Interactive installation and questionnaire
Toward an Updated Ethnographic Questionnaire on Israeli Time / Sala-Manca Group
Exhibited at The Ethnographic Department, 2015
Concept: Sala-manca | Programmer: Guy Yitzhaki
As part of the processes of researching the connection between ethnography and contemporary art, some of which was presented in “The Ethnographic Department” exhibit in the Museum of the Contemporary at the Mamuta Center in Hansen House in 2014, we have composed a questionnaire on the Israeli sound regime.
Similar to a Pavlov experiment, it emerges that by means of sound the regime in Israel has succeeded in shaping unique local behavioral patterns, distinguishing between membership groups, evoking emotions, and even creating a new local tradition.
The place of sound as a central means for the individual’s equilibrium is known to all. The social use of sound as a means for shaping and control is the result of new technologies developed in the past century, and draws inspiration from older traditions of using sound for social policing during military or religious ceremonies.
In the present issue of Maarav we have chosen to distribute the ethnographic questionnaire on “Israeli Time”, which expands or updates the ethnographic questionnaire composed by Sh. An-sky in Eastern Europe a hundred years ago during an ethnographic expedition financed by Baron Günzburg. Members of the expedition headed by An-sky composed a questionnaire comprising 2087 questions pertaining to the life of Jews from birth to death, special customs, local traditions, the cycle of the Jewish year, and more. The expedition’s work was terminated with the outbreak of World War I on 28 July 1914.
The following questions expand the questionnaire with ethnographic questions associated with the Israeli sound regime, and we ask readers to become information scientists and provide their testimony in order to expand our understanding of sound policing.
28 First Questions
How does one tell a Sabbath siren from an emergency or war alarm siren?
What do you feel upon hearing a real emergency siren?
What do you feel while hearing the Memorial Day siren?
What do you feel while hearing the Holocaust Memorial Day siren?
What do you feel while hearing the Sabbath siren?
When did you last hear an alarm or other siren?
What did you do when you heard it?
Do you know stories, jokes, or sayings about sirens – alarm or other types? Tell us.
What do you tell your child in case of a real alarm siren
What do you tell your child in case of a Memorial Day siren?What is his/her answer or question?
Do you make sure to hear or find out about a certain situation such as the Sabbath, Memorial Day, Holocaust Memorial Day and war through other means as well? Please elaborate.
Could you perform the siren yourself?
Do you recall the first time you heard it? What are your recollections of that time?
What happens to the body and mind at the moment of the following types of sirens: Sabbath, Memorial Day, Holocaust Memorial Day, emergency or war.
Were we to hear a siren right now, what would you do? What would you do if you were outdoors? In the bathroom?
What does the sound of a siren symbolize for you, or remind you of?
Have you ever heard similar sounds in other countries? What did you feel then?
Do you know the myth of Odysseus relating to the Siren? Please elaborate.
Do you need sirens? If so, which? Please explain why.
How do you tell them different kinds of sirens apart?
What do you think of the effects that sirens have upon Palestinians? Work immigrants? Israeli Jews? Non-Israeli Jews? Foreign tourists? Animals? Children? Politicians? Clergymen? Policemen? Soldiers?
Is there a difference in behavior of men and women at the sound of the sirens? Please elaborate.
On Memorial Day, upon hearing the siren do you stand? If some people around you do not, what do you think of them or of the State?
On Holocaust Memorial Day, upon hearing the siren do you stand? If some people around you do not, what do you think of them or of the State?
Upon hearing the Sabbath siren, what are your bodily actions?
Upon hearing a real alarm siren, what are your bodily actions?
Do you think that the price-hierarchy set for alarms at the ethnographic museum is proper? If not, elaborate.
What was the artists’ intention?