Jerusalem-USA: Jerusalem, Utah 1

07 October 2009

Jerusalem, Utah 1

Jerusalem, Utah, is in Sanpete County, 103 miles south of Salt Lake City and 7,013 miles from Jerusalem, Israel. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Jerusalem, Utah, is designated as a 'Populated Place,' an area with clustered or scattered buildings and a permanent human population that is not incorporated and has no legal boundaries. Its elevation is 5,925 ft./1,806 m. (more that twice the altitude of Jerusalem, Israel, at 2,490 ft./757 m.).

Mel Alexenberg’s question to John Telford: I read with great interest and enjoyment the recent interview with you in MormonArtist in which you talk about your spiritual and contemplative experiences in Israel creating photographs for your book In the Footsteps of Jesus. Can you connect those experiences in the original Jerusalem with your experience being in Jerusalem, Utah?

John Telford’s response: I wish I could tell you that there was some kind of connection between my photographs of Israel and Jerusalem, Utah. However, even as a life-long Utahan, I didn’t even know there was a Jerusalem, Utah, until last March. My brother-in-law who lives in Ephraim, Utah, told me about this little obscure hamlet of Jerusalem, Utah. I was working on a project photographing interesting-strange anomalies in San Pete County, Utah – things or places that would make you think, “What’s that about?” The photographs were taken by going around the object or place and photographing it from the 8 main points of the compass . We then put the entire series on a video animation and projected them on a screen in the Central Utah Art Center. Anyone who knew anything about what we had photographed were then asked to write information about the objects or place. It was done as an interactive art installation piece.

About the photographer: John Telford, a native of Utah, has been making photographs of the landscape and environment for nearly 40 years. His photographs have been published extensively (including over 50 cover photographs) and exhibited both nationally and internationally (more than 70 solo and group shows) and are included in numerous public and private collections. He has authored and co-authored seventeen books, and is currently a professor of visual art (photography) at Brigham Young University.

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).