Home is our first real mistake. It is the one error that changes everything, the one lesson you could let destroy you. It is from this moment that we begin to build our home in the world. It is the place that we furnish with smell, taste, a talisman, a name. -1
“Disneyland is presented as imaginary in order to make us believe that the real (i.e the world outside Disneyland) is real., whereas in fact all of Los Angeles and the America surrounding it are no longer real, but of the order of hyperreal and of simulation” -2
Home is our first real mistake. It is the one error that changes everything, the one lesson you could let destroy you. It is from this moment that we begin to build our home in the world. It is the place that we furnish with smell, taste, a talisman, a name. -1
“Disneyland is presented as imaginary in order to make us believe that the real (i.e the world outside Disneyland) is real., whereas in fact all of Los Angeles and the America surrounding it are no longer real, but of the order of hyperreal and of simulation” -2
Siwelile Mathenjwa
M1
Siwelile Mathenjwa
M1
Siwelile Mathenjwa
M1
Siwelile Mathenjwa
M1
Siwelile Mathenjwa
Prototypes
The Transformation of Tradition
Gila Abrams
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Prototypes: The Transformation of Tradition looks at the adaptations and changes of Jewish history, tradition, and rituals. These ideas are explored through multiple chapters and prototypes.
This project uses archival theory, oral histories, personal experiences and social media as the main research tools. These findings are then translated into ethnographic drawings, films, as well as interactive models. This project looks to create prototypes that respond to the transformation of tradition over time; in conjunction with the haunted histories of Jews in Egypt and the Genizah archive.
Situated at the Ben Ezra Synagogue and the Geniza Archive found there, this project traces the history of Jews in Egypt from the 10th century through to the 1960’s. Using architectural elements of the Ben Ezra Synagogue to create a new archive, as well as everyday objects found in the Geniza and their modern interpretations, and objects belonging to different Egyptian Jews throughout history. By delving into this new archive and exploring the everydayness of these objects one is able to trace the layers and explore the fragments of Egyptian Jewish history and Jewish tradition and ritual.
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Old Cairo, Egypt
Keywords:
Archive, Traces, Haunting, Fragments, Memory, Geniza, Jewish Tradition, Past/Present/Future, Changes/Continuity, Everydayness