The Red Line is a physical device that examines how we adapt to escalating crises, revealing our tendency to shift the threshold of what we consider acceptable over time. It is inspired by the concept of a "red line" — a figurative boundary that, once crossed, signifies a point of no return.

In recent years, the political and social landscape in Israel, my home country, has undergone significant upheaval. What was once unthinkable has, step by step, become normalized. Conversations with friends and family revealed a recurring theme: the question of where our personal "red line" lies. At what point do we decide that the situation is no longer livable? What event, law, or policy would push us to take action—whether by leaving, protesting, or fundamentally reassessing our stance? I realized that these boundaries are not fixed; they shift as crises unfold, and the space between endurance and action expands.

The Red Line attempts to materialize this process. The device continuously gathers news articles from various sources, analyzing and scoring them in real time to reflect the current state of affairs in Israel. This score is displayed on a live meter, representing the nation’s “livability potential” — ranging from “full potential” to “unlivable.”

A movable red line allows me to set a personal threshold, marking the point at which I would need to take action — whether by leaving the country, engaging in civil disobedience, or reassessing my stance. The line can be adjusted at any time, but each movement is a confrontation: a physical acknowledgment of shifting boundaries and evolving tolerances.

The live score is continuously updated based on real-time news analysis and is derived from a large language model that was trained on my personal values and worldview. It evaluates news articles based on key metrics, including: Contribution to equality, Impact on human rights, Effect on the region’s socio-economic state, and Contribution to peace.

This project serves as both a self-examination and a broader reflection on how individuals and societies recalibrate their moral and political boundaries in response to ongoing crises.

While deeply personal, this project serves as a broader reflection on how individuals and societies recalibrate their moral and political boundaries in response to ongoing crises. By externalizing these invisible shifts, The Red Line asks: When do we stop adapting and start resisting?

Software:
All server-side code was written in Javascript, and is running using Firebase cloud functions, where the project's continuously updated database is also stored.
Real time news are scraped from various news sources across the political spectrum using the python library beautifulsoup.
A fined tuned version of Google AI Studio's Gemini LLM is used for scoring each news article. The training examples were created manually in a spreadsheet.
Live data is sent over MQTT (using Shiftr.io) to an Arduino that's connected to WiFi.
Arduino libraries used: TMC2209, ArduinoMqttClient, WiFiNINA, Adafruit_NeoPixel
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Hardware:‍
Arduino nano 33 IoT
Nema 11 stepper motor
Linear rail guide (300 mm)
TMC2209 motor driver
Neopixel (x1)
Hall Effect sensor (x1)
Custom built circuit

Enclosure — 5052 powder coated Aluminum
Handle — 304 stainless steel
Inner parts — acrylic, 3D printed PLA