The Common Thread project is a site-specific work which was originally made for the Jerusalem Design Week 2019 and its theme - “East”. This annual event takes place every year in Hansen House - a historic building in Talbiya neighborhood which originally was a leprosy hospital and nowadays serves as a center for media, technology and design.
The project wished to shine a spotlight on Hansen House's Arab employees who live in eastern Jerusalem. It attempts to connect them to the location through art and craft, combining algorithmics, digital fabrication, and hacking and making methods. The project was created in five main stages:
Gathering //
First we photographed seven past and present Hansen House employees who live in eastern Jerusalem. We measured the length of the way they had to make each day from their houses to their place of work.
Processing //
each one of the photos was then primarily and secondarily processed on the computer and into an algorithm which was written specially for the project. The algorithm deconstructed the photos and configured how one line can be drawn between 471 points on a perimeter of a circle in order to create an image as close as possible to each of the photos. The line was configured to match the distance measured from each one of the employee's houses.
Coding //
This resulted in a "line recipe" for each photo, which was then converted into a G-code language for the Hansen House Fab-Lab CNC milling machine.
Production //
The CNC machine was then used to make wooden forms to stretch the threads on; the machine cut hoops and then – using special tools we developed - pinned 471 nails in equal gaps on its perimeter and bent them. Afterwards the machine recreated each photo of each of the employees based on the code by stretching the thread between the nails. This resulted in a portrait of each one of the employees, made from a single thread the same length as the distance from their house to the machine which created the final portrait.
Display //
The portraits were displayed in Hansen House. During the Jerusalem design week the machine has been producing a copy of one of the portraits each day. The copies were given as a gift of thanks and friendship to the participating employees.
Garden Keepers
A different version of the project was presented in “Garden of Eden” exhibition alongside other 12 Israeli projects, during Designart Tokyo 2019 (Curated by Tal Erez and Anat Safran). The exhibition sought to lead visitors through a sequence of projects, which resulted from a local Israeli perspective on nature, culture, technology and myth - consequently it was decided to put a focus on gardeners, garden-keepers or people who have strong relations with gardens or gardening.
We began by interviewing 3 Israeli gardeners, who told us about their work and passion towards gardening. We then took their photos, processed them and weaved them using our new hacked CNC milling machine. These artworks were sent from Israel to Japan with the machine. Later on - with the assistance of the Israeli embassy in Japan - we made contact with 3 Japanese tree-doctors (aborists), interviewed them and asked them to take their own photos and send them to us. During the exhibition we processed their photos and weaved them on site with the machine. When each of the artworks was finished, we added it on the wall beside the other.
The exhibition was awarded “Best Exhibition” group award by the DesignArt Tokyo 2019 jury.
Participants: Adnan Abu El-hawa, Danny Brachya, Norma Gvirtz, Masatoshi Nakamura, Sentaro Mitsui and Hideo Danboku.
"There's no such place as this garden in the world. I can actually sense it - if someone moved a single rock I can tell it was moved. I sense the plants and know which one of them needs to be watered or pruned. I know where all the tubers are even if no plant is visible above the ground. Couple of years ago there was a great snow storm in Jerusalem and the city was totally covered with ice for 3 days. I felt an urge to come and help the plants, save them from freezing, since many of them can't survive such low temperature. It was very hard to dig the snow with my bear hands, but I just had to do it. What hurts me the most is that sometimes visitors are disrespectful to the garden and to our work - throw trash, step on the plants or cut flowers to take them home. It's driving me mad and sad. I try to ask politely but sometimes I just can't stop myself from yelling..."
(Norma Gvirtz, 58 years old, living in Jerusalem, has been working as a gardener in the Botanical Garden of the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus for 13 years)
On January 2020 it was announced that the project won first prize in the YouFab2019 Global Creative Awards. It will be presented in the contest’s winning works exhibition in Tokyo during the beginning of March 2020.
Who We Are
Amir Zobel // Industrial designer from Jerusalem, graduate of both BA and MA degrees in industrial design from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. Since 2013 has been managing the MA Bezalel workshops and the Fab-Lab in Hansen House. In the past decade has also been active as an independent designer and multidisciplinary creator. Here’s a link to his portfolio.
Itay Blumenthal // Algorithm developer from Jerusalem, graduate of BA in Mathematics and MA in computer science from the Hebrew University, and MA in philosophy from Tel Aviv University. Since 2012 has been developing algorithms for Mobileye company.