Jerusalem-USA: JerUSAlem, Rhode Island: Letter to the Editor

01 September 2009

JerUSAlem, Rhode Island: Letter to the Editor

Hal Curry photographed Jim's Dock in Jerusalem, RI, and submitted it to 'JerUSAlem-USA.'

The following letter was e-mailed to the newspapers in the vicinity of Jerusalems in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, and Vermont.
To the Editor
People from throughout (name of state) are invited to visit Jerusalem in (name of county) and join with those living there in ‘JerUSAlem-USA,’ a participatory art project that links the twenty places in the United States called “Jerusalem” with the original Jerusalem in Israel. In addition to the Jerusalem in Rhode Island, there are Jerusalems in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Utah, and Vermont.

Visitors and residents of Jerusalem in (name of state) are invited to photograph everyday life there (people, homes, shops, community events and celebrations, signs with the name ‘Jerusalem’), and send them as jpg images to melalexenberg@yahoo.com. These photographs of Jerusalems in USA will be matched by images of everyday life in Jerusalem, Israel. They will be posted on the blogart site http://jerusalem-usa.blogspot.com/. Full credit will be given to the photographer.

In addition to being posted on the art project blog, the matched images will be exhibited in museums and art galleries in the United States and Israel, and incorporated in a book ‘JerUSAlem-USA.’ The juxtaposition of photographs of the original Jerusalem with American Jerusalems creates an interactive network of the people from USA and Israel with shared values that deepens the friendship between them.

Thank you for joining with citizens of the other 11 states where there are Jerusalems as a participant in the ‘JerUSAlem-USA’ art project.

Professor Mel Alexenberg
Head of the School of the Arts at Emuna College, Jerusalem, Israel
Former art professor at Columbia University, head of the art department at Pratt Institute, and research fellow at MIT’s Center for Advanced Visual Studies
E-mail melalexenberg@yahoo.com

Mel Alexenberg

As an artist, my conceptual, environmental, and digital artworks have been seen by millions and are represented in the collections of more than forty museums worldwide. As an educator in USA, I am former art professor at Columbia University, head of the art department at Pratt Institute, dean at New World School of the Arts in Miami, and reseach fellow at MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies. In Israel, I taught at Bar-Ilan, Ariel and Tel Aviv universities and at Emunah College and Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. As a writer, my most recent books are: 'Through a Bible Lens: Biblical Insights for Smartphone Photography and Social Media,' 'Photograph God: Creating a Spiritual Blog of Your Life,' 'The Future of Art in a Postdigital Age: From Hellenistic to Hebraic Consciousness,' 'Educating Artists for the Future: Learning at the Intersections of Art, Science, Technology, and Culture' and 'Dialogic Art in a Digital World: Judaism and Contemporary Art' (in Hebrew). I live in Ra'anana, Israel, with my wife artist Miriam Benjamin. website: www.melalexenberg.com

Jerusalem-USA

From Jerusalem in Israel to JerUSAlems in USA

'This city of Jerusalem I have set in the midst of nations, with other countries round about her.' (Ezekiel 5:5)

JerUSAlem-USA is a participatory art project that links the twenty Jerusalems in the United States with the original Jerusalem in Israel. There are Jerusalems in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, and Vermont.

The name of the American Jerusalems was inspired by the Bible where we read about King David establishing Jerusalem as the capital of the unified state of the Israelite nation more than 3,000 years ago. Today, Jerusalem is the vibrant capital of the modern State of Israel.

ON PARTICIPATORY ART

JerUSAlem-USA is a participatory artwork in which the artist invites the people in USA join with him in creating a collaborative work of art. Unlike the solitary role of the visual artist in his studio, the role of the artist in a networked world is shifting to becoming more like the role of playwright/producer/director in theater and film, composer/conductor in music and choreographer in dance.

In her book The Reenchantment of Art, Suzi Gablik proposes, “a new paradigm of participation in which art will begin to redefine itself in terms social relatedness…encouraging the emergence of a more participatory, social interactive framework for art, and supporting the transition from art-for-art’s-sake assumptions of late modernism.”

As the artist of ‘JerUSAlem-USA,” I create the conceptual framework, craft the score/script, and form a team of collaborators who together under my baton bring into being an aesthetic work of participatory art.

The significance of participatory art in our networked world is explored in depth in Mel Alexenberg's books Through a Bible Lens: Biblical Insights for Smartphone Photography and Social Media (Elm Hill/HarperCollins), and The Future of Art in a Postdigital Age: From Hellenistic to Hebraic Consciousness and Educating Artists for the Future: Learning at the Intersections of Art, Science, Technology and Culture (both published by Intellect Books/University of Chicago Press).