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Abstract
This Culminating Experience project, titled KOR: The Fire Within, explores the transformation of emotional rupture into creative expression through the composition and production of a four-track original EP. Rooted in themes of cultural hybridity, vulnerability, burnout, and self-reclamation, the project reflects the artist’s journey as a Turkish interdisciplinary performer navigating between tradition and innovation. Each song—“Neden,” “Kalsan,” “Yoruldum,” and “Patliycam”—emerged from distinct phases of emotional upheaval, later shaped into sonic expressions of resilience, grief, irony, exhaustion, and creative rebellion. Using a hybrid methodology of creative research, autoethnography, and model observation, the project evolved from a solitary, loopstation-based plan to a collaborative and genre-fluid process involving live instrumentation and multi-layered production. While initially envisioned as a cohesive EP, the final decision to release the songs as individual singles reflects the emotional uniqueness and non-linear nature of the project. KOR ultimately serves as a sonic journal—an archive of self-inquiry, creative failure, and redefinition—that reclaims voice and artistic authorship through emotional honesty and cross-cultural identity.
Publication Date
7-1-2025
Campus
Valencia (Spain) Campus
Keywords
autoethnography; emotional storytelling; cross-cultural identity; creative process; music production; songwriting; hybrid recording; vulnerability in art
Recommended Citation
Özhuy, Yaren. “The Fire Within: Navigating Identity, Emotion, and Sound Through a Cross-Cultural EP.” Master's thesis, Berklee College of Music, 2025. https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-contemporary-performance/344.