Religion can be said to be one of the first users of symbolic objects. Dating back to the time of early civilization and possibly even earlier, society has been using objects to represent a God, gods, deities, etc. This became the personal pursuit and interest for me during the semester. I find it fascinating that a method of torture and execution used by the Romans has become the symbol of Christianity or that a certain mineral such as jade can symbolize Buddhism and other Chinese religions. I believe that above all other objects, religious relics carry a history along with a relationship between object and person. In this way the person is connected through time to an event or religious lineage. Religion is strengthening by the symbolic object. It is what helps ground the virtual religion and manifest it physically. Almost every major religion has some sort of object or objects that serve to help people make a connection to their faith. The object becomes faith in material form and functions as a threshold. The common thread that runs through all religions is the need for a threshold. Whether the threshold is physical or virtual it is an essential link that allows man to move from the public to the divine.

"The threshold that separates the two spaces also indicates the distance between two modes of being, the profane and the religious. The threshold is the limit, the boundary, the frontier that distinguishes and opposes two worlds—and at the same time where those worlds communicate, where passage from the profane to the sacred world becomes possible."

— Mircea Eliade

Selected Community

The project addressed a number of specific groups and a general, more random group. The selected communities that were invited were the various religious clubs/organizations at MIT. The more general group is the random individual who may pass through the area where the project was installed.





Purpose

Sample arrangement: Bahai faith

The purpose of this project was to use symbolic objects (in this case, shapes) as a way of organizing spatial relationships between the communal, the threshold, and the divine with respect to different religions. The project created these relationships by using rules that related to the physical procession, virtual experience, or religious mindset or each different religion. The rules that applied to each religion were guides by which the user could begin assembling their own interactions with each shape. The hope was that the shapes would help the user physically create and materialize the relationship between the communal (public), threshold, and the divine with respect to their personal belief in the same way that religious relics function as reminders or symbols of a specific faith.

The uniqueness of this project was rooted in the idea that each faith would use the same three symbols for the communal, threshold, and the divine but differentiate itself from other faiths through spatial organization. The project created the ability to have common objects that produced different relationships through variance in order.

The benefit of the project is that people can make physical comparisons and associations between religions. They were able to compare apples to apples instead of apples to oranges. What I mean is that if you were to compare a gold cross to a jade Buddha you would gain nothing from this comparison and only focus on the differences. On the other hand this project started off with a commonality and enabled the user to create the differences. The commonalties and the differences were evident but also didn't give hierarchy of one object over the other.

This project was not a criticism on different religions but merely one-way of looking relationships within them.


Scope of the Project

	Distribution box

The project consisted of mass producing three different shapes and distributing them to the public. The three different shapes were a square, circle and triangle. The different symbols were not intended to have connotation to a specific religion but function as physical placeholders for the communal, the threshold, and the divine. Each piece either had a hole or a key-like cut out. This was so that they could link together and create the needed physical connection. The circle could connect to both the square and the triangle acting as the threshold between these two shapes. The square and the triangle could not link, thus representing the separation between the communal (public) and the divine. Over 400 acrylic pieces were cut on the laser cutter.

The project also required a distribution device. The design was a simple box with three slots that separated the different pieces and dispensed them from a hole in the bottom of the box (similar to that of bird feeder or slot machine). The user was instructed how to use the shapes through the use of a matrix that displayed how to attach the objects according to different religions.

The project was installed in a public location near a threshold. In this case the threshold is between two different gathering spaces. The dispenser is placed strategically within the threshold to acting as a pause before passing through to the other space.


Project Analysis

Successes

Passerby assembling pieces

It was witnessed that people in fact interacted quite well with the project. I was able to talk to a few people who passed by the project to ask them questions. Most people commented that this way of comparing religions was new to them but interesting. People were observed assembling the pieces and displaying them to each other. What was not expected was that some people after assembling the objects left the objects in the public space and did not take them. When I came by the installation at odd hours to refill the dispenser it was revealed that these objects were sometimes left on tables, windowsills, and even resting on the dispenser itself. I don't know if I consider this a failure but could interpret this as being a lack of connection to an interfaith almost-not-religious object. The irony lies in the fact that although the thought in assembling the objects was personal the objects themselves may not have instilled the same attachment as other religious icons. Walking around the studios near the exhibit I was able to find a few objects constructed and displayed on the desks of a few students. Is it fair to say that these people had more of a connection to the object than other people, I don't know? What could be inferred is that maybe these objects as toys or games is what influenced these people to take the objects with them.


Assembled pieces left by an anoymous participant


Failures

Unfortunately the main failure of the project was the lack of personal feedback in written form via email as directed by the project. Most of the analysis of the functionality of the project came from my interaction or observation of people with the objects. Another surprise was that people did not take as many of the objects as was thought. Even the objects that were found within the vicinity were relatively small in size and did not go further than a few iterations of the rules. This may be the result of the sign which was placed on the dispenser which asked people not to take more than was needed. This may have been a hindrance.

Given the knowledge that I have now about this project I would do things differently if I had to install this in a museum. What I would do is that on opening day people would be allowed to enter the gallery and gather the shapes to create their individual relationships. I would not allow them to take the objects with them and instead have a place where people could hang or place their objects on display. The exhibit would then be about the assembled part not the individual piece. I think that by leaving the objects people may form more of an attachment to the object because of the direction to leave it behind. Within the exhibit I imagine a series of images that depict actual religious relics as a backdrop for the gallery. They would serve to stir emotion and further a connection to an individual's faith. Of course there would be a blank part of the wall for the atheist.