Introduction
The Infographic is called 'Efficiency of Spirituality', which is exactly what it is, rating and judging the effectiveness of spiritual practices. However, EIP is called 'Spoken Through Vases' which relates to the fact that the data are being represented through the vases. To make things more interesting, I decided to call the website 'the Wheel of Happiness' since I've used the Mandala quite often and it's often referred to as 'The Wheel of Life'. Since the project is about happiness, I've twisted that name and obtained the website's name.
This project is based on primarily, what is the most important thing in life. Spirituality, or meditation, being a mean for one to control oneself deemed an interesting aspect of life to explore, especially in the hectic world of today. Using some research and design, an attempt was made to get a concrete answer on whether spirituality can really make one’s life better and whether there’s any spiritual practice that the mass audience can practice. If it proved to be wrong a better solution was to be found.
Through means of primary and secondary research, it had to observe the effectiveness of spirituality. The ease of the practice was also to be rated and judge whether it is accessible or not. For this reason, the opinion of a quite wide audience was indeed needed. Furthermore, a professional or experienced person’s views was another beneficial data for this exploration. Upon dissecting the primary data an infographic was to be made in the hope of making more conclusions.
After which an EIP was to be designed to represent the same data, maybe filtered for the most important aspect of it. The EIP would need more explorations since the design and the materials had to be related back to the main topic. Various Spiritual Items was to be explored from various culture across the world to find the appropriate visual elements that fits together. The EIP was to be made slightly different from the infographic and therefore methods to make it an interactive design was also explored.
The result of the research was quite revealing while the methods explored for the designs were very interesting. The content of the whole project might be sensitive to a few but the intension was just to explore the topic with an open mind.
Abstract
The idea came to me as a question whether I was doing the right thing in life. Thereby the question of what the focus of life should be. If I took myself out of the equation and look at it in the general form it can actually be anything from success, love, studies to enjoyment and many more. However, if I include my views, I’d focus on science, spirituality and philosophies since I believe that you should be able to be in control of your body and mind. So, in the end I’ve focused myself more on the spiritual part since it can be found in religion and even an atheist who seeks to get away from a hectic lifestyle might be open to the subject of spirituality or meditation. Therefore, the context finally turned to the question whether spirituality really matters in life?
Thinking about it we see a few values that are being taught to us within it but on the other hand I won’t neglect the skeptics, for they have their views too and all of the discussions remain but opinions of different group of people, so I am indeed intrigued on what the result of this project would be. I wanted to find an answer to my question, whether or not we should accord spirituality some importance. I’m still being open to other suggestion if after conducting my research, if it proves me wrong and I’m hoping to at least find a proper focus in life. On the other hand, if it prove to be a proper practice to adopt in our lives I’m hoping to find a much better understanding behind the methodologies and perhaps the steps that will lead us to this state where we are in control of ourselves.
Wider Context
Specific Context
The idea began as a question about what’s the right thing to make of one’s life. Thereby the question, what the focus in life should be? There are various ways one can find satisfaction through love, success, money and there are ways to find it according to (Meadows, 2017). Further research from (McBride, 2010) and (Hanson, Jones & Mendius, 2010) we can see that these goals do work indeed but they can also have a downside depending on the person and situation. Therefore, leaving us without a concrete answer. However as stated by (Augustine Meier, 2005) spirituality has some advantages when it comes to mental and physical health, consequently leading us to the question, could spirituality be the right direction to focus on in a person’s life? The same article state how spirituality teaches us values, love, peace among a few others, by this means giving it even more importance. Considering our now hectic lifestyle, such teachings seem to be rather promising to get over stress. However, we still have many who talks about the absurdity of spirituality according to ("Spirituality and Intelligence: Problems and Prospects", 2020) whereby he received many negative reviews on spirituality. The objective would be therefore to explore various spiritual practices from different faiths, including skeptics. The goal is to go beyond the theories and find whether it could actually be an appropriate focus in a person’s life and try to reveal the best methodologies. The easiest method which will lead us towards a healthier life is also to be found, in the hope that it helps in controlling one’s body and mind. It is however required to stay open to the other possibilities that could actually be beneficial if the main target is proven to be a failure.
