Tonight after our long and exciting day in Tel Aviv we had a session with street artist and industrial designer, Oren Ailam. After many serious or politically related meetings, it was fun and interesting to hear someone who addressed the more artsy side of Israel and its culture. Oren is super cool and is able to express himself through his extremely unique street art. Through his many creations, Oren integrates poetry and technology to make public and political statements as well as romantic statements. His poems have been noticed by many people around Israel and through this work, Oren has begun and continued many discussions, some of which can be very controversial. Some of Oren’s work that I found particularly interesting were the poems composes, then makes them into laser cut stencils, and spray paints onto walls all over Tel Aviv. He melds poetry and industrial design. His writing is very personal and has a lot of meaning that he courageously puts out into the world without the fear of being judged. Something else that is very cool is the work that he does with technology and electronics. He designs musical instruments and interesting musical techniques that are then put out into public places for people to play and enjoy. During our workshop, Oren encouraged us to write our own poems and he printed them off for us on paper receipts from a 3″ wide roll of paper. We are supposed to leave them in a public place in order to make a statement. While most of the poems our group wrote were humorous, the message of communication was really meaningful. After this, we went for a small graffiti tour in Tel Aviv and he showed us some work that spoke to him as well as the rest of the community. Overall I enjoyed the meeting with Oren Ailam and I think that it was an engaging and unique way to end our night.