Abstract - Prayer Flag

The aim of this project is to give a concept about how sacral objects could be experienced in our digital age. Based on this question I used a tibetan prayer flag which is basically a device used in the tibetan buddhism to generate karma:
“Tibetans believe the prayers and mantras will be blown by the wind to spread the good will and compassion into all pervading space. (…) As wind passes over the surface of the flags which are sensitive to the slightest movement of the wind, the air is purified and sanctified by the mantras”
Humans are blessed by the karma when receiving the air which passed over the flag’s surface.

Test
Besides this very poetic point of view I tried to translate the concept of the flag in a very simple way:
Data (”prayers and mantras”) is transmitted upon a trigger (”…will be blown by the wind”) via bluetooth (”air”) to a user’s mobile phone.
For the electronic componets I used Lilypad boards as very smart and easy to use rapid prototyping tools. You are able to create a functional prototype within a couple minutes!
…of course without sewing ;-)