It’s a series of different models of vases, each having different colors on it. The vases are made out of synthetic clay, shape by hands, smoothen and painted with Acrylic Paint. Some models of the vases look very common, others look modern looking and even Indian looking. They are all however made by hands thereby having some irregular areas in their curvatures. Each design represents a spiritual practice (Kundalini, Meditation, Praying) and there’s even a vase for non-spiritual practitioners.
The Work
The colors represent a religion (Hindu, Buddhism, Islam, Christian) including Atheists. The width of the colors represent how satisfied are the people from the displayed religion within a particular practice compared to the others from other practices. The vase that represents the ‘nonbelievers in spiritual practices’ is present to collect more data. However, it has no color painted on it since there’s no data for this category yet. The piece is accompanied with a series of Totems, of different animals which are also color coded. There’s a design of a sheep, wolf, cat, horse, dog and a dolphin, each color coded as blue, pink, red, violet, light brown and finally yellow. Each Totem has a rating from 1 to 6 respectively, and they can be plotted in the vase as an interactive piece which will also serve as a way of collecting more data.
The Totems are made out of light colored plywood, similar to the color of pine. The design of the Totems was made on Illustrator using both precise shapes and irregular brush strokes to give it a more hand crafted look. Afterwards, the design was forwarded to a laser cutting machine where it was engraved and cut from the wood board. This process gave it some burnt areas which helps relating it more to a real Totem. An area was left above each Totem especially to paint and color code them, again with acrylic paint.
A vase was chosen since it was known as being an incense burner and holder in the past and even now. There’s a discovery that speaks of an old thick-walled rough finished vase which was most probably used as an incense burner or censer (De Borhegyi, 1955). Therefore, it was decided that the vases will be made out of synthetic clay all by hands, despite it has an irregular shape.
Since the data about the ‘non believers in spiritual practices’ was missing, it was decided that there will be an interactive piece attach to the envisioned piece. The following piece will help to gather the missing data. Historians argues that Totem Poles are complex artifact that deserve to be given more attention because they expresses culture, religion and history (Halpin, 2021). It was decided that instead of a random interactive items, Totems will be used to gather the data. Plotting the Totem within the vase will provide the illusion of the vase being used as an incense holder, however, instead of an incense there will be a Totem within it which is more versatile. Thereby allowing room for exploration and adding a rating mechanism which will assists in collecting more accurate information.
Upon exploring the Native American culture which is based on Animalism (Ratts & Pedersen, 159) it was decided that specific animal will be incorporated within the designs of the Totems. Therefore, further research was made on animalism and how they interpreted each animal and their symbolism. After evaluating their various qualities and characteristic they were rated based on their relation to happiness the decisions was made to have 6 designs for each Totems. The reason behind why a scale up to six was chosen was to eliminate the null within the data. By this mean we will be able to see the potential of each practice better.
The following animals were chosen and each place on the scale of 1 to 6 in ascending order starting from;
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The sheep, which represent weakness, innocence and self-acceptance. Since it is mostly negative it was given the lowest scale on the scale of satisfaction.
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Next is the wolf, which symbolizes loneliness, strength and lack of trust.
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Following it is the cat which symbolizes healing, curiosity and independence. Since healing is the only positive aspect and curiosity and independency can be interpreted differently they were given the 3rd position on the scale of happiness.
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The horse was 4th since they symbolizes passion, pleasure, control and the ability to get out of difficult situations.
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Next there’s the dog which is known to be a symbol of joy, faithfulness and playfulness.
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Finally we have the dolphin which is known to be a symbol of peace and harmony while also being playful and joyful.
(Becker, 2000)
It was decided that the Totem will be made out of laser cutting wood. Owing to the fact that Totems themselves were known to be made out of wood. Furthermore, the burns of the laser cut will provide us with the dark color of the wood which will again make it look more aesthetically similar to a real Totem.