Designable Religion
A Framework for Designing Religions and for Using Religions to Design
What can be learned about the “meaning edification process” used by religious practices for centuries?
Are there formulas hidden in plain sight that could have applications for art and design?
Designable Religion is a Critical History Studies dissertation written in the context of my MA / MSc. The essay explores the different types of theories and mechanisms that attempt to explain religion and uses them as frameworks for developing technologies capable of offering personalised meaning. Ultimately, it attempts to set a starting point for a design-engineered meaning-making process .
This experimental prototype was part of my 8-year research journey that led to Workshop Workshop.
The Question That Started Everything
What can we learn from how religions create meaning? For thousands of years, religious practices have helped people connect with purpose, find community, and navigate life's biggest questions. What if we could understand those mechanisms and apply them outside traditional religious contexts?
Why This Mattered
I was fascinated by how religious objects—amulets, relics, sacred spaces—could have such powerful emotional effects on people. There seemed to be design principles hidden in plain sight, developed over centuries but rarely analysed from a design perspective.
At the same time, I noticed something striking: unlike every other major human construct (money, manufacturing, transportation) religion had remained virtually unchanged by algorithms, artificial intelligence, and digital technology. This felt like an enormous missed opportunity.
The Research Focus
My thesis had four main objectives: understanding how religion had already evolved into a kind of design discipline, exploring the possibility of "religions of one" versus collective religious experiences, translating religious principles into general design mechanisms, and imagining how digital technologies might transform religious practice.
I was particularly interested in how companies were already using people's quest for meaning as a business driver: from personalised products to recommendation algorithms. But these felt superficial compared to the deep meaning-making mechanisms I observed in religious contexts.
The Methodology
I analysed dozens of theories about how religion works, looking for patterns similar to how Star Wars used Campbell's "monomyth" as a design framework. The idea was that by studying various explanations of religious phenomena, I might discover overlooked design mechanisms that could be applied more broadly.
What I Discovered
The research revealed sophisticated systems for creating personal significance that went far beyond surface-level customisation. But it also showed me I was thinking about this backwards: trying to design meaning "for" people.
The Long Journey
This thesis launched years of experiments: building machines to create meaningful objects, designing immersive experiences, developing workshop formats. Each taught me something new about how meaning-making actually works
Want to read the full thesis? [Download PDF],
But I'd recommend starting with [the current experiment →] instead.