मण्डल
Mandala is the phonetic pronunciation of the Sanskrit word for circle. We'll begin here because it provides a unifying conceptual foundation for a number of themes. As a circle, it lends form to an electric circuit. As an image, it can be translated from a bitmap to vector to 3D model. As an art form it encourages patience, precision with materials, respect for tradition, and an understanding of color.
The painting below is a mandala thangka painting from Bhaktapur, Nepal. The mandala begins with a theme color, outside the outer ring. You begin looking at the image here, slowly spiraling inwards. There’s a halo, the theme color’s complement, a mantra and a wheel, the sea, a garden with four gates, then a temple with a lotus at the top. The gates are each assigned a color and a cardinal direction: Yellow North, Blue East, Black South, Red West. You select one gate for each trip through the painting. By the time you reach the lotus at the center, your mind should be clear.
When painting a mandala, the brush never touches the canvas— only the paint does. The paint is applied in the resting part of the breath cycle (between inhales and exhales), to encourage stillness. The paint is not built in layers; if you hold a mandala up to a window, the image shines clearly. The whole painting is done with a single brush, crafted for a perfect tip. It takes years of training to even begin a painting like this. But we can borrow from its technique and concept.
The objective of this project is to build a box that will house a microcontroller circuit. The body of the box is made of wood, with a 3D printed panel for the lid. Since the Bhaktapur mandala is a bird's-eye-view of a temple, it's a good form to extend into 3D. We'll build a circuit into the mandala's circle, with an LED as the lotus.
Mandala is the phonetic pronunciation of the Sanskrit word for circle. We'll begin here because it provides a unifying conceptual foundation for a number of themes. As a circle, it lends form to an electric circuit. As an image, it can be translated from a bitmap to vector to 3D model. As an art form it encourages patience, precision with materials, respect for tradition, and an understanding of color.
The painting below is a mandala thangka painting from Bhaktapur, Nepal. The mandala begins with a theme color, outside the outer ring. You begin looking at the image here, slowly spiraling inwards. There’s a halo, the theme color’s complement, a mantra and a wheel, the sea, a garden with four gates, then a temple with a lotus at the top. The gates are each assigned a color and a cardinal direction: Yellow North, Blue East, Black South, Red West. You select one gate for each trip through the painting. By the time you reach the lotus at the center, your mind should be clear.
When painting a mandala, the brush never touches the canvas— only the paint does. The paint is applied in the resting part of the breath cycle (between inhales and exhales), to encourage stillness. The paint is not built in layers; if you hold a mandala up to a window, the image shines clearly. The whole painting is done with a single brush, crafted for a perfect tip. It takes years of training to even begin a painting like this. But we can borrow from its technique and concept.
The objective of this project is to build a box that will house a microcontroller circuit. The body of the box is made of wood, with a 3D printed panel for the lid. Since the Bhaktapur mandala is a bird's-eye-view of a temple, it's a good form to extend into 3D. We'll build a circuit into the mandala's circle, with an LED as the lotus.
