BUTSUDAN is a buddhist home altar that combines daily religious practice with social-ecologic action. For that reason the altar is connected to the online donation platform betterplace.org via WIFI.
In the spirit of buddhist traditions daily prayers and meditations are held in front of BUTSUDAN. Five copper donation bowls are playing a central role in this process: each one represents a 50 Cent donation into a certain theme portal on betterplace.org.
To start a session with BUTSUDAN, the practitioner has to choose which topics – hence which bowls – he/she wants to include into his/her meditation. To include bowls into the session they have to be placed on any of the engraved markings on the altar. Using RFID technology BUTSUDAN recognizes which bowls have been placed on the engravings.
To close the session the Buddha Tree on top of the altar has to be touched for 5 seconds. The tree is subtly vibrating until a chime from within the altar tells the practicioner that the session has been closed and the donations executed.
BUTSUDAN is the result of my Master’s project at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle.
BUTSUDAN project documentation (only german)
