AYKA* A negotiation table. 
 
(*where art thou)  
 
Concrete, Rebar  
Table 70*70*70 cm
Chairs 40*30*70 cm  
 
The table was done as a part of “one to a thousand” studio under the guidance of Prof. Ezri Terazi. Each student draws a note form a hat with his project and his teacher. The note I picked said a folding 70*70 table. For the first half of the semester the students makes a “one of” a kind piece and in the later part he transforms the idea into a mass produced product. 
 
I started working on the table knowing that I wanted to do something that will have a strong saying about Israeli-Palestine politics and culture. Therefor I looked for local esthetics in day to day life. The one that I found is the building technic that is most common is Israel (and the Palestinian territories) concrete casting. The Rebar reinforcement is often left bare sticking outside of the finished building. 
 
From there I wondered off to IKEA. Like every global brand IKEA makes adjustments to the local market. I thought what if IKEA took that to the extreme, and what if I took it to the extreme as well. I pictured this grotesque and absurd situation where someone is trying to load this concrete table to his car. Breaking it on the way or in his home and while doing so creating a unique “one of”.  
 
The name AYKA is a question that appears in the Bible translating to “where art thou”, and In my work I ask the same question.   
 
In the violent act of breaking the concrete slab there’s a cry for a resurrection of the peace process but more than that it holds a wake up call. Like the breaking of the 10 commandments (I'm not sure how to write this, in hebrew we say that the tracking of the 10 commandments slab or something like that) and yet I hope it addresses everyone that can relate to a breaking of a wall.   
 
The table and chairs were cast as a single slab of concrete. Rebar reinforcement was set in selected places in order to allow the breaking of the slab into 3 pieces at first (separating the table form the chairs) and than in 2 more places allowing the rebar to be bent thus making the back support for the chairs. 

Created at Bezelal Academy of Arts & Design under the guidance Of Prof. Ezeri Tarazi.

Folded is a semi-industrial version of the Negotation table. It relies on two main principles from the one-of concrete and rebar table- transforming to a 3d object from its original flat starting point and doing so in a surprising way.

70cm * 70cm * 40cm4mm steel and Beech wood

Done at Bezalel academy of arts and design 

Designed at ESAD (Escola Superior de Artes e Design) Porto, under the guidance of  Rui Pedro Freire. 

This Lo-Fi recored player was designed with the branding principles of Hayden-Shapes (a surfboard manufacturing company from Australia) in mind. 

Created at Bezelal Academy of Arts & Design under the guidance Of Tal Gur.

The idea behind the chandelier was to create a 3D representation of processes occurring in our world today: governments spying on individuals, huge corporations gathering information on consumers and so on.

As people, we feel safer surrounding ourselves with walls and security cameras in an effort to keep others out. Yet, at the same time, we give away more and more personal information that in turn has the potential to manipulate and control our thoughts.

"Inside out Panopticon" is far from a security chandelier. On the contrary, it is a jail of sorts.

The Panopticon, an institutional building envisioned by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, is built in such a way that allows one guard to observe all the inmates at one time. Bentham devised a circular building with the cells on the perimeter and a watch tower in the middle. Each cell extends the entire thickness of the building with windows on both sides allowing light to pass through. The occupants of the cell are backlit thus allowing the guard to constantly observe them. The inmates, not knowing when they are being watched.

The "Inside out Panopticon" chandelier brings the idea of watched cell mates into our homes, bringing the Panopticon into the 21st century.

Sous La Vie (Under Life): vacuum-cooking in washing machines

The Sous La Vie is a waterproof tyvek bag for vacuum-cooking in a washing machine, designed at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, under the guidance of Liora Rozin. Even though this product was done at the Department of Industrial design it is more of an eye opener, It brings forth opposing ideas such as fast food vs slow food, rich vs poor and capitalism vs socialism.      

The food we eat, and the way we eat it, reflects on our taste but much more on our economic abilities and culture. Our meals provide an example of the social aspects of our lives. In this case we will witness the rise (and fall) of the middle class as it can be seen through the home cooked meal. 

The TV-dinner is one interesting example to examine this in the U.S. During the Second World War women took on industrial jobs, previously occupied by men. This trend continued after the war was over, significantly changing the way families worked, as more and more women had jobs and less time to tend to house chores. This gap had to be filled with inventions such as the TV-dinner (and the washing machine, which became more accessible during that time).    

The design of TV-dinner attempted to give the aroma and feeling of a home-cooked meal when both parents had to leave for work. Since their invention, TV-dinners have evolved in taste and in their cooking methods, but they remain a cheap substitution for the real thing: no longer a home cooked meal with fresh ingredients, and instead of the family sitting around the dinner table they are glued to the TV (a great opportunity to air you some more commercials and create a consuming cycle). Time is money and cooking takes time.

But what happens when you no longer even have a house to maintain this American dream? In this day and age we see a continuing decline in the middle class’s ability to maintain its standard of living, especially after the 2008 mortgage crisis that left many people without a home. The dream became a nightmare and people had to be resourceful and find replacements and solutions. 

One such solution is the laundromat, most of them are open 24/7 and they offer a hassle-free shelter. As one homeless blogger (afrostyplease)* describes the laundromat as “Probably the most useful places on earth for homeless, besides the library”. He adds: “you can clean your laundry, fill your water bottles, find an electrical outlet to plug in a computer, or cell phone, take a bird bath, take a dump, charge your electronics…, rest for a good few hours as a patron, and not get hassled..., and in some cases get on the internet all in the same place.” So why shouldn't you be able to cook some food while there?

On another part of the culinary spectrum, the world and economic beliefs, we find Sous vide (French for “under vacuum”). Sous vide is a cooking method in which vacuum-sealed food is placed in heated water and cooked over a long period of time. This high-end method cooks food evenly and retains moisture. Where does this slow food, high-end, exclusive cooking method meet the American family in 2017?

In sous vide the food is cooked in a bath-like device at temperatures usually around 50 to 70 degrees Celsius. The same conditions can be found in a washing machine; all you have to do is change the semantics. Instead of following a sous vide recipe and cooking a piece of meat at 58˚C for two and a half hours, just set your washing machine to “synthetics” for a long duration program. Cooking vegetables? Set your machine to “cotton” for a short duration program. Sous vide offers a scientific approach to cooking your food in a controlled environment, so after some trial and error you might achieve satisfying results. 

The bags are made from Tyvek paper, bringing together the print world with the fabric one. Even though the food inside the bags is sealed within a plastic bag, the laundry dinner bag is also waterproof (the Tyvek paper is water resistant, and the bag itself has a dry bag seal; measures taken to keep your clothes clean and your food soap free).

It can be humorous to think of cooking your food in the washing machine as a new dinner topic, or a Damien Hirst-style restaurant filled with washing machines instead of pills. But humour is not the point. Instead, the Sous La Vie laundry-dinner serves as a reminder of lost homes and (the American) dreams. It offers a deep look at the cultural conditions that determine what products we consume, in this case capitalism and fast food vs socialism and slow food (not to say one is better than the other). The laundry dinner is not intended solely for the homeless, but much rather for us all: a product that reflects on our taste, our economic ability and our culture.