The Spirit of the Cloud: The ‘New Jerusalem’ as a metaphor for social experiences of virtual technologies

Over the past centuries, the city of Jerusalem has been a centre for social and spiritual experiences of diverse communities separated from their homes and cultures. The crusaders notion of a 'New Jerusalem'; the physical reconstruction of the holy city of Jerusalem in Europe has been reversed and implemented through remote communities who moved to Jerusalem from overseas and reconstructed their home and places of worship. This project aims to express and enhance the dialectical relationship between diverse geographical locations, manifested through lost and reborn communities, the old and the New Jerusalem. Two very different, yet historically linked test cases are explored: The reconstructed Synagogue of the lost community of Conegliano Veneto, Italy, and the Kidane Mehret Ethiopian Church. Both located today in Jerusalem. Through the use of advanced photogrammetry, we attempt to create an emotional experience, transcending time and space and intensifying the complex experience of life in a home away from home. The two structures are recreated as 3D point clouds, enhanced by sounds of prayer and blended with historical imagery. The relationship between technology and meaning can be seen as an extension of the age-old mind-body problem. That is, how the physical and technological process may influence emotion and the subjective experience. The 'Spirit of the Cloud' attempts to bridge this gap by offering a personal encounter, which transcends the objectivity of technology and elevates the subject into a personal spiritual voyage. This is attempted by providing an immersive multi-sensory experience, combining eye, ear and physical interaction. Two integral components contribute towards this: The virtual reality headset and the point cloud audio-visual experience, These aim to create a spiritual voyage, where one may wander at will and experience the atmosphere of a twilight zone, bound neither by space nor time, yet strongly attached to both. The paper outlines the considerations, limitations, and solutions undertaken in the digital recreation of the structures. Likewise, it explores the process of fusing the technical challenge with the desired emotional impact on the user.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Moshe Caine

Doron Altaratz

Eytan Mann

Adam Havkin

Conference

Publication date: July 2020

Publication date (Print): July 2020

Pages: 58-65

Affiliations

[0001]Hadassah Academic College

Jerusalem, Israel

[0002]Scan the City

Tel Aviv, Israel

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVA2020.9

SO-VID: 3d46ae7a-3ecc-4dd0-a560-440917336297

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of EVA London 2020

Conference acronym: EVA 2020

Conference number: 30

Conference location: London

Conference date: 6th July – 9th July 2020

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: AI and the Arts: Artificial Imagination

History

Product

1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/EVA2020.9

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

REFERENCES

G Ben-Nathan 2012 The Ethiopian Church in Jerusalem – Debre Genet (Sanctuary of Paradise) [online] https://anglo-ethiopian.org/publications/articles.php?type=A&reference=publications/articles/2012winter/jerusalem.php 21 March 2020
D Cassuto 2012 Synagogues in Italy until the 18th century R Weinstein Israeli communities in the East during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Hebrew Yad Ben Zvi 169 171
A Contessa 2014 From Italy to Jerusalem. The birth of the Umberto Nahon Museum of Italian Jewish Art R Bonfil The Italian Jewish Cultural Centre in the Heart of Jerusalem Jerusalem
F Fabri 1848 Fratris Felicis Fabri Evagatorium in Terrae sanctae, Arabiae in Aegypti peregrinationem 3
A Isaacs 2005 Modernity Comes to Jerusalem [online] http://archive.jewishagency.org/jerusalem/content/23682 21 March 2020
R Twite 2020 Africa in Jerusalem – The Ethiopian Church [online] https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2003/Pages/AfricainJerusalem-TheEthiopianChurch.aspx 21 March 2020

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[1] G Ben-Nathan 2012 The Ethiopian Church in Jerusalem – Debre Genet (Sanctuary of Paradise) [online] https://anglo-ethiopian.org/publications/articles.php?type=A&reference=publications/articles/2012winter/jerusalem.php 21 March 2020

[2] D Cassuto 2012 Synagogues in Italy until the 18th century R Weinstein Israeli communities in the East during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Hebrew Yad Ben Zvi 169 171

[3] A Contessa 2014 From Italy to Jerusalem. The birth of the Umberto Nahon Museum of Italian Jewish Art R Bonfil The Italian Jewish Cultural Centre in the Heart of Jerusalem Jerusalem

[4] F Fabri 1848 Fratris Felicis Fabri Evagatorium in Terrae sanctae, Arabiae in Aegypti peregrinationem 3

[5] A Isaacs 2005 Modernity Comes to Jerusalem [online] http://archive.jewishagency.org/jerusalem/content/23682 21 March 2020

[6] R Twite 2020 Africa in Jerusalem – The Ethiopian Church [online] https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2003/Pages/AfricainJerusalem-TheEthiopianChurch.aspx 21 March 2020

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