The Existential Terrains of Digital Culture: Death, Memory and Media
Tim Hutchings, Stockholm University
"In digitally-connected societies, we die, grieve and remember in new ways. The dying tell their stories through blogs, the bereaved share their memories through online memorials, and conversations between the living and the dead continue through social media. Boundaries between public and private communication are blurred, and standards of conduct must be renegotiated.
This talk will explore the diverse new landscape of digital death, from QR codes in graveyards and online pet cemeteries to virtual funerals and social media networks of grief. We will consider who grieves online, why, and what might be different about these new forms of memory and memorial. We will also explore the practice of talking to the dead online, in search of insights into ritual, belief and religion.
The Existential Terrains project team (et.ims.su.se, Stockholm University) considers case studies of death and mourning in conversation with philosophies of technology, and I will use these examples to introduce the preliminary framework of our existential approach to media studies. By studying what happens before and after death, researchers can gain new insights into the structures, values and practices of digital culture.
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