A video series produced by the Gerad Henkel Foundation, consisting of the following six episodes and a general interview with Nurçin İleri (available in English, Turkish and German): “Electricity Skepticism”, “Istanbuls First Urban-Scale Power Plant”, “Technology and Nature”, “A Story of Nationalism”, “Expansion of the City Grid”, and “New Tensions, New Fears”.
In her research project, historian Nurçin İleri traces the electrification of Istanbul during the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the modern Turkish nation-state. She examines how, where, and by whom electrical energy was generated, as well as the routes through which it was distributed. In doing so, she demonstrates how the electrical grid—through street lighting and electric tramways—spread around the Bosphorus and radically transformed the everyday lives of many residents of Istanbul.