Introduction

Figure 1 Gobekli Tepe

HOW HAS TECHNOLOGY AFFECTED “THE SHRINE”? ITS HOW HAS TECHNOLOGY AFFECTED “THE SHRINE”? ITS TRANSPORTATION, ITS FORM, AND THE EMOTION IT HAS TRANSPORTATION, ITS FORM, AND THE EMOTION IT HAS CREATED IN THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE? CREATED IN THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE?

Don Norman (2005) defines emotional design as an attempt to produce objects that elicit appropriate emotions, to create a designed experience for the user. There are three levels of emotion design – those being visceral, behavioural, and reflective, as well as many other factors that affect the subject-object relationship. Visceral being related to the response to the appearance of an object, behavioural being about the objects’ function, performance, and usability, and the reflective stage involves “thought and emotion” (Norman, 2005). Other factors proven to affect this relationship have been age, gender, and most importantly the previous experience of a person; allowing emotions and memories to be projected onto an item and an emotional connection to form. These comfort objects are not always tangible, as they have also taken on the form of spaces.

Gobekli Tepe, by AlaTurkaTurkey, n.d., (https://www. alaturkaturkey.com/istanbul-to-nemrut-and-gobekli-tepe-tour2-day-tour.html)

Figure 2 Christian Shrine Figure 3 Representation of obsession to social media

Christian Shrine, by Krassakov, 2015, (https://krasskova.wordpress. com/2015/07/31/shrine-pics/)

Representation of obsession to social media, by Milan Loiacono, 2019, (https:// pepperdine-graphic.com/worshipping-

While there are a considerable number of objects that promote an emotional response, the significance of shrines in doing so vastly outshine the others due to their ability to inspire memory ongoing worship, as well as providing comfort and promoting a sense of remembrance after death. A shrine is defined by Oxford “as a place regarded as holy because of its associations with a divinity of a sacred person or relic, marked by a building or other construction” (n.d.). Just as communities and cultural practices have evolved, so has the concept of shrines and religious or ancestral worship. From classical Greece, the establishment of ancestral and hero worship allowed communities to promote a sense of acknowledgement and inspired a sense of immortality through the worship of the relics and significant items (Roberts, 2007). As society has evolved, there has been a greater shift towards technology and the world’s reliance upon it, with it affecting the lives of the majority of the population on a day to day basis. Owning a phone has become the new norm and the idea that “if you don’t post it, it didn’t happen” has swept the globe. This subconscious desire to stay connected has led to phones, what gives them power and social media to become the modernday shrine. Despite the fact that technology revolutionarily changed the way humans live and interact, an important question still remains; has the 21st century obsession with technology and need to stay connected reinvented the concept of shrines, or has it destroyed the space of worship and the emotional connection attached to that?