The fascinating frequency: 7.83 Hertz

My meeting with the designer Ofer Shahar lasted 2 hours. Along this time I have met 8 new people who came by (friends, neighbors, clients, colleagues - each one had at least two rolls of the list). It took me 5 minutes to dive into a deep conversation with him. After 30 minutes he already told me the next thing: .7.83 Hertz is the frequency of our brain and it is the frequency of earth as well. That's probably the reason we feel so connected to ourselves walking in nature. He learnt this while exploring the effects of technology on environment, at the last 8 years. Numbers or facts - I was already fascinated.

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הפגישה שלי עם המעצב עופר שחר ארכה שעתיים. בזמן הזה הכרתי 8 אנשים חדשים שעברו בסביבה (תערובת של חברים, קולגות, לקוחות שכנים - לכל אחד היו לפחות שני תפקידים מהרשימה) לקח לי 5 דקות בלבד לצלול לשיחה עמוקה איתו. אחרי 30 דקות הוא סיפר לי את הדבר הבא: 7.83 הרץ זה התדר של המוח שלנו וזה גם התדר של כדור הארץ (!) זו הסיבה כנראה, שכשאנחנו יוצאים לטבע אנחנו מרגישים מחוברים לעצמינו. הוא למד זאת במהלך 8 השנים האחרונות בעודו חוקר את השפעות הטכנולוגיה על הסביבה. מספרים או עובדות - אני הייתי כבר מרותקת

Shahar (on the left) with his welder (who is also his neighbor)

The workshop

Shahar is fulfilling the Holy Trinity: Design - Community - Environment. He designs in his workshop some beautiful objects made from upcycled old and neglected stuff. He is a partner in the "Bloom field" Gallery (together with Itai Cohen, Gilad Shahar - his brother and a gifted carpenter, and Efrat Shahar - his sister). He built a garden with an irrigation system, that reuses the water, in one of the city's lots. And, he responsible for quit a few jam sessions in the neighborhood including good vibes and a lovely hospitality.

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שחר מקיים את השילוש הקדוש של עיצוב - קהילה - סביבה. הוא מעצב בסדנה שלו אובייקים ורהיטים יפיפיים, העשויים ממיחדוש של חפצים ישנים ועזובים. הוא שותף בגלרית בלומפילד (יחד עם איתי כהן, גלעד שחר - אח שלו ונגר מוכשר, ואפרת שחר - אחותו), הוא הקים גינה עם מערכת השקיה שעושה שימוש חוזר במים בפרוייקט ה"חווה", ואחראי על לא מעט ג'ם סשינים שכונתיים הכוללים אנרגיות טובות ואירוח מקסים.

An old table

An old table is beeing upcycled by Shahar

To my question how does he connect between the inevitable technology and preserving the quality of environment (it is an inevitable question watching his dinosaur mobile), Shahar answers that he practices all kind of messages which are scattered around him, in his gallery, his loft and his workshop. The signs are made from wood's left overs.

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לשאלתי כיצד הוא מגשר בין הטכנולוגיה הבלתי נמנעת בחיינו לבין שימור איכויות הסביבה. (שאלה בלתי נמנעת כשמתבוננים בטלפון הדינוזאורי שלו), שחר עונה לי שהוא מתרגל מסרים אשר כתובים על שלטים הפזורים בשגרת יומו. ביציאה מהבית, בסדנה וכמובן בגלריה. השלטים עשויים משאריות עץ.

Yes! we are - hopefully for the best

Good that I am here! - It captured my eyes while
speaking with Shahar on the street
It made me feel sooooo special:-)

I'm trying...

What is it that makes me happy?

Shahar started his career as a drummer. He played many Jam sessions in Universities in the USA on the behalf of the Israel's Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Coming back to Israel he organized his new loft and when friends, that were devastating from the result, asked him to help them, he did. At the beginning he was confused and became the real estate agent of the neighborhood. Than he understood that his upcycled furniture, which were regularly found at his lofts - were what they were looking for.

