Designing Tangible Interactive Artifacts for Religious and Spiritual Purposes

From candles to prayer beads to icons and more, tangible artifacts have long played a central role in religious and spiritual life. However, despite growing interest in HCI on design within religious and spiritual contexts, the intentional design of tangible interactive artifacts for religious or spiritual purposes is still relatively uncommon. This workshop aims at advancing our understanding of tangible interactive artifact design in religious and spiritual contexts and how religious and spiritual purposes may offer alternative approaches to design. We invite those interested from all professional and religious/spiritual backgrounds to imagine and design tangible interactive artifacts for religious or spiritual purposes such as beliefs, practices, or rituals. The workshop will include the demonstration of (imagined) artifacts, reflection on designing for religious/spiritual purposes, and hands-on design sessions.

Conference paper