Zafer Aracagök (born 1962) is a writer and a composer from Turkey. He has a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Oslo in Norway. With his first book Eve Dönmek İstemiyorum (I Don’t Want to Go Home, İletişim 1995)[1] where he combined fiction with theory, aiming to develop Adorno and Horkheimer’s criticism on The Odyssey and the “Sirens” chapter, he became an underground literary figure in Turkish literary scene. This was followed by Anti-Hamlet, (Metis 1996)[1], which contains experimental texts about representation and hauntology accompanied with a performance text. Aracagök performed the same piece at XamplE II Exhibition, 1–20 April 1995 at AKM, Istanbul and immediately became notorious for this noisy performance. His last book, Sıfırografya (Zerography, Oğlak 1999)[2] is designed to develop a critical perspective on the theory of autobiography and subjectivity through Leibnizean philosophy, woven with fragments from Kafka.
Aracagök also published articles on the issues of rhythm, distortion, noise, voice and image in Continental philosophy in international publications such as Pli - The Warwick Journal of Philosophy'' [3], and Symploke [4].
In 2001, under the name SIFIR (Zero), Aracagök released the electronic music album NeredeOradaBurada [5]. His second album, Insan Ritm Makina (2003)[6] explores the sonic influences of Deleuzian philosophy with respect to the question of rhythm, noise and distortion. Ben Aptalım Çünkü Ölüyüm, Ben Ölüyüm Çünkü Aptalım[7] ("I'm Stupid because I'm Dead, I'm Dead because I'm Stupid" 2005), is a sonic experiment about Nietzsche’s collapse in Turin. All of his albums are released by ADA Records, Istanbul. His electronic compositions have also appeared in compilations such as Project Ctrl_Alt_Del [8] in the Netherlands (2003), alongside artists such as Merzbow and Scanner Robin Rimbaud. Further there were releases with Classwar Karaoke, a Netlabel which has released material by various musicians, including Colin John Conass, Zoologic, Undress Béton, Bryan Lewis Saunders, Inferno Speedgown, Lezet, Fonik and Anthony Donovan. The electronic music album Divide by Zero composed with Yolande Harris, is due for release by Persistencebit Records of Italy. His latest work Yalvaririm Beyfendi Saatiniz Kaçi Gösteriyor? deals with Sevim Burak, a language-dissident Turkish female writer who produced radical texts of l'écriture féminine during her lifetime between 1931-1983.
KOG, composed by Zafer Aracagök and Anthony Donovan, to be released in March 2009 by White Label Music, UK.