ABOUT THE PROJECT

President & Founder at Brainspire, Wardynski has argued that technological innovations are now necessary for societies to evolve. Posing the question as to whether memorialisation also needs to utilize technology to keep up with societal changes.

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Aims of the study: 

- gain insight into people's thoughts and feelings regarding how loved ones are remembered.

- explore the emerging technologies available to memorialise the dead.

- consider the possibilities for the future of memorialisation.

- discover how these developments may affect societies views on death and grief.

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Method:

The project will consist of 8 participants. As this is a pilot project, participants will be limited to people with a prior relationship with me (the investigator).

Due to the current COVID-19 situation, this project will take place online.

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The project will have two stages-

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Phase 1:

This phase will focus on the traditional methods of memorialisation. Each participant will be shown and introduced to these methods of memorialisation. They will then take part in a semi-structured interview to discuss their thoughts, feelings and opinions.

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Phase 2:

This phase will focus on the emerging technology which is being introduced as forms of memorialisation. The participant will again be introduced and shown these methods along with autoethnographic examples from the investigator. The participants will then take part in a second semi-structured interview to find out their final thoughts and gain insight into society's views on the new technologies.

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Collaborators:

• Mark Roughley, Prof Caroline Wilkinson & Dr Jessica Liu - FaceLab.

• FabLab Liverpool - Digital Fabrication Laboratory

• Prof Partha Vaiude - Managing Director of Surgical Art ​

• Dr Kathryn Smith