In many cultures and religions we light up candles to pray or remember. We ignite these candles at special places, like churches or temples, and they remain as representatives of our prayers. The installation »sacrificium« translates this ritual into the Internet of Things. Now we can ignite from everywhere a candle in a chapel via app.

Usually a moment of silence and contemplation is with this ritual connected –  how can we translate this into our connected world?

Especially in the Christian Church these prayer candles are burnt as votive offerings, since in the past beeswax was a precious material. If we go to church these days we donate money into a box close to the candle stand for our prayer intentions. Using »sacrificium« your votive offering is your time off. For two hours you can use your smartphone only for watching the app with the live stream of the burning candles. Otherwise – if you start to make a phone call for instance – your candle will be extinguished.

Today studies show how strongly we are attached to our smartphones. Time off – time without checking mails, news and messages is the new moment of silence and contemplation.

The tyranny of the smartphone has been revealed with evidence people are tapping at the screen every four minutes during their waking hours.
dailymail UK, February 2016

For controlling the wax candles remotely a »smart candle stand« was designed and built. Cheap tea candles were customized with a NiChrome wire to ignite the candles. Thereby the bottom and the sides of the candle pods were used as electrodes to actuate the heating wire. A construction of solenoids and magnets enables to extinguish the burning candle by pulling down the wick.

Overall 45 candles can be controlled in this installation. The electronic parts, three modules, are hidden in the candle stand. Only the ends of the solenoids and the power supply indicate that the candle stand is electronically controlled .