And here are some of the designed and upcycled furniture made by Ofer and Gilad Shahar:

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שחר התחיל את הקריירה שלו כמתופף - הוא ניגן בג'ם סשנים באוניברסיטאות בארה"ב בשם משרד החוץ. כשחזר לארץ שיפץ וסידר את הלופט שלו. כשהחברים שלו היו מרותקים מהתוצאה וביקשו שיעזור להם לעשות גם כזה. הוא עזר. בהתחלה הוא היה המתווך של השכונה (חשב שכך יעזור להם למצוא לופטים שווים), אבל אח"כ הבין שהם בעצם חיפשו את העיצובים שלו, שהיו דרך קבע בכל מקום שגר.

והנה כמה מרהיטיהם המעוצבים והממוחדשים של עופר וגלעד שחר:

A desk with upcycled tin

A bench made from upcycled wood

An old table covered with upcycled tin

At the end of my visit I found my self walking with Shahar and another friend (but of course) to have lunch. Only after getting my order I remembered I had already made my lunch appointment with somebody else, someplace else… That's what happens when I'm fascinated.

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בסוף הביקור שלי מצאתי את עצמי צועדת עם שחר ועם חבר נוסף (ברור) לכיוון הצהריים - לנגב חומוס. אחרי שהזמנתי והתרווחתי בנחת בכסא, נזכרתי שקבעתי צהריים עם מישהו אחר בקצה השני של העיר. מה שנקרא - מרותקת!

The power of questions

~ "The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he's one who asks the right questions".
Claude Lévi-Strauss, Le Cru et le cuit, 1964


~ Why I admire her so much?
Adital Ela doesn't go along on the usual path. As a second year-design-student at the H.I.T, she already had noticed that designers were asked to answer a brief. Designers were asked to prepare sketches for a toaster or for an iron in a time that earth was screaming HELP... She thinks that designers should know how to ask the right questions. As she asks today HER students: "What kind of an important valuable destiny we choose to give our creative quality? Who does it serve?"

~ What does she do?
For her final sustainable design project, she had spent 10 months in the rural areas of India. She observed their traditional inevitable sustainable life, and was hooked. One main ceremony was particularly capture her mind. The Chai. She mostly was fascinating by the chai craft cup. They make it from the soil and after drinking, they break it on the ground like it is the natural way to do. And it is.
That was the seed for starting her Terra project, and the beginning of her present exploration and research of production from soil. She believes in implementing old traditional methods in new technologies.

Adital: Can walking in the city feel charging as walking in the forest?

Adital asks in one of her talks

Can women think? A postcard in Adital's workshop

~ What is the Windy light project? (or How to upcycle wind?)
In a wider aspect Adital wants to use our local abundance (earth, wind, and water) to design our personal sustainable uses. like the windy light for example. It's a street light made of renewable wind energy. It is designed to utilize even a soft gust of wind and is created from a repetitive module which integrates wind collection and a LED light source into one element.

Windy Light is a collection of self-sufficient outdoor lights operated by wind energy

~ What is the Terra project? (or How to upcycle earth?)
Stools made of 100% natural material: renewable soil, upcycle and reuse of construction and agriculture waste, in a unique compression process, that was developed based on a long term study of materials and of ancient building methods. This work has been presented in the Ljubljana 23rd Biennial (and have been awarded there), in the Slow Design Exhibition in Budapest and in the Design Museum Holon.

Terra stools. Emotional capsule. Some of the land came from an archaeological site in Jerusalem.

The lovely Terra project's stop motion-making off-movie:

~Are you a design student? If you are, you can watch Adital's last talk on TEDxJerusalem and explore more of her inspiring questions in her You tube channel.

~If you ask me - I believe she is a pioneer, kind of scientist-designer, and her genuine search is representing a holistic approach which will eventually help finding the golden mean between sustainability and technology.