An Altar for New Rituals

An Altar for New Rituals is a multi-media, spiritual object designed to facilitate engagement with three key emotional states: grief, desire, and joy. 

In an effort to create tangible spaces for personal reflection and contemplation An Altar for New Rituals was born. It is a 39” x 46” structure made of sanded plywood that allows the user to engage in three emotional environments– joy, grief, or desire– created through audio/visual media. Each environment is triggered by placing one of three RFID-tagged crystals on an offering plate. Participants are invited to sit and bathe in the emotional environment of their choice. An Altar for New Rituals can be experienced individually or be the centerpiece for a group practice. The altar was also revamped for use in a live performance where I led an audience through these three emotional environments and presented their intertwined relationship. As part of that performance, I also distributed unpainted crystals to the audience and invited them to paint their own emotions and submit an image. The hope is to get audience members to continue to reflect on their own emotionality and generate a virtual crystal grove to visualize this shared experience.

Google Form people were invited to use to submit images of their painted crystals.

This altar is part of a larger exploration around developing significant rituals in order to reclaim a sense of cultural identity and create spiritual or heritage-based experiences for members of my community.

See the first iteration of the altar at this link: https://www.mxyxdmedia.com/itp/responsive-altar