The Girih Mode in Context, Experience, and Practice: Toward a Cognitive Ecology of Islamic Ornament in Contemporary Architectural Design – Interview with Bahar Akgün (Heidelberg University)

Bahar Akgün (Heidelberg University) in conversation with Sinan Barış Yaşar (HGGS)

- What is the girih mode, and how has it been interpreted? - How can cognitive science and eye-tracking methods help us understand the experience of Islamic geometric ornament? - What are the promises and challenges of conducting interdisciplinary research?

In this episode, we explore how ornaments shape the ways we perceive, navigate, and experience visual environments together with Bahar Akgün from the Islamic Studies Department within the Faculty of Philosophy at Heidelberg University, who was also one of the presenters at the HGGS Summer Forum 2025, “Us and Them.” Her interdisciplinary research examines the girih mode of Islamic geometric ornament through the lenses of Islamic studies, art history, phenomenology, cognitive science, and contemporary architectural design, investigating how geometric patterns can influence perception, contemplation, and embodied experience.

The conversation introduces listeners to the girih mode as a distinctive visual language characterized by interlaced geometric structures, star patterns, and endlessly extendable networks that have shaped the aesthetics of Islamic architecture across centuries. Bahar Akgün explains how current architectural debates increasingly approach ornament not only as a symbolic form, but also as a medium that produces affect, visual resonance, and embodied sensory experience.

A central focus of the episode is Bahar Akgün’s innovative methodological framework, which combines phenomenological introspection, empirical aesthetics, and eye-tracking studies to investigate the “contemplative gaze” associated with girih patterns. We discuss how visual complexity guides perception, how patterns can embed their own “mode of seeing,” and how empirical methods can help bridge historical aesthetic theory with contemporary cognitive research.

The conversation also reflects extensively on the realities of interdisciplinary scholarship. Bahar Akgün shares her experience of navigating multiple academic languages and epistemologies, and conducting research at the intersection of traditionally separate fields. Together, we explore the institutional challenges, and emotional dimensions of interdisciplinary research, and the importance of collaboration, systems thinking, and epistemological pluralism.

Join us in this episode as we explore how Islamic geometric ornament reshapes our understanding of perception, aesthetics, architecture, and interdisciplinary research!

For Bahar Akgün’s Academic Profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bahar-Akguen-2 For Bahar Akgün´s HGGS Page: https://www.hggs.uni-heidelberg.de/en/about-us/members/bahar-akgun

Timeline (00:00) Intro (00:24) Introducing Bahar Akgün and Her Academic Background (02:54) Motivation Behind the Research (05:10) The Modernist Suppression of Ornament and Its Contemporary Re-Emergence (08:45) Visual Resonance and Representation in Ornament (12:22) Defining Characteristics of Islamic Geometric Ornament and the Girih Mode (13:53) Interpretations of Islamic Ornament (19:34) Visualizing the Girih Mode (22:52) Developing a Methodological Framework for Analyzing the Girih Mode (26:42) Interdisciplinary Dimensions of the Research (30:16) Working with Supervisors from Different Academic Backgrounds (36:00) Challenges and Rewards of Conducting Interdisciplinary Research (41:28) Collaboration, Systems Thinking, and Different Forms of Interdisciplinary Research (47:38) Future Academic Plans (51:21) Outro

Keywords Girih Mode, Islamic Ornament, Islamic Art, Islamic Studies, Architecture, Architectural Design, Computational Design, Cognitive Science, Phenomenology, Aesthetics, Eye-Tracking Research, Visual Perception, Contemplative Gaze, Aesthetics, Art History, Interdisciplinary Research, Systems Thinking, Islamic Architecture, Geometric Patterns, Methodology, Academic Podcast, Scientific Podcast, Scholarly Conversations