If someone were to invent a time machine that could enable, say, folk from the 19th century to pop over for a glimpse of contemporary 21st-century life, they would probably be amazed by the new Working Class event. The series kicks off in Tel Aviv on February 13 and is described as “a new and accessible form of unique urban recreation.”
Working Class is well-named. It offers the average woman, man, or child on the street opportunities to grab a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how artists, artisans, and other professionals go about their business. You can, for example, pop along to the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History in Ramat Aviv and see, with your own eyes, how a taxidermist stuffs a dead bird.
If that isn’t your thing, then perhaps you’d prefer to spend half an hour in an artist’s studio watching them do their creative magic. And there’s lots more on offer betwixt those disciplinary goalposts.
So, why the assumed astonishment of the aforementioned temporal shifters? It is a sign of the times that we now offer observing basic skills and crafts as a form of entertainment and, it should be noted, actual rather than virtual enlightenment.
Healthier approach to life
THE INITIATIVE is the brainchild of Yoav Foldesh, supported by the Portfolio online arts and culture magazine and its editor-in-chief Yuval Saar. “One of the main aims of the venture is to bring people into direct contact with the thing itself,” Foldesh explains.
The “thing” does not just intimate catching people in the hands-on act, in person; it is also designed to engender a healthier approach to life in general. “Research shows that the more time you spend in front of a screen, irrespective of the number of people you are in contact with through the screen, ultimately the lonelier you feel. There is nothing better than meeting someone else and interacting with other people.”
There’s more to real human social intercourse. “For the interaction to be positive, it should be based on something that is not divisive or polarizing.” That, of course, means eschewing anything and everything with even the slightest whiff of politics – if that minefield can at all be sidestepped in this fractious part of the world.
“We are not inviting people to a demonstration,” Foldesh chuckles. “We are inviting them to come and see someone doing something they excel at.”
What, indeed, could be better and more life-affirming? Foldesh believes that attending one or more of the Working Class sessions might even inspire us to take up an active interest in the pursuit on show. He proffers the collateral for that supposition, albeit from a different cultural milieu and a far longer time span.
“I recently heard a podcast with someone who is a master basket maker. I think he originated from Honduras. He said that, when he went to learn the craft from the tribal elders, they didn’t explain anything to him. He just sat there observing them for half a year until he learned how to do it.”
That sounds delightful, although Foldesh does not expect too many Working Class spectators to start stuffing birds or become experts in flower arranging. Still, you never know. “It is the oldest teaching method in the world,” he says. “You just watch someone doing something. That’s how you learn.”
Not that I am an avid fan of the virtual world, but many of us take on new knowledge from watching the seemingly inexhaustible repository of YouTube videos. I asked Foldesh whether that could do the trick for learning the ropes, possibly even more efficiently than the Working Class gatherings.
“Yes, you could do that, but YouTube videos are always edited versions of reality. You may be able to see a process on YouTube, from A through to Z, but in real life, you get to see the middle of the process too.”
That mindset features right across the Working Class agenda, which takes in sessions at 22 spots over the course of 10 days. “There is Tami Ben Hanan’s Teo Studio, which specializes in tufting,” Foldesh advises. Apparently, the patrons will get a preview of a glittering cultural occasion due to take place soon on a grand international stage.
“Tami will make a wall carpet, which she will exhibit at Design Week in Milan [in April]. She will run three sessions, and the public will witness different stages of the carpet creation each time, from the design right through to the stage when she snips the fibers.”
That surely could be an engaging and immersive viewing experience for the public. Then again, in this day and age when our attention spans continue to shrink at an alarming rate, I wondered whether we are still able to stay the course without fidgeting or taking out our cell phones, either to record the event or distract ourselves with some meaningless information.
Foldesh believes so and says he has witnessed the evidence himself. “We feel that watching someone do something for half an hour is a very satisfying experience and that people are capable of losing themselves in the activity they are watching. All the times we ran trial runs of these sessions, we never saw someone take out their cell phone,” he laughs.
Working Class, says Foldesh, offers an opportunity to get some insight into various aspects of life one doesn’t encounter in the normal run of things, and that, it seems, includes museums. The promo material I was sent for the project features an intriguing, even provocative, quote from him.
“Watching somebody work is not just inexplicable fun; it is also an immersive cultural experience, a fusion of creativity, technology, and tradition. It is not just about people being mesmerized by something on TikTok or Instagram. It is simply far more interesting and accessible than the museum.” It was the last bit that arched my eyebrows.
Foldesh backtracks a mite. “As a child, I remember going to workshops at the Israel Museum, seeing people blow glass and do pottery. Museums certainly have their place. What I really wanted to say was that watching someone work is not any less of a cultural experience than going to a museum.
“You get tradition. When you see someone blowing glass or making decorative leather vases, they are techniques, some of which have been around for millennia. You get the creativity of the person standing in front of you doing something new [for the observer], and you have technology – how to use the tools to bring about a transformation. I think that is definitely an immersive cultural experience.”
That point is well put and duly taken, particularly when you consider that participation in the events gets us away from our ubiquitous, eyesight-weakening, and concentration-reducing cell phone screens and back into the real corporeal world.
Working Class is also affordably priced, at around NIS 30-NIS 38 per session, and doesn’t take up too much of our precious rat race negotiating time.
“If, say, you are in Tel Aviv and have just had a meeting canceled, instead of drinking yet another cup of coffee or going to a shopping mall, you can pop into the Working Class website and choose an activity to go to, an activity you probably have never seen before. I think that’s exciting.”
So, if you fancy getting up close to someone carving wooden candlesticks, developing camera film and printing photos, making sunglasses, or watching a theater rehearsal, Working Class can provide all that and more.
For more information: eventbuzz.co.il/producer/v2/workingclass