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 The inflatable chapel opened at the University of Southern California in August.
August 31st, 2011
01:33 PM ET
Artist behind inflatable chapel aims to redefine sacred spaceBy Rosalina Nieves, CNN Los Angeles, California (CNN) - At first glance, the blown-up plastic bags affixed to a jungle gym-like frame residing in a University of Southern California courtyard looks like a piece of public art, pure and simple. But the structure's creator says it’s something more: a sacred place for people of all faiths. He calls it an inflatable chapel. “I wanted to create a spiritual structure, so I combined every symbolic piece of religion and geometrically combined them to represent them in this chapel,” says Gail Peter Borden, an architect and assistant professor at the USC School of Architecture who designed the structure.
Borden, an Episcopalian who says he's not very religious, wants to redefine notions of sacred space. He says his love for architecture, art and religion inspired him to create the chapel, which is made of aluminum electrical conduit and translucent vinyl plastic. Though it bears little resemblance to a traditional chapel, Borden says it connects visitors to a higher being, whoever that being may be. “The focal point of this chapel is on the inside,” he says. “You get up in the middle of it, and you look up and see the way the light comes in, the symmetrical shapes that surround the opening. Everyone will have their own experience.” Reverend Jim Burklo, Associate Dean of Religious Life at USC, says he learned about Borden when a local paper ran story profiling an earlier inflatable chapel that he crafted. That chapel resembled an igloo. Burklo thought an inflatable chapel at the university would provoke students’ curiosity. USC commissioned the structure. “I want them to come here and have some experience of the sacred dimension of life,” Burklo says. “It can be just whimsy, like ‘that is weird’ or ‘that is a funny looking thing.’” Many students echoed that sentiment in their initial reactions. “If someone hadn’t told me it was a chapel, I would have never guessed it,” said Daniel Doran, a sophomore at USC. “It’s interesting.” Doran doesn’t affiliate with any religion but said he might return to the chapel again. Still, he was skeptical of experiencing a spiritual connection. Burklo hopes the chapel offers students like Doran have a chance to step out of their usual way of looking at the world, to experience something spiritual, even if they don’t describe it as a religious experience. “This is a visual experience that helps them express that and feel that, that side of themselves,” he says. The chapel will stay in the courtyard of USC’s religious center until December. Borden says he then plans to reconfigure the chapel into a new design and is considering other sites for it. “It’s not meant to be here or anywhere forever,” Burklo said. “That’s also an expression of spirituality, fluid change.”
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CrystalRivers in latter postings are all fakes. Atheists have no creative ideas but only good at mocking and polluting things.
The people in the article should go to church instead of doing such meaningless things.
Your own post shows your jaded idea about atheists.
We atheists will only mock your stupidity and make you see the truth behind your own hatred.
For it is truth that you lot – the relicons – are the haters.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGSvqMBj-ig
,,
Garbage ALERT – junk video, click the report abuse link this person is a TROLL
I'd personally like to see it in the round before I can make any judgements on it. I like the idea of juxtaposing something that is supposed to be reminiscent of stone and marble and glass with such modern materials as steel and plastic. And I like that it challenges us to ask what is sacred and how do we define something that way. I am curious what the view from the inside is like.
I guess I don't see the big deal here. We've had "portable" sacred spaces here in the deep South for decades. Down here we called them "tent revivals". The evangelist would setup his tent (portable chapel), preach and win souls for a few day, collect an offering from the congregation to fund his efforts, then move on to the next small town. This guy is way behind the times, only he's calling it art?
Fascinating. I think the space-creation part of this structure is successful, though I can't say I would label it "sacred." Perhaps that's a definition that belongs to the eye of the beholder, but to me an attribute of sacred would be a space that is enduring, not something that is "not meant to be [there] or anywhere forever."
Also I can't recall a chapel-space that *includes* all religious symbols; universal chapel design usually seeks to be devoid of any. Can this space truly incorporate *every* religious symbol? Which I suppose begs the next question "can any space truly be devoid of all religious symbols?"
Do people/groups actually worship here? That should probably be the measure of success or not...
I really can't say : " Nice try! ", because it is not.
ask the muslims, they know a thing or too about blowing up mosques.
Sorry, it really takes big organs, flashy robes and a bloody dead corpse nailed to two boards to get me in the spiritual mood. There really is nothing else like it. My inner vampire lust can't get enough of that Christ Blood.
