Project overview
This proposal develops a ‘Maimonides from Scratch’ (MfS) pilot that explores Jewish and Muslim presence and place in both Manchester and Marseille through creative practices. The pilot provides further arts-based methodological texture to my Anniversary Fellowship Zouj (“two”) concerning the historical, experiential and affective dynamics of Sephardic Jewish and Muslim North African cultures and relations and their legacy in Marseille.
Building on Zouj, MfS turns to the medieval polymath Maimonides and his encounters with Muslim intellectuals and dignitaries. Maimonides’ philosophical writings speak to Jewish and non-Jewish museum publics and previous workshops at the Manchester Jewish Museum began the co-production of an animated film about Maimonides, shaped by participant reflections and accompanied by a stop-motion animation sessions. In Marseille we will hold our pilot in the city museum, with local bédéiste (graphic novelist) Odélia Kamoun and Gan Ami school a so-called ‘hard to reach’ Orthodox Jewish school interested in Maimonides as an important Sephardic religious figure who codified Jewish law.
MfS is collaborative, integrating an interdisciplinary team—art, anthropology, literature, religious studies—from the Universities of Southampton and Cambridge including Dr Anoushka Alexander-Rose (English) Dr Kwame Philipps (AMT), Dr Anastasia Badder (CIP, Cambridge), Dr Melonie Schmierer-Lee (GRU, Cambridge) and PhD Eliaou Balouka (Birkbeck, London). The ‘Scratch’ technique MfS uses creates iterative knowledge exchange through dialogue around a new artwork. We also employ scratch to reach an intergenerational public inclusive of the Sephardic Jewish world, to exchange on Maimonides with local Marseille communities, share arts-based practices between HE and GLAM, and to co-produce a bande désinée (BD, graphic novel), a significant artform for youth cultural enrichment in France that differentiates MfS Marseille from Manchester . Having commenced our work in Manchester, we are keen to observe its reception in Marseille as a significant site of contemporary Sephardic and Muslim North African presence.
I will lead two sessions at the Marseille city museum with the MfS team and Odélia Kamoun for A. a group of museum volunteers both Jewish and non-Jewish, and B. a class at Gan Ami (ages 8-11), to ensure intergenerational and interfaith reception, engagement, and co-creation. We will discuss Maimonides’ life as a gateway to experiences of contemporary Marseille incorporating participant feedback and garner ideas for the narrative thread of a BD. This will be complemented by a stop-motion animation workshop led by Anastasia Badder, where participants will make their own films, centring movement, place and encounter. Our team will then work on a BD vignette storyboard with Kamoun.
We aim to empower expression through the arts in the co-production of a research-led BD vignette and stop motion informed by multiple-perspectival exchange. Previous lessons learned (Manchester) and those from Marseille will be shared with the mudrum. After the pilot, Alexander-Rose, Badder and I will host an online conference on Maimonides in translation (in association with Cambridge, Granada and Hamburg) with a particular focus on art in which we will present findings and outputs from this pair of pilot projects. Having multiple storyboards and children's illustration, an animated film, a BD vignette and stop-motion films will form the basis of an exhibition.
Building on Zouj, MfS turns to the medieval polymath Maimonides and his encounters with Muslim intellectuals and dignitaries. Maimonides’ philosophical writings speak to Jewish and non-Jewish museum publics and previous workshops at the Manchester Jewish Museum began the co-production of an animated film about Maimonides, shaped by participant reflections and accompanied by a stop-motion animation sessions. In Marseille we will hold our pilot in the city museum, with local bédéiste (graphic novelist) Odélia Kamoun and Gan Ami school a so-called ‘hard to reach’ Orthodox Jewish school interested in Maimonides as an important Sephardic religious figure who codified Jewish law.
MfS is collaborative, integrating an interdisciplinary team—art, anthropology, literature, religious studies—from the Universities of Southampton and Cambridge including Dr Anoushka Alexander-Rose (English) Dr Kwame Philipps (AMT), Dr Anastasia Badder (CIP, Cambridge), Dr Melonie Schmierer-Lee (GRU, Cambridge) and PhD Eliaou Balouka (Birkbeck, London). The ‘Scratch’ technique MfS uses creates iterative knowledge exchange through dialogue around a new artwork. We also employ scratch to reach an intergenerational public inclusive of the Sephardic Jewish world, to exchange on Maimonides with local Marseille communities, share arts-based practices between HE and GLAM, and to co-produce a bande désinée (BD, graphic novel), a significant artform for youth cultural enrichment in France that differentiates MfS Marseille from Manchester . Having commenced our work in Manchester, we are keen to observe its reception in Marseille as a significant site of contemporary Sephardic and Muslim North African presence.
I will lead two sessions at the Marseille city museum with the MfS team and Odélia Kamoun for A. a group of museum volunteers both Jewish and non-Jewish, and B. a class at Gan Ami (ages 8-11), to ensure intergenerational and interfaith reception, engagement, and co-creation. We will discuss Maimonides’ life as a gateway to experiences of contemporary Marseille incorporating participant feedback and garner ideas for the narrative thread of a BD. This will be complemented by a stop-motion animation workshop led by Anastasia Badder, where participants will make their own films, centring movement, place and encounter. Our team will then work on a BD vignette storyboard with Kamoun.
We aim to empower expression through the arts in the co-production of a research-led BD vignette and stop motion informed by multiple-perspectival exchange. Previous lessons learned (Manchester) and those from Marseille will be shared with the mudrum. After the pilot, Alexander-Rose, Badder and I will host an online conference on Maimonides in translation (in association with Cambridge, Granada and Hamburg) with a particular focus on art in which we will present findings and outputs from this pair of pilot projects. Having multiple storyboards and children's illustration, an animated film, a BD vignette and stop-motion films will form the basis of an exhibition.