Abstract
This chapter explores the emergent digital dimension of contemporary Western mourning, by utilising a historical framework and a postmodern, post-disciplinary and practice theory lens, in order to critically discuss how the ruptures of loss and the presence of the dead are radically manifesting in the digital age. We begin with a contextual overview of the historical landscape of mourning, its perceived decline and the twentieth century gaze toward private grief, before proceeding to introduce the paradigm of continuing bonds and the social presence of the dead.
From this contextualisation, the chapter then introduces twenty-first century digital mourning through a discussion of the emergent practices which curate and create the spectral presence of the dead online. We argue that mourning has not collapsed, but is radically manifest in ways currently unaccounted for and invisible within the dominant filter of memorialisation. Finally, we introduce a range of potential implications and challenges that will be faced by HCI researchers and designers of systems supporting the ‘End of Life’, by highlighting the emerging socio-cultural complexity in need of consideration when designing technologies for bereavement support.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Anker, J. (2012). ‘Shooting victim tweeted moments before death’, HLNtv, 20 June. Available: http://www.hlntv.com/article/2012/07/20/jessica-redfield-colorado-massacre-victim
Archer, J. (2008). Theories of grief: Past, present and future perspectives. In M. Stroebe, H. Schut, & W. Stroebe (Eds.), Handbook of bereavement research and practice: Advances in theory and intervention (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Aries, P. (1981). The hour of our death. New York: Oxford University Press.
Benoliel, J. Q. (1994). Death and dying as a field of inquiry. In I. B. Corless, B. B. Germino, & M. Pitman (Eds.), Death, dying, bereavement. Boston: Jones and Bartlett.
Bowlby, J. (1961). Process of mourning. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 42, 317–340.
Bowlby, J. (1979). The making and breaking of affectional bonds (3rd ed.). London: Routledge.
Brubaker, J. R., Hayes, G. R., & Dourish, P. (2012) Beyond the Grave: Facebook as a site for the expansion of death and mourning. The Information Society. Available: http://www.gillianhayes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/J18Death-InfoSoc-ToEditor.pdf. 16 Nov 2012.
Carvalho Pereira, V., & Maciel, C. (2012). ‘The Influence of beliefs and death taboos in modelling the fate of digital legacy under the software developers’ view. In CHI12: Workshop paper, Austin, May 2012.
Clarke, A. (2005). Situational analysis: Grounded theory after the postmodern turn. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Crabtree, A., Rouncefield, M., & Tolmie, P. (2012). Doing design ethnography. eBook: Springer.
Davis, D. J. (2002). Death, ritual and belief (2nd ed.). London/New York: Continuum.
DeGroot, J. M. (2012). Maintaining relational continuity with the deceased on Facebook. OMEGA-Journal of Death and Dying, 65(3), 195–212.
Ellis, S. (2012) ‘An interdisciplinary lens: Design challenges in bereavement support’, Memento Mori, workshop: technology design at the end of life, A workshop held in association with ACM SIGCHI 2012, Austin, May.
Ellis Gray, S. (2012). ‘The diversity of mourning practices online’, Digital Futures 2012, Aberdeen.
Ellis-Gray, S. (2013, April 1). Dead smart: Posting from beyond the grave. Experimentation. Available: http://www.experimentation-online.co.uk/article.php?id=1702 [07 May 2013].
Garde-Hansen, J., Hoskins, A., & Reading, A. (2009). Introduction. In J. Garde-Hansen, A. Hoskins, & A. Reading (Eds.), Save as: Digital memories. Basingstoke/New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gibson, M. (2008). Objects of the dead. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
Gittings, C., & Walter, T. (2010). What will the neighbours say? Reactions to field and garden burial. In J. Hockey, C. Komaromy, & K. Woodthorpe (Eds.), The matter of death: Space, place and materiality. Hampshire/New York: Palgrave Macmillian.
Gorer, G. (1955). The pornography of death. Encounter, October, 49–52.
Gorer, G. (1965). Death, grief and mourning in contemporary Britain. London: Cresset.
Hallam, E., & Hockey, J. (2001). Death, memory and material culture. Oxford: Berg.
Hallam, E., Hockey, J., & Howarth, G. (1999). Beyond the body: Death and social identity. London: Routledge.
