Investigative Spatial Research
Location Samandağ, Hatay, Türkiye
Type Investigative spatial research
Role Research, source tracing, spatial analysis, mapping, visualisation
Methods Archival and legal-document research, satellite imagery, media analysis, comparative mapping
Output Spatio-temporal mapping, visual investigation, research presentation
Too Fast, Too Slow began with a gap in publicly accessible information. After encountering reports about the removal of olive trees in Samandağ following the 2023 earthquakes, basic questions proved difficult to answer: Where exactly was this happening? Which areas were affected? Under what legal decisions was the land being transformed?
The project investigates the olive-growing landscapes of Mağaracık and Hıdırbey by bringing together fragmented sources including legal documents, satellite imagery, news footage, maps and local accounts. Through spatial and temporal mapping, it traces the relationship between urgent expropriation, reconstruction and the transformation of agricultural land.
The title refers to two conflicting temporalities: the rapid pace of administrative decisions, machinery and construction, and the much slower time of olive landscapes shaped through decades of cultivation, ecological growth and collective memory. By assembling dispersed evidence, the project asks how spatial research can make otherwise difficult-to-read transformations visible.