About

Lichen on Tombstone

The Lichen Atlas is the public face of an ongoing bio-design research thread at Bezalel Academy (M.Des Industrial Design). The thread asks a single question:

What happens in the top 2 millimetres of memory stone — between preservation and biological erosion — and how can a design intervention address this tension?

Methodology

Each cemetery is documented by hand, photographed in two passes (full stone + lichen close-ups), and processed through an AI-assisted pipeline that:

1. Triages every photo into one of six classes (full stone, close-up, intro, etc.) and clusters them by stone
2. OCRs the inscription, translates it to English and Hebrew, and cross-references the name against the Templer Society registry and other sources
3. Identifies the lichen community in each photo to genus level (sometimes species), with explicit confidence labels
4. Records the result as one DETAILS.md per stone

The output is intended to be both a working dataset for further field research and a contemplative artefact — a quiet, browsable record of a forgotten community and the lichens that have outlived it.

Confidence & limits

Every per-stone biography carries a confidence label and a callout asking for cross-reference against the definitive printed source: Eisler, J. & Gräf, U. (2023). Der historische Friedhof der Tempelgesellschaft in Jerusalem. Lichen IDs default to genus level — species claims are flagged and should be confirmed by microscopy + chemical spot tests.

References

• Galun, M. & Haluwani, M. S. (1977). Lichens on tombstones in Jerusalem: the effect of air pollution and stone properties on species distribution. The Lichenologist 9(2), 177–188.
• Galun, M. & Mukhtar, A. (1996). Checklist of the Lichens of Israel. Bocconea 6, 149–171.
• Eisler, J. & Gräf, U. (2023). Der historische Friedhof der Tempelgesellschaft in Jerusalem (vols. 1–2). Verein für Württembergische Kirchengeschichte, Stuttgart.
• Pinna, D. (2014). Biofilms and lichens on stone monuments. In: Microbial deterioration of stone monuments.

Credits

Field photography, research direction & design — Maayan Magenheim.
AI-assisted documentation pipeline — built as part of this Bio-Design thread.