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Not fake news: Our highlights from Jerusalem Design Week’s exploration of the post-truth era

BOOKMARK ARTICLE

This year’s Jerusalem Design Week was titled Lies & Falsehoods. Here are our highlights from the event. 

Wrapping up last week, this year’s Jerusalem Design Week was not (just) about toying with our perception of reality, but about considering the role of the designer as someone whose work ‘oscillates between reality and fiction’, according to the organizers. ‘On the one hand, there is the constant expectation to produce a dazzling spectacle, the longing for beauty, and the impetus to generate desire in order to maximise profits. On the other hand, current design practices have been focusing more and more on establishing transparency, building trust, and taking responsibility. The 2023 Jerusalem Design Week sets out to examine and celebrate the role of the designer in these contexts.’

Photo: Dor Kedmi.

NON-GARDEN 

Studio MA of Moria Architects
Yael Moria, Yael C. Agmon, Adi Levi-Trau, Amir Lotan, Alaa Shulhut 

Against the backdrop of urbanization and deforestation, Non-Garden presented a vision of rewilding that ‘does not symbolize the victory of nature over culture or vice versa, but the synthesis of them’. Imagine an array of seeds collected from across Israel and strewn across a garden using advanced spraying technology. The creators say the sprayed seeds create ‘a new, hybrid landscape: simultaneously natural and artificial, local and foreign, authentic and fake, organized without hierarchy, multicultural and homogeneous. A non-garden.’ 

Photo: Dor Kedmi.

AGENCY FOR UNSEEN SIGHTS

Esmée Willemsen

Agency for Unseen Sights revealed ‘invisible’ sights, critiquing our tendency to travel long distances to gain new perspectives. Through a series of playful, interactive structures that mark, guide and frame, the project questioned whether beauty can be found in even the seemingly banal, turning any scene into a must-see attraction.

Photo: Dor Kedmi.

THE UNCANNY VALLEY OF FUTURE FOOD

Naama Nicotra, Ram Shalom, Maya Margolin, Or Rosen, Noam Sol, Or Ben Dov, Ofri Shapira, Inbal Abramson, Noa Zeevi, Shaked Schwartzberg, Imri Dromi

With new food-tech start-ups emerging every week, it’s getting easier to imagine a future where more people eat lab-grown ‘meat’ than actual animals. The Uncanny Valley of Future Food questions why we’re still hung up on re-creating the look and feel of such original food sources. Contemplating the possibility of embracing entirely new aesthetics, eleven young designers joined forces to redesign four lab-grown foods: eggs, dairy, meat and fish.

TIME CAPSULE 

Future Positive – Nir Goeta and Rotem Goeta 

Pondering the fragility of the earth’s ecosystem, Future Positive blended digital fashion and NFT technology to preserve flowers for posterity. Time Capsule explored what happens when clothing is no longer constrained by the physical world, visualizing our personal avatars strolling the metaverse clad in colourful blossoms.

Photo: Dor Kedmi.

BLACKOUT PROTOCOL

HQ Architects

Claiming that most lies are half-truths, HQ Architects created an installation that shrouds JDW venue Hansen House in shadow, playing with visitors’ perception of its physical structure. Visitors first encounter a black X, which seems to disintegrate as they approach – a visual illusion that relies on carefully assembled fragmented planes.

Photo: Dor Kedmi.

FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH

Idan Sidi, Gal Sharir

As climate change dries up water sources and melts icebergs, Idan Sidi and Gal Sharir assert that ‘the search for life-giving water is more relevant than ever’. Like a mirage, their iridescent sculpture was ‘proof’ that legendary wonder spring the Fountain of Youth could be found in the courtyard of the JDW venue, Hansen House.

Photo: Dor Kedmi.

WOODENWOOD

Research team: Arch. Avi Cohen, Yuval Berger, Yoav Dabas, Alon Nisan

Disrupt.Design Lab, Technion directed by Arch. Shany Barath

WoodenWood is a comment on the lack of circularity in wood’s material chain. The team combined raw wood waste, sawdust and cellulose-based natural binders to offer an alternative to petroleum-based design materials and reduce unnecessary wood waste. They used seating elements as prototypal case studies, illustrating how the resulting ‘wood textile’ could be robotically printed into rattan patterns.

Photo: Dor Kedmi.

IN-LINE V2

Nohlab - Yasemen Birhekimoğlu, Candaş Şişman, Deniz Kader 

Through a play of LED screens, reflection and haze, In-Line v2 broke the perceivable borders of a building to create a ‘limitless space’. The immersive light-and-sound experience changed from moment to moment, celebrating ‘order and disorder’. 

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