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| Poster for the networked performances in Jerusalem and San Diego as a tribute to victims of the Holocaust. |
Scholars and cultural institutions in Israel and the United States are collaborating on a high-tech interactive platform linking audiences thousands of miles apart to mark the official United Nations commemoration in honor of the victims of the Holocaust.
On Jan. 27 at 9:45 a.m. Pacific time and 7:45 p.m. Israel time, audiences in San Diego and Jerusalem will be part of the musical program, in what’s being dubbed as a "co-active" cultural event, with simultaneous performers at both venues and audience members communicating with each other over the Internet and determining the sequence of musical tributes.
The Center for Research in Entertainment and Learning (CREL) at the University of California, San Diego and Beit Avi Chai in Jerusalem will host the venues. They are collaborating with Visual Exchange Network and InTv.co.il to introduce the new digital humanities platform, joining scholarly communities in real time across the globe for the inauguration of an annual co-active commemorative event.
This new capability has been made possible by the support of the UC San Diego division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), National LambdaRail, Pangaea Networks, and Bezeq International.
Date: Jan. 27, 2011
Time: 9:45 a.m. Pacific time (7:45 p.m. Israel time)
Location: Calit2 Theater, Atkinson Hall, UC San Diego and Beit Avi Chai, Jerusalem
Producer Ella Belzberg, in conjunction with UC San Diego music professor Shlomo Dubnov and Co-Active Director Benjamin Stuart Thompson of Visual Exchange Network, together with Executive Producer Eitan Eliram of InTv.co.il and Beit Avi Chai, are presenting the venue-to-venue event. The project aims to kick off a series of community events that would allow audiences to experience the new form of interactive and international engagement.
The program will include a keynote address by the scholar Dr. Yehuda Bauer. He is a professor of Holocaust studies at the Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The Tel Aviv Soloists Ensemble will play two pieces: a string trio as well as a duet for violin and cello, composed by Gideon Klein a Czech pianist, composer of classical music and organizer of cultural life in the Theresienstadt concentration camp.
Soloist Natanel Baram will sing from San Diego with the accomplished Kol Rina choir performing in Jerusalem.
During a special co-active segment, entitled Expressions — as live music is performed by the jazz group HaLev v’ HaMayaan
in both cities will be able to use their handheld devices or laptops to
participate, as artwork created by victims of the Holocaust, provided
by Yad Vashem Yad Vashem will be shared venue-to-venue.
The program will be broadcast live on Jewish Life Television
(JLTV), the only 24-hour, full-time TV network in the U.S. delivering
Jewish-themed programming. Launched in 2007, JLTV is carried by DirecTV,
ComCast and TimeWarner in 25 million homes across the United States.
Special thanks for the program go to Larry Smarr, Ramesh Rao, Tom DeFanti, Eitan Eliram, Danny Danieli, Michal Nakar and Yael Boim Fein.
About CREL
The Center for Research in Entertainment and Learning (CREL)
focuses on grassroots creativity and learning, while promoting research
that combines artificial intelligence with interactive and
participatory media to allow people to be more creative, informed and
make better decisions in educational as well as entertainment
environments. Launched in February 2010, the new center uses advanced IT
technologies to help people deal with meaning in complex situations,
such as questions that arise during story narratives, from films to
business situations. CREL is housed within the University of California,
San Diego division of the California Institute for Telecommunications
and Information Technology (Calit2).
About Calit2 at UC San Diego
The UC San Diego division of the California Institute for
Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), together with
Calit2’s division at UC Irvine, house more than 1,000 researchers across the
two campuses, organized around more than 50 projects on the future of
telecommunications and information technology and how these technologies
will transform a range of applications important to the California
economy and its citizens’ quality of life. Calit2 celebrated its
10th anniversary in December 2010.
About VEN
Visual Exchange Network (VEN) reaches across the network to draw
groups dispersed across multiple locations together into close
collaboration on an eye-opening scale. As an inter-professional media
development and production group, VEN has expertise in the advanced
network technologies required for venue-to-venue media models built on
long-term education research. It is bolstered by strategic alliances
with the most advanced education research networks, as well as
trend-leading schools, universities and cultural institutions in the
U.S. and internationally.
About InTv.co.il
IInTv.co.il is among the leading video services in
Israel, providing real-time learning with large audiences at each
location, video conferencing and streaming solutions. The company is
well known in Israel for its expertise in the fields of eLearning, video
streaming and video conferencing, as well as in comprehensive
integration solutions.
About Beit Avi Chai
Beit AVI CHAI, established by the AVI CHAI Foundation, is a
cultural and social center located in the heart of Jerusalem that seeks
to express and refine the voices heard in Israeli Jewish cultural
discourse. The programming at Beit AVI CHAI centers on the story of the
Jewish people in Israel and abroad, with its myriad trends and
variations. A wide spectrum of activities and events are held weekly at
Beit AVI CHAI, including symposia, lectures, workshops, performances,
and other cultural events. Beit AVI CHAI targets a broad range of
audiences in an effort to create a fruitful, challenging encounter, and
to foster a setting in which people can come together to listen and
learn, to be challenged and stimulated. Beit AVI CHAI opened in February
2007; during 2008, more than 49,000 people attended BAC programs, up from
34,500 in 2007.
About Bezeq International
Bezeq is Israel's largest and leading telecommunications group.
The companies that make up the Bezeq Group offer the full range of
telecom services — domestic and international, fixed and mobile,
high-speed Internet, transmission, and more. The group has a strong
balance sheet and operating cash flow of NIS 3.9 billion (as of 2009),
which is used to create a sophisticated telecom network, to provide
advanced services for its clients and to generate value for its
shareholders.
About Pangaea Networks
Pangaea Networks is a pioneer in the deployment of Managed
Ethernet services to off-net and commercial “LEC only” type buildings in
the Northeast U.S. Pangaea utilizes a combination of Ethernet Network
to Network Interfaces, leading-edge CPE that converts TDM/SONET
signaling to Ethernet, and proprietary dark-fiber networks to rapidly
provision transport solutions from the Enterprise market to select
carrier hotels and data centers. As a leading wholesale Metro Ethernet
connectivity provider, Pangaea Networks utilizes only MEF Certified
network elements and aggregation platforms, backed by Pangaea’s
carrier-class standard SLAs.
About NLR
Owned and operated by the U.S. research and education community,
National LambdaRail (NLR) is one of the world's most advanced networks:
12,000 miles of high-performance optical fiber coast to coast, capable
of speeds up to 100 Gigabits per second. Over 280 universities and
federal laboratories use NLR as their network for leading-edge research.
With no restrictions on usage or bandwidth, very high availability, a
choice of next-generation network services and applications, and
customized support for individual researchers and projects, NLR creates
opportunities for collaboration, innovation and commercialization among
the global research community and between private and public partners.