בית אבי חי | Memory in the Making 05.02.2012

Memory in the Making
On January 27, 2011 audiences in San Diego and Beit Avi Chai participated in "Memory in the Making" – an event with simultaneous performances at both venues. Audiences from both ends communicated while looking at paintings from a Yad VaShem exhibit, created by survivors. The event also included performances of historical Jewish music.

Beit Avi Chai and Visual Exchange Network (VEN) with the Center for Research in Entertainment & Learning (CREL), San Diego collaborated with InTv.co.il. This was the introduction of the new digital humanities broadcast platform, joining scholarly communities in real time across the globe for the inauguration of on-going coactive events.

In San Diego Producer Ella Belzberg, in conjunction with music professor Shlomo Dubnov and Co-Active Director Benjamin Stuart Thompson of VEN, together with Exec. Producer Eitan Eliram of InTv.co.il and the Beit Avi Chai staff, presented the venue-to-venue event.

The program included a keynote address by Dr. Yehuda Bauer, a Professor of Holocaust Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In his speech, Dr. Bauer urged audiences to never be perpetrators nor bystanders. He spoke before an audience of 190 at Beit Avi Chai in Jerusalem, to audiences from San Diego, and across the US by Jewish Life Television live broadcast (JLTV- carried by DirecTV, ComCast and TimeWarner), and to students at universities via the webcast.

The Tel Aviv Soloists Ensemble played chamber music for violin and cello, composed by Gideon Klein, organizer of cultural life in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Cantor Natanel Baram of Beth Jacob Beverly Hills sang Glanz and Lewandowski from San Diego while his choir 'Kol Rina', performed from Jerusalem, conducted by Roi Azulai.

During a special co-active segment, entitled 'Expressions'—while the Chassidic music group HaLev v’ HaMayaan were performing — audiences in both cities, using mobile devices, offered titles for the Yad VaShem paintings, as a way to collectively reflect on the subject.

About VEN
Visual Exchange Network (VEN) reaches across university networks to create engaging new forms of digital humanities across multiple venues. See: http://visualexchange.net

About CREL
The Center for Research in Entertainment and Learning (CREL - housed within the University of California ) focuses on grassroots creativity and learning, while promoting research that combines artificial intelligence with interactive and participatory media. See: http://crel.calit2.net

About Calit2 at UC San Diego
The UC San Diego Division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), together with Calit2’s division at UC Irvine, house over 1,000 researchers, engaged in more than 50 projects on the future of telecommunications and information technology. See: www.calit2.net www.ucsd.edu

About InTv.co.il
InTv.co.il is among the leading video services in Israel, providing real-time learning with large audiences at each location, video conferencing and streaming solutions. See: http://intv.co.il/defaultE.asp