The Wild Scale of Man-Made Systems: Lumen Prize Finalist “Hypertopographics” and Alkan Avcıoğlu

Is it possible to grasp the earth’s industrial burden, massive technological infrastructures, and those complex systems built by human hands—inside of which humanity itself gets lost—at a single glance? “Hypertopographics,” a collaborative work by Edward Burtynsky, one of the living legends of contemporary photography, and Alkan Avcıoğlu, one of the pioneering names of AI art in Turkey, stems from this very effort to make sense of this immense scale.

The finalists of the 15th Lumen Prize 2026 have been announced, evaluated by an international jury including curators from Tate, V&A, and the Whitney Museum, reviewing over 2,200 applications from 82 countries. Reaching the finals in the project’s “Systems & Structures” category, the duo of Avcıoğlu and Burtynsky achieved an extremely valuable international success in the digital art world. Reinterpreting the iconic “New Topographics” movement of the 1970s with AI algorithms and multi-layered perspectives, the work brings to light the out-of-control production-consumption wheels and hyperreality of today’s world.

Alkan Avcıoğlu states that in this age of dizzying information overload, he pursues a “new and intense visual language” to articulate layers of reality that transcend our perception. Becoming one of the first figures to gain acceptance for artificial intelligence within traditional institutions such as Paris Photo, Art Basel, and Christie’s by focusing on AI-driven storytelling in 2022, Avcıoğlu strikes a powerful dialogue with Burtynsky’s documentary legacy spanning over four decades. Beyond merely presenting a technological spectacle, the works hold up a critical mirror to humanity’s complex relationship with the monumental mechanisms it has built yet struggles to manage in scale.

Following exhibitions at Heft Gallery in New York and the Edirne Biennial, the “Hypertopographics” series will meet audiences at the Troy Museum as part of the upcoming Çanakkale Biennial. In September, a fresh, previously unexhibited work from the series in Turkey will debut before art lovers through DifoArt’s presentation at Contemporary Istanbul.

Exhibition Note from NO-26 Editor

• Project: Hypertopographics

• Artists: Alkan Avcıoğlu & Edward Burtynsky

• Achievement: The Lumen Prize 2026 Finalist (“Systems & Structures” Category)

• Venues to Visit: Troy Museum (Çanakkale Biennial) & Contemporary Istanbul (DifoArt)

• Aura: An international digital art achievement combining the 40-year legacy of documentary photography with the multi-layered visual language of AI; honestly questioning massive industrial systems, excess, and scale chaos.