Mani Korlo moulin à prière électronique

2018

Mani Korlo Prayer Wheel

Ah, the question of religion, always delicate, but so rich. What concerns me is less the divinity itself than the mechanisms that underlie these belief systems. I therefore set about designing a scientific model inspired by strange Lorenz attractors. Incorporating algorithms for answering prayers, I am not just reproducing an ancestral mechanism: I am transcending it.

I draw on the tradition of Mani Korlo, these mechanical prayer wheels, to propel them into the digital age. Each digital Mani Korlo carries a prayer but also acts as an input variable in the algorithm of my prayer machine. The goal? Accelerate and optimize the process of answering prayer.

Thus, I mix spirituality with algorithmic rigor, provoking a resonance between apparently divergent worlds. In doing so, I invite us all to question our relationship to the systems that govern our lives, whether spiritual, scientific or technological. Are we really understanding what’s going on, or are we just following the movements of a machine bigger than us?

In a bold reinvention of his own prayer system, artist Neo Valen replaces human religious professionals with artificial intelligence. This AI, designed to recite prayers at an extremely high frequency, aims to increase the chances of prayers being answered, thereby transforming an age-old spiritual practice into a high-yield activity.
Valen‘s new system introduces another innovative element: a light system to transmit prayers. Instead of a human or digital messenger reciting the prayers, a lum system is used to communicate the prayers to what Valen calls the “religious operator.” This thoughtful evolution of his original work reinforces the notion of the digitalization of faith, while highlighting new ways in which technology can alter and shape our spiritual rituals.
By creating this system, Valen does not fail to question the authenticity and value of prayer in a highly automated context. It raises ethical and philosophical questions about the meaning of prayer, the interaction between faith and technology, and how we perceive the sacred in the digital age.
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