Kugel. Challah. Blintz. Lox.
For many students, these words aren’t even part of their vocabulary, much less their diet. They certainly weren’t for the fellows at the Imaging Research Center. But in spring 2010, they left behind campus grub for the world of Jewish food. The results of their endeavor are now featured in “Chosen Food: Cuisine, Culture and American Jewish Identity,” an exhibit at the Jewish Museum of Maryland that runs through next fall.
“I wanted the fellows to work on a project that would have a public impact and show off what they could do technologically, but also really enrich their experience,” said Timothy Nohe, associate professor of visual arts, who worked with the fellows on the project.
The fellows visited kitchens, banquet halls, restaurants and marketplaces, and conducted interviews in the studio. The end result of their work is a series of documentary films and interviews shown throughout the exhibition.
“We’ve been increasing our inclusion of media over the past few years, and the media components of this exhibition are the strongest we’ve had yet,” said Rachel Kassman, assistant curator at the museum. “While we’ve always relied on the stories of actual people, this really brings it home.”
None of the students who worked on the project are Jewish, but their unfamiliarity with the topic was often an advantage because the museum wanted to create an exhibit that was accessible to both Jews and non-Jews. The students helped to universalize aspects of the Jewish food experience—such as the concept of “yosher,” or ethical consumption—to an audience that might not be familiar with these terms.
Timothy Bubb ’11, animation, and ’13 M.F.A., imaging and digital arts, pointed out that the project didn’t just take them out of their comfort zone culturally, but technologically as well. “Past projects have mostly involved creating artwork on a computer in the safety of my dorm room,” he said. For this project, the students had to physically travel to locations around the state and work with video and sound equipment.
That was part of the point of the project, said Nohe. “Everybody, at some point, took on the role of camera operator, sound operator or director,” he said. “That really allows them to experience what it’s like to be in the real world, because they’ll find that, once they leave UMBC, they’re constantly changing themselves because the market is constantly driving them in new directions.”
Giving students that real-world research experience is an integral part of the IRC Fellows program: cohorts of about 8 students spend two years working on a different project, under a different professor, each semester. That means that while the Jewish museum of Maryland was celebrating the grand opening of the exhibition on October 23, the IRC fellows were already well into developing a game for their next project.
But while the students have moved on, the “Chosen Food” exhibit will run through September 30, 2012. Kassman said that the museum also plans to feature the materials the fellows collected on its website over the coming months, and the exhibition will travel to other locations after it finishes its Baltimore run.
“I think they realize that they have really rich research materials here, as rich as the material culture that’s in the exhibition,” said Nohe.
(11/18/11)
