DIGITAL 1984

DEATH
\\QUESTION
RELAY\\ 0100101110
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SAVE ME!
1984
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Im still here!
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Introducing:
1984 1984
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The Participants
RELAYS: 11. Ahmet Sekercioglu 93
1. Stacey Pitsillides 1
relays to Esther Makkay 3
relays to Britta Rensing 9
2. Toni Sant 15
relays to Peregrine Andrews 17
3. Niki Lambropoulos 21
relays to Duncan Fairfax 23
4. Nathan Lustig 29
relays to Anonymous 31
relays to Janis Jefferies 35
5. Roland Van Rijswijk 39
relays to Janis Jefferies 41
6. Michela Magas 45
relays to Judi Clark 47
7. Death Reference Desk 53
relays to Toni Sant 55
relays to Niels De Jong 59
relays to Elaine Kasket 63
8. Elaine Kasket 71
relays to Niki Lambropoulos 73
9. Anonymous 77
relays to Nathan Lustig 79
10. Yolanda Kading 83
relays to Elaine Kasket 85
relays to Death Reference Desk 95
12. Richard Banks 99
relays to Death Reference Desk 101
13. Peregrine Andrews 105
relays to Antonis Tryphonos 107
14. Janis Jefferies 111
relays to Death Reference Desk 113
15. Rob Walker 119
relays to Richard Banks 121
16. Britta Rensing 127
relays to Yolanda Kading 129
17. Esther Makaay 133
relays to Rob Walker 135
18. John Wood 139
relays to Ahmet Sekercioglu 141
19. Niels De Jong 145
relays to Michela Magas 147
20. Duncan Fairfax 153
relays to Stacey Pitsillides 155
21. Judi Clark 159
relays to Roland Van Rijswijk 161
22. Antonis Tryphonos 165
relays to Nathan Lustig 167
WHAT IS DIGITAL DEATH?
Digital Death is defined as the death
of a living being and the way it
affects the digital world or the death
of a digital object and the way it
affects a living being.

SO WHAT IS A
‘QUESTION RELAY?’
Basically, one person (in this case
me) starts the relay by simply asking
a question. This question is then
passed on to the most relevant person,
who answers it. Then this person has
their chance to pose a question. This
question is then passed on and the
cycle continues.

WHAT KIND OF QUESTIONS?

The question may be asked from a range
of disciplines and frameworks, they
may be academic, economic, personal,
professional or simply questions of
curiosity about the wide area
of ‘death and the digital.’
 STACEY PITSILLIDES
MRes Goldsmiths Design Student!
Research focuses on Digital Death,
Digital Afterlife and Digital
Heritage.

Links
www.digitaldeathandbeyond.blogspt.com
www.vimeo.com/album/102363
www.digitaldeath.eu/

contact me
@RestInPixels

1 2
 Im still here!
1984

Question:
Do you think we need to begin to make
provisions for what happens to you and
your loved ones digital information
and identity(s) after death, do you
think the simple existence of a
‘digital self’ affects the ‘way’ we
as a society remember and mourn loved
ones?

3 4
ESTHER MAKAAY {A:
Well that’s actually quite a few
questions included in one, you
cheated. Ok I think this question has,
two specific fragments and one is, do
you think we need to make provisions
for what happens to you and you loved
ones digital information and perhaps
identities after death because to me
that also has to do with the way we
portray ourselves digitally and online
and it can be aspects of ourselves
that could live on separately. I could
imagine even people with a blog or
some alter ego to allow others to even
take over their identity and carry on
in honor, if you want, or in spirits
and to enhance that or elaborate on
that with their own aspects. So maybe
the second part the simple existence
of a digital affects the way we as
a society remember and mourn loved
ones is not as separate as I first
thought about it. Because I have
digital contacts that only exist
in virtual worlds. I have people I
hardly ever see in real life but I
talk to them quite regularly and so
they will probably feel more connected
to me digitally then in real life.
No that is a different aspect of it,
because that is about mourning and
remembering. So yeah, absolutely but
I’m also very curious about what is
going to happen to these pseudonyms
5 6
ESTHER MAKAAY
or partial identities that we have
because they’re not with us as a real
person but there is a very important
aspect of us that is very distinct
sometimes or very important to some
groups. Maybe its also similar to the
way that if a pubic figure dies, then
his family will love him and the work
relations will mourn in their own way
but also the public has its own right
to a piece of whoever is deceased and
I think that is sort of similar to
what will happen digitally because
somehow these digital aspects of us
seem to be an enlargement of the way
we compartmentalize our identity in
real life as well. Yea it’s a complex
question coz one of the things I was
pondering when coming up with my own
question was how acceptable will it be
to us in, well probably not right now
but in a few years time or in future
to really see our digital alter egos
as sort of a semi-detached part of
ourselves. Like if you have a rock
band and you know one of the members
dies and the others can continue but
there’s only so much you can change
until you really have to change the
name of the band because its not the
same group any more and I have seen
this sort of going on online where
there is this digital alter ego which
is somewhat separate from the peoples…
ESTHER MAKAAY
like the discussion going on with the
Stig, is it like actually one guy
driving the car or is it different F1
drivers just filling in the role and
you know playing this guy, so maybe
it’s more to theatre and acting as
well, although there is more real life
truth in it of course. I’m not sure.

