Ritual – a mindfulness experience

The Ritual project is a Product Design project made during Summer Semester 2023 under the supervision of professors Sebastian Camerer, Francesco Sommacal and Sónia Cabral Matos.

This project aims to make users reconnect with the present moment. After a long research about mindfulness, flow and other “methods” studied by humans to give the focus on present activities, I could relate the researches to photography and ally the activities to the theory. The photography method chosen is light exposure to sensitive paper though a pinhole camera, that is based on the principles of a camera obscura, a low-tech method of photography. The user can reconnect themself to the moment through the choice of the object to be photographed, the placement of the tent, counting the time of exposure, being sure the tent is closed, using the right chemicals and doing the process of developing. All of these steps need full attention and focus of the user.

The tent is structured in a way that can be fully closed to create a dark room, the opening is on the left side with two curtains that close crossed. There is a space in front of the tent to give the user the choice of making photos from the floor or from the tent, accommodating the pinhole camera in the lightproof bag created for it. It is needed though to acquire light-sensitive photographic paper and the chemicals needed to develop the images. Sustainable alternatives to the standard developer and fixer that could be put inside the tent with no risk to health were tested, such as caffeinol, and satisfactory results were obtained.