From Making to Lighting a Candle: On Functions, Meanings, and Bodies in Ritual Design
Mădălina Diaconu · 2023
After a short introduction into the emergent field of ritual design and into current debates in Ritual Studies, an analysis of the ritual body is undertaken, wherein affinities with somaesthetics are detected. Rituals embody meanings through practices of encultured bodies that are expected to be performed attentively. As enactments they presume a non-intellectual knowledge that has to be trained and its reiteration “designs”, in the long run, the living body. At some point, if ritual design were to be integrated into design theory, it should clarify its relation to functionalist and semantic theories of design. In particular, further clarification is necessary with regard to the triangular relation between ritual design, design theory and somaesthetics. The underlying values and worldviews of these related disciplines need to be uncovered so as to illuminate wherein divergences lie – whether these result from their image of the human, their understanding of freedom and the prevalence of tradition versus innovation. In addition to these theoretical challenges, the practice itself of crafting rituals is divided between analytical and intuitive approaches.