Seeing the sounds
Shira Ora Ben Meir
Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Jerusalem
Created to commemorate my late father, Mordechai, this Ner Tamid (Eternal Light) explores the essence of memory, light, and collective responsibility. Echoing the ancient Temple tradition of a flame sustained through the shared duty of the people and priests, the object reflects my father’s legacy of spreading light wherever he went, alongside our communal responsibility to keep the light alive for ourselves and our surroundings, especially in dark times. Through my research, I uncovered the profound meaning of the shofar as an object of memory and spiritual acoustic experience. Just as my father's presence remains without his physical form, the shofar is integrated into the project not as a physical raw material, but through the memory of its acoustic sound. Shofar soundwaves shape the silhouette, while Chladni frequencies derived from the blast generate the mashrabiya pattern. Rooted in my family’s heritage in textile Judaica, embroidered organza is molded and hardened. Integrated optical LED lighting with up & down illumination softly diffuses through the mashrabiya and the embroidered textile, creating a project that connects memory, tradition, and continuity.