The Prayary

The Prayary was designed to embed the value and beauty of the connection with Allah, Salat, prayer, and in order to sustain this connection even after a person is done praying.

 

Experiment Objective: Create a mechanical contemporary praying mat that adds an additional incentive to the Islamic prayer in an analogue manner, making the process engaging both physically and mentally. The audiences targeted are children who seek a different more engaging approach to practice Islam, and adults who need a reminder to continue remembering Allah through their prayers.

 

Construction methodology: Experimenting with building the frame in the woodshop, printing the mechanism via the 3D printer, UV printing the Quranic verses or poetry, laser cutting the shape of the rosary bead’s material.

 

Method of Use: Prayary, the mechanical praying mat, starts by the bowing down position Sujood' is the total surrender to god 'Allah', when our forehead touches the praying mat, it triggers the mechanism to pull on the cartridges with the right amount of tension. This draws the canvas through a glue box and around an iron rod, forming solid beads which are turned into a custom-made rosary of quotes from the Quran, Hadith or your own choice of words and made of your own efforts while praying. The beads formed from the physical act of praying, portray the capturing of time and accuracy of your prayers and being able to, from physical praying to now continuously pray tangibly through your rosary. This interactivity is a tangible record of one's devotion.

 

MFA Thesis collection: a collaboration between courses DESI 621 Design Studio, taught by Prof. Paolo Cardini, and DESI 512 Visual Communication, taught by Prof. Simone Muscolino.

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Year: 2015

Medium: Wood, 3D printed ABS Plastic, Tracing paper,

Canvas fabric and Metal rods

Dimensions: 174x93x30cm