Jewish Artists Pushing the Technological Frontier

By Talia Lavin

Cynthia Beth Rubin’s “Layered Histories” is an interactive digital representation of the history of the Marseilles Bible. (Cynthia Beth Rubin)

NEW YORK (JTA) — Jazz music drifts from speakers down to the cherry wood tables of the West Cafe in Brooklyn as the Israeli artist Nurit Bar-Shai prepares to show examples of her latest work. With deft, freckled hands, she opens a manila envelope and slides three petri dishes across the table.

In the dishes are billions of Paenibaciullus vortex bacteria arranged in delicate whorls of blue. The series, which Bar-Shai calls “Objectivity [tentative],” displays “chemical tweets” of bacterial communication that expose viewers to the science behind her work while prompting them to reflect on the nature of human interaction.

“When people see bacteria working together to create these designs, they might wonder, how do I depend on others in my life?” Bar-Shai told JTA. “What do the social networks I am part of look like?”

Bar-Shai is one of a number of artists incorporating cutting-edge science into their works, anything from digital images of microorganisms to so-called visual synthesizers that combine visual and audio elements into one “synesthetic” signal.

Read more: http://www.jta.org/2013/12/12/arts-entertainment/jewish-artists-push-the-technological-frontier