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How can the Human Body be Used as a Bio-Monitor for Peace Building Efforts?
Seeds of Coexistence
This speculative project explores ways to foster unity and
empathy through the biochemical connections in the botanical and dietary traditions shared between Palestinians and Israelis.
Project Year
Methods
Media
: 2023
: Technological Experimentation, Interaction Design, Community Engagement , Narrative Building, Emotional Design, Cultural Integration, and Data Visualization
: Living Plant, Interactive Technologies, Light, Sound, Physical Object, Data, and Social Interaction
The region historically known as Palestine is currentlyadministered by Israel and is divided into various sections through walls, fences, and checkpoints. This division extends to the road infrastructure, which has resulted in a segregated road system. Despite the physical barriers, natural elements such as olive, fig, and palm trees grow across these divides, flourishing on both sides of the barriers. These trees are significant to the diets, economies, and cultural practices of the people in the region, symbolizing a shared natural heritage and interdependence. They exemplify how, even amidst division, natural ecosystems continue to sustain and connect communities across man-made boundaries.
Images
1. United by Biochemistry: Common Gene Expression Fostered by Shared Diets (Top Left)
2. Flora and Flare: Bridging the Divides Beyond Physical and Political Barriers (Middle)
3. Humanity as Tree-Borne Fruits: Reflecting Our Essence Through Diet (Right)
Speculation 1: Checkpoints are re-imagined as care spaces, with community gardens inviting citizens to connect and relax. The turnstiles, once for security, now feature biosensors to check heart rate, breathing, and temperature, aligning with communal health objectives. Watchtowers transform into DNA testing sites, offering diet advice based on gene expression and displaying live community health data, strengthening communal bonds through shared health goal. Additionally, bio-sensing tattoos serve as an identification system, granting
pre-check access to certain areas based on genetic expression indicators.
pre-check access to certain areas based on genetic expression indicators.
Images
1. Re-purposing Existing Checkpoints into Care Space (Top )
2. Biosensor Tattoo as an Identification System (Bottom Left)
1. Re-purposing Existing Checkpoints into Care Space (Top )
2. Biosensor Tattoo as an Identification System (Bottom Left)
Image
Molecular Mending: Engineering Peace though Shared Air Across Border
Speculation 2: This project re-imagines Israel’s Iron Dome Interceptor System as a Seed Migration System, symbolizing the exchange of biodiversity instead of missiles and bullets. The national flower of Israel, the Anemone, and the Red Poppy, representing Palestine, are depicted as projectiles of peace, continuously launched into each other’s gardens. This exchange facilitates pollen spread, symbolically uniting the people of both regions through the shared air they breathe, creating a chemical bond.
The Olive Tree Initiative brings together Israeli and Palestinian families to collaboratively grow olive trees, bridging religious and national divides.
Emphasizing common family values and the daily ritual of mealtime, this project uses innovative technologies such as sensors, signal processing, and wireless comunication to transform one family’s mealtime activities – motions and conversations – into light and sound wavelengths that enhance the growth of another family’s tree. Leveraging telepresence, this symbolic act of unity and empathy transcends physical barriers, fostering closer ties around a shared goal.
Images
Olive Tree Initiative: Every Pair of Families, Two Tress, One Shared Land (Left)
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Iseali and Palestine families jointly cultivate olive trees
through telepresence during familial meal interactions