Hockey, J. (2001). Changing death rituals. In J. Hockey, J. Katz, & N. Small (Eds.), Grief, mourning and death rituals. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Hockey, J., & Small, N. (2001). Discourse into practice: The production of bereavement care. In J. Katz, J. Hockey, & N. Small (Eds.), Grief, mourning and death ritual. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Howarth, G. (2000). Dismantling the boundaries between life and death. Mortality: Promoting the Interdisciplinary Study of Death and Dying, 5(2), 127–138.
Katz, J. (2001). Introduction. In J. K. J. S. N. Hockey (Ed.), Grief, mourning and death rituals. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Klass, D., Silverman, P. R., & Nickan, S. L. (1996). Continuing bonds: New understandings of grief. Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis.
Kubler-Ross, E. (1969). On death and dying. New York: Macmillan Press.
Le Goff, J. (1992). History and memory. New York: Columbia University Press.
Lofland, L. H. (1985). The social shaping of emotion: The case of grief. Symbolic Interaction, 8(2), 171–190.
Luciano, D. (2007). Arranging grief: Sacred time and the body in nineteenth-century America. New York: New York University Press.
Lunghi, M. (2006). Ontology and magic: A conceptual exploration of denial following bereavement. Mortality, 11(1), 32–44.
Maddrell, A., & Sidaway, J. D. (2010). Deathscapes: Spaces for death, dying, mourning and remembrance. Surray: Ashgate.
Massimi, M. (2012). Thanatosensitively designed technologies for bereavement. Ph. D. Thesis, University of Toronto.
Massimi, M., Odom, W., Banks, R., & Kirk, D. (2011). Matters of life and death: Locating the end of life in lifespan-oriented HCI research. In Proceedings of the 2011 annual conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI’ 11), Vancouver.
Rainey, S. (2012). Tragic marathon runner turns Britain into the land of the giving, 25th April, [Online]. Available: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/athletics/london-marathon/9223495/Tragic-marathon-runner-turns-Britain-into-the-land-of-the-giving.html. 20 Dec 2012.
Rittel, H., & Weber, M. (1973). Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Sciences, 4, 155–169.
Schatzki, T. R. (1996). Social practices – A Wittgensteinian approach to human activity and the social. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Schön, D. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner: Toward a new design for teaching and learning in the professions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Seremetakis, C. N. (1994). The senses still: Perception and memory as material culture in modernity. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Small, N. (2001). Theories of grief: A critical review. In J. Hockey, J. Katz, & N. Small (Eds.), Grief, mourning and death rituals. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Sofka, C. J. (1997). Social support “internetworks”, caskets for sale, and more: Thanatology. Death Studies, 21(6), 553–574.
Stanley, L., & Wise, S. (2011). The domestication of death: The sequestration thesis. Sociology, 45, 947–962.
Stolterman, E. (2008). The nature of design practice and implications for interaction design research. International Journal of Design, 2(1), 55–65.
Stroebe, M. (1992). Coping with bereavement: A review of the grief work hypothesis. Omega: The Journal of Death and Dying, 26, 19–42.
Stroebe, M. S. H. O., Schut, H., & Stroebe, W. (2008). Bereavement research: Contemporary perspectives. In M. S. H. O. Stroebe, H. Schut, & W. Stroebe (Eds.), Handbook of bereavement research and practice: Advances in theory and Practice (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American psychological association.
Taylor, A. (2011). ‘Girl’s tragic last Facebook update: Feels like death’. In ALASTAIR TAYLOR, 6 October. Available: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3855138/Feels-like-death-Last-Facebook-message-before-asthma-killed-18-year-old-Siobhan-Ullah.html. 21 Dec 2012.
Van Doorn, N. (2011). Digital spaces, material traces: How matter comes to matter in online performances of gender sexuality and embodiment. Media, Culture and Society, 33(4), 531–547.
Walter, T. (1994). The revival of death. London: Routledge.
Walter, T. (1999). On bereavement: The culture of grief. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Walter, T. (2008). The new public mourning. In M. S. Stroebe, R. O. Hansson, H. Schut, & W. Stroebe (Eds.), Handbook of bereavement research and practice: Advances in theory and intervention. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Walter, T., Hourizi, R., Moncur, W., & Pitsillides, S. (2011). Does the internet change how we die and mourn? Overview and analysis. Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, 64(4), 275–302.
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge helpful comments on an earlier draft by Rachael Lovie.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gray, S.E., Coulton, P. (2013). Living with the Dead: Emergent Post-mortem Digital Curation and Creation Practices. In: Maciel, C., Pereira, V. (eds) Digital Legacy and Interaction. Human–Computer Interaction Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01631-3_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01631-3_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-01630-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-01631-3
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)