DOĞA SULTAN
1. Welcome to All the Cores and More! Would you please introduce yourself, say where you’re from, and provide the readers with a sense of the work you do both in and outside the world of music?
Hey, thanks for having me. I’m Doğa, based in Istanbul and İzmir, Turkiye. I work mostly through textiles and clothes, but honestly I don’t see a hard boundary between disciplines. I move between garment design, publishing, street art, organizing. Antipode is one part of that, about documenting underground punk, hardcore and DIY culture beyond borders. Outside of music, I’m still doing the same thing, just through different materials, creating my ideas in different disciplines.
2. What drew you to punk, hardcore, and the DIY ethos in the first place? What artists or works were foundational for you?
I didn’t come to punk and hardcore through a clean, linear path. It was more like different fragments—music, visuals, attitudes, that slowly started to connect. What pulled me in wasn’t just the sound, but the possibility of doing things without permission. DIY was a realization for me that you don’t have to wait for anything. I started to create anything inspired by the riot grrrl movement at the beginning, when I was 12-13. But all the community shaped that early understanding actually.
3. How do politics inform your work?
Politics isn’t something I “add” to the work, it’s already there. The question is more about how conscious people are of it mostly. With Antipode, I’m very aware that documenting scenes can easily slip into flattening, so I try to position myself carefully. I’m not neutral, but I’m also not trying to speak over anyone. It’s more about creating a structure where things can exist on their own terms.
4. How important is collaboration for you in your work?
It depends. For visual arts and designs I make, I work alone all the time and this is how I love it. But for Antipode, for example, collaboration is essential. Not in a superficial “let’s work together” way, but as a structural necessity. None of the things I do in Antipode could exist without other people, whether it’s bands, artists, writers, or just people sharing knowledge. Especially in DIY spaces, collaboration is how things survive. It’s also how I avoid turning this work into something closed or self-referential.
5. Zines have been integral to punk and hardcore since the beginning, and it’s very cool to see that tradition carried on, especially in physical form. How did the idea for Antipode form and how did the first issue come to fruition? Can you describe the Antipode project—the zine and beyond—for folks who may not be familiar?
Antipode is zine-book series documenting underground punk/hardcore and DIY culture from different regions. First volume was about SWANA and beyond. It’s also accompanied with a compilation album and launch shows. I was working on some costume designs inspired by old engravings about lifestyle in the SWANA region. I wanted to combine it with punk culture and bands from there. Then the idea became bigger and Antipode started from a very simple frustration, realizing how limited the documentation of the SWANA and diaspora punk/hardcore scenes was, especially from within those regions themselves. There’s always documentation, but often filtered through a Western lens. I wanted to create something that was directly from the source.
The first issue came together in a very hard way, reaching out to people, building trust, figuring out how to represent different scenes without forcing them into a single narrative. Antipode isn’t just a zine-book, but also an archive, a network, a platform. It extends into compilations, shows, and conversations. The idea is not to define a scene, but to connect points that already exist.
6. You could have focused on the Istanbul scene or Turkey more narrowly—what made you want to: 1) broaden your scope, but 2) not make it too broad?
Focusing only on Istanbul or Turkey would have been easier, but also limiting in a different way. At the same time, going fully global can erase specificity. So I tried to work within a tension: expanding the scope while still keeping a certain focus. It’s not a strict boundary, but more like a framework that keeps the project from dissolving into something too vague.
7. What’s the reception to the project been so far?
The reception has been intense in ways I didn’t fully expect. People connected to it not just as a publication, but as something they felt part of. That’s probably the most important thing. At the same time, there’s also pressure, expectations, visibility, all of that. It’s something I’m still figuring out how to navigate.
8. What can you tell us about the second issue?
The second issue is already in progress, but I’m approaching it differently. The first one was very instinctive. Now I’m more aware of the gaps, what was missing, what needs more space, what needs to be approached more carefully. It will expand, but not just in size, in depth.
And second issue will start by focusing on the SWANA region and will later transition to South/South East Asia. Each volume contains hints about the next one, and the following issue starts by expanding on the previous one, delving deeper into its content while also introducing new material. Launch date is 1st of October, 2026. And launch tour starts in İstanbul on 1-2-3 Oct.
9. How can people support your work?
The most direct way is still the simplest, sharing it, talking about it. Since everything is self-funded, even small support makes a difference. There is t-shirt pre-orders for Antipode until 20th of April, open to UK & EU for now. This is the link: https://chromebot-shop-8113.bigcartel.com/product/antipode-tour-vol-1-t-shirt
But beyond that, engaging with the project; reading it, questioning it, building on it, that’s also a form of support.
10. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions! Any last words for the reader?
Thank you so much All the Cores and More! And thanks to punk and hardcore for turning our lives into something better, I’m grateful for that.
Links you can also check out: https://www.maximumrocknroll.com/article/antipode