Don't forget the living-dead zombie dimension to the faith!
I'm hungry for some Jesus!
RAMEN!
Yeah make them all inside balloons and hopefully they fly away AKA go to heaven.
Replacing the hot air with helium has been suggested in prior posts.
Now along with your idea of sending them en route to heaven -faster-, we'll just strike a match.
Voila – instant display. Not too pretty though.
Looks like a piece of junk to me! That thing is hideous
Secular America's spiritual quest today = greed for more stupid, meaningless sensations.
Go back to the Christian education to be normal again, you self-worshipping, self-serving pervs.
Because I'm the best thing since sliced-bread (which I invented). Jesus and I are pals, and he asks me for advice since I know everything about everything and everyone. Go ahead, ask me anything, and watch your mind be blown like doing crustal meth!
Both Jesus and God talk to me. I am blessed. Sometime a guy named Bob butts in. I usually ignore him. He wants me to cut myself and use an icepick on my left eye. He usually goes away when I bang my head on the wall over and over for a few minutes. Me and my-selves are happy to have such close friends. I am never alone, even when I am alone with my-selves.
Now McJesus, you need to pay closer atention to the voices in your head. Yes, I am Icepick Bob, but I am not a guy. I am a chipmunk in the tree by the outhouse, and since Satan gave me telepathic powers, I have been making people like you get really stabby until you fork over the acorns. Stop holding out!
The Jesus voice is actually Biffy the Aardvark, and he is a mind control wiz kid. He can goof with the brains of millions! I can only do you at the moment. And the God-in-your-head voice? It's Donny the Limping Goldfish. He can work his mojo on people of all the wacky belief systems, and he gets them to wage wars on each other and all sorts of amazing stuff. Pretty cool for a limping goldfish.
“It’s not meant to be here or anywhere forever,” Burklo said. “That’s also an expression of spirituality, fluid change.”
Yes ,fluid change is the halmark of any religion. More like fluid exchange!
There is no evidence that hot air is being used, much like there is no evidence of any god(s). But I do like that they used garbage bags – I think they are saying that that is where all religion belongs.
The work displays the finest nuances of feculence, marked by a delightful blend of flatulence and excrement. Notice the flaccid ambiance of a used condom, clearly symbolic of religion's limp and vanished essence. Savor the placement of the tossed-trojan imagery upon the tangly spider-like legs, as if church-goers are flies in the web of a spider which has sodomized then in a politically-correct safe-sex manner.
Yes, this is a masterpiece! No doubt about it!
I love your work 😀
Great idea should work great with all that hot air!!!!
I was wondering when someone would make this comparison. 🙂
Three most popular American religions today = self-dictation, self-affirmation, self-admiration
Self-dictation?!?!
HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!
I meant self-dictation to be "giving orders or controlling only for self interest."
I mean self-dictation to mean my all powerful flatulence with which I translate and then post here on the Belief Blog. Thanks beany burrito from Korea!
Adelina / Catalina / Madelina / Oopenstyna / Walkendyna / Hoka Loka Poka's next name will be "Madame Mao" (she had a whole bunch of pseudonyms too). Same tune... different lyrics. Dictatorship and tyranny.
self-flagellation.. with lots and lots of KY Jelly.
Pie Iesu domine, Whack!
dona eis requiem. Whack!
I want to pop that bag so bad. If I ever see one of these I will pop it.
Americans are being bored again. Have too much spare time, too much unused land and too much extra money to waste. This type of things blow to pieces in facing any serious issues in life. Americans have no idea on living for a creed seriously since truth does not matter to them anymore. Anything, including religion or spirituality, is made into an amusement in USA. The West has stopped the quest for the truth(unless money involves, but they end up losing money anyway) like the original pagans and everything stops there as well.
Crystal river. I feel so sorry for you ..your life is so jaded based on your understanding of life. You truly are an example of the horrors of religion...no one wants to even look at god if he attracts such followers.
EvolvedDNA
Crystal river. I feel so sorry for you ..your life is so jaded based on your understanding of life. You truly are an example of the horrors of religion...no one wants to even look at god if he attracts such followers.
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She is an example of self imposed ignorance
I make out with ignorance on the weekends, but most of the time CrystalMeth and I party like it's 1880.
This is a great idea. It will be more permanent than most marriages in America.