7 8
Question: 1984

What is the place of religion and

spirituality within Digital Death,
to expand this slightly, what is the
ritual transfer of death ceremonies
in the virtual space and what do they
provide which is different from a
physical ritual?

9 10
BRITTA RENSING {A:
Well I would say that one of the
important things of the digital realm
is that people can be different if
they want to be but they can also
be themselves. Just a couple days
ago I came across an example where
somebody was different. I had a very
interesting conversation on Second
Life recently where one ritual
participant said that he loved to be
young in Second Life, meaning his
avatar being young while in real life
he was already old and judging from
his small profile picture he was maybe
say sixty or so, the virtual world
suggests that someone is not as close
to death as he might be in bodily
reality, so this may be an example
of consciously not having ritual
transfer, as I think the personal
component of the person belongs to the
ritual as well because without persons
ritual would not take place.
On the other side you of course have
strong ritual transfer in virtual
space from my field of studies, which
is neo-paganism and wicca I can
see that the wheel of the year is
celebrated with many transfer elements
in the virtual space. The celebration
of the wheel of the year focuses on
the topics of being born, growing up,
fulfilling personal tasks, growing
11
BRITTA RENSING
old and then dying and especially
the celebrations on Mabon, which is
the autumn equinox on the 21st of
September which is coming quite soon
and the Samhain celebrated on the
31st of October broach the issue of
looking back on ones life and focusing
on death and also the awareness that
death is coming nearer each day of
life, the interconnectedness of life
and death are an important topic for
neo-paganism and when you look at
ritual transfer to the virtual world
you especially find the transfer
of lets says acts and symbols. For
example the establishing of the ritual
circle, the calling of the four
directions, then the symbols like:
grain being reaped and wine being
drunk, the door between the worlds
being opened and so on, so actually
I think it is a vivid combination of
actually transferring some elements
and not transferring other elements
which is the interesting part of it
when somebody chooses not to transfer
elements and do other things and
change them. I think the key word for
pagan rituals and especially pagan
rituals in the virtual space dealing
with death is energy and raising
energy. They explain it: the energy
crosses all borders and it is sent to
heal people mentally
12
BRITTA RENSING
and physically and it is meant to
strengthen participants and other
people for daily life as well as for
coping with mortality. Energy is seen
as keeping the person alive as well
as being given back to the universe
when someone dies, this energy is seen
as going from the bodily life to the
virtual world and back and for neo
pagans the energy concept strengthens
the validity of celebrating rituals
online because of the raised energy
uses the electronic channels which
build up the virtual world so this
is basically what I was thinking
about the question and how to combine
religious items and spirituality
issues with the digital death topic.

13 14
 Dr Toni Sant
Dr Toni Sant is Director of Research
at the University of Hull’s
Scarborough School of Arts and New
Media, where he also lectures on
Performance & Creative Technologies.

He is the founder and creative

director of the MaltaMedia Online
Network, executive editor of the
Applied and Interactive Theatre Guide,
and book reviews editor for the
International Journal of Performance
Arts & Digital Media.

His research interests include the use

of the Internet in/for performance,
live art, applied theatre, interactive
multimedia, podcasting, and the
socio-cultural aspects of new
media, particularly in marginalised
communities.

Links
www.tonisant.com

contact me
@tonisant

15 16
Question:
Inscribing elements of our 0100101110
consciousness in digital formats would 0110110100
seem to make for longevity of presence 10111
01101
beyond our physical death, but is this 011010
an illusion rather than a fact?

17 18
PEREGRINE ANDREWS {A: PEREGRINE ANDREWS
Well, I suppose it depends how you interact with them. So its this kind
define presence really. I mean, The of one ended thing. Well… in some
example that I am thinking about most ways, looking at those things after
obviously would be facebook where a persons death is no different from
people post into facebook and even if looking at them when they are alive,
we arnt doing it often we are still especially if you are not going to try
putting things up that are about the and contribute back. So… its not an
people that we are, the things that illusion… it is a fact.
we are doing, the thoughts that we
are having so those are elements of
our consciousness and as far as I am
aware with facebook all contributions
remain in theory forever, I mean
forever is a big word but as far as
we understand forever with a system
like facebook it is forever, they
don’t delete things. People are able
to go onto facebook page and look at
things that person may have said right
at the beginning of the creation of
that account. So if someone has had
a facebook account for many years
that could be many many thousands
of contributions. Many thousands of
little slithers of consciousness, if
you like, and yes if that account is
not deleted in death than all of those
little moments will continue to exist.
Does that constitute a presence, I
think in a way it does, especially if
your experience of a person is only
via their facebook page. In many cases
when you