The Bible Battery
by Paula Levine
Biblical narratives constitute foundations for many cultural, social, and religious beliefs and practices in Judaism. Historically, these narratives have sometimes formed a kind of template through which contemporary historical events were interpreted and understood. While the narratives powerfully bridge time and carry both history and memory, they are, according to Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi in his book Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory, neither fictions nor fact in the modern sense. The current, ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, particularly in Israel and Palestine, have informed and shaped many of my projects over the past ten years. One of them is a series called "As if the laws are malleable". This series uses bibles as source, subject, and object of investigations and questions of Jewish laws, customs, traditions, conventions, and contemporary politics in Israel. The series can be viewed on line at http://www.as-if-the-laws-were-malleable.net. Part of the series is the installation "Bible Battery", first exhibited at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art in 2001. In this installation, the bible generates a 9 volt current that powers a small LED screen. When a viewer pushes a small button, text on the screen reads: "Move past old narratives." The "Bible Battery" is the result of a number of confluent threads:
thoughts about energy as a force that effects change and can transform from one state to another;
thinking of 'The Word' that has, over time, transformed from one state to another: from an oral tradition to that of a written text;
thinking about 'narrative' as another kind of force; one that converts or transforms experience into knowledge;
my own responses to the continuing Israeli / Palestinian conflicts.
The idea was to consider the bible and its narratives as energy that could then be changed from one form to another. I wanted to emulate the shift from oral to written text, but also to have the new form be intangible and immaterial. Utilizing both older technologies (battery) and newer technologies (LEDs), the piece conveys its message: to move past those narratives that have become dangerously rigid in their interpretations.
thoughts about energy as a force that effects change and can transform from one state to another;
thinking of 'The Word' that has, over time, transformed from one state to another: from an oral tradition to that of a written text;
thinking about 'narrative' as another kind of force; one that converts or transforms experience into knowledge;
my own responses to the continuing Israeli / Palestinian conflicts.
The idea was to consider the bible and its narratives as energy that could then be changed from one form to another. I wanted to emulate the shift from oral to written text, but also to have the new form be intangible and immaterial. Utilizing both older technologies (battery) and newer technologies (LEDs), the piece conveys its message: to move past those narratives that have become dangerously rigid in their interpretations.
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