Prayer Terminal

Prayer Terminal is a techno-shrine built from dead media, sustainably harvested foliage, and a touch designer interactive architecture.

This pieces highlights how shrines are an ancient and analog technology used by our ancestors. Just as a keyboard allows us to interface with an operating system. A shrine allows us to interface with the universe and divine.

We used eleven CRT TVs, with the Zenith as the keystone, invasive vines collected from the forest, and preserved moss for the design of the shrine. Adding sensory elements such as tactile items to touch, and the diffusion of essential oils

Participants were able to engage with the shrine through two "rites of passage" First was through a written prayer. We designed a terminal styled after a late 90's home computer where participants could type a prayer. That prayer was then sent and displayed across 4 of our CRT TVs drifting across the edges with the visual callback of a DVD screensaver

The second rite of passage was somatic. Participants stood infront of the Zenith where a webcam was placed. When participants made a prayer hands gesture the webcam registered the gesture and caused a particle explosion to our 3d point cloud display of a prayer hands model. This act was a closure to the ritual. Through the act of making prayer hands we made the act of sending prayers to the divine a visual process.

Every prayer entered over the course of the night was retained and cataloged. The archive is the work's record and its residue: a night of a room's unguarded interior, typed in full, timestamped, kept.

to read more in depth check out this article:
https://bardofm.substack.com/p/prayer-terminal?r=55ji4q