museum installations and many brand experiences.

Her works have been shown at Ars Electronica, Contemporary Istanbul, Mamut Art Project, the Istanbul Digital Art Festival, Istanbul Design Week, the Tüyap Art Fair and the Istanbul Design Biennial, and have received awards including Kristal Elma, Felis and Mixx Awards Europe. TRT 2 filmed a documentary in her studio in 2023, and she later appeared on TRT Genç's Dijitalist. Since 2025 she has been part of the Paribu Studio team, developing content for the digital surfaces of Paribu Art in Kadıköy — where the thing she gives a character to is now a whole building. In October 2026 she gave the TEDxAFLYouth talk “Don't Reduce Yourself to a Single Function”.