Tracing Fire: Spaces of Ritual and Rhythm

Abstract

This research explores the role of ritual in an object-based spatial design practice by engaging with memory, bodily rhythms, lunar cycles, and the utilisation of fire as a traditional method of making. The project sees these systems as vital configurations to guide both the physical making and modes of thinking. Fire becomes the catalyst for transforming material into ceremonial tools essential in performing a two-part ritual: a burning ritual at moonrise and a drawing ritual at sunrise. Both rituals are interdependent, with objects and residues carried from one ceremony to the next, emphasising cycles of material and spiritual transformation. Emerging from observing my mother’s daily rituals of commemorating lost loved ones at a shrine she built herself, this work extends ritual into a designed spatial environment. The project comes together in a series of material artefacts and spatial interventions that hold the residues of these cyclical processes and reflect on the relationship between rhythms and transformative making. It frames ritual as a cultural and spiritual practice, but also as a way of working that shapes how material, time, and body relate to one another. From there, the research explores how embodied practice might open alternative approaches to spatial design that attend to spiritual connectedness, bodily rhythms, and material change.