Zifzafa.

[Place of publication not identified] : Earshot, 2025.

1 online resource

"A video-game fighting green colonialism in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights (Al Jawlan) In 1967, Israel seized and occupied 70 per cent of the Jawlan. Approximately 131,000 people living across 344 villages were forcibly displaced from their homes. Those who remained on their land have since endured military occupation. During the summer of 2023, the residents of the occupied villages of the Jawlan protested against their occupation on a scale not seen for forty years. These demonstrations were catalysed by the initiation of an Israeli government project to build 31 land-based wind turbines, to be the largest in the world (256 meter high) on the last remaining open space for the occupied Syrians of the Jawlan (Jawlanis). These turbines will produce just 0.6 per cent of Israel's energy needs, and most of them will be built within tens of metres of Jawlani homes and farms. Depending on the wind speed, each turbine could generate between 70dB-90dB of noise - an intensity of sound equivalent to a busy highway. The acoustic footprint of this wind turbine project will be 16 square kilometres, covering in noise a quarter of the area allocated to the Jawlanis living in the Jawlan. This noise pollution will effectively annex this plot of land, rendering it uninhabitable and impeding any future expansion of Jawlani villages, towns, and farms. To support the Jawlani community fight this wind turbine project, Earshot collaborated closely with Al Marsad, the Arab human rights centre in the Jawlan, to develop a digital tool - Zifzafa - with two key objectives: to contest and to preserve. Zifzafa is a video game simulation that accurately models how the noise pollution caused by the wind turbines will spread and occupy space and transform the lives of this community. By using our video game simulation, users can go into the homes and farms most affected by the noise pollution and experience for themselves the force of this sonic annexation. But the turbines are not the only thing that can be heard in Zifzafa. We've embedded over 40 geolocated field recordings within a scale replica of the landscape of the Jawlan. In this way, the video game simulation serves as an archive of the vibrant sonic life of the Jawlani community. From songs and instruments to wildlife and weddings, we've created a site where the sonic memories of the Jawlani community may be preserved before they're rendered inaudible. For now, Zifzafa is the only place where the turbines can be switched on and heard. In the future, it might be the only place where they can be switched off. As players move through the landscape of the Jawlan, they will encounter megaphones, a symbol of the Jawlani's sonic resistance, which are placed throughout the digital terrain. Through these megaphones, users will hear voices from the Jawlan guiding them through their history of occupation and resistance..."-- provided by distributor.

Border security.
Hearing.
Imperialism.
Military art and science.
Sound.
Sustainable development.
Video games.
Sécurité frontalière.
Impérialisme.
Art et science militaires.
Développement durable.
sustainable development.

Software.
Sound recordings.

Abu Hamdan, Lawrence, contributor.
Abu Saleh, Busher Kanj, sound designer.
Ayoub, Haneen, contributor.
Cervi, Fabio, contributor.
Laschinger, Adam, sound designer.
Matar, Caline, translator.
Safadi, Shada, contributor.
Safadi, Youssef, contributor.
Urbiks, Enyang, contributor.
Library Stack, distributor.
Library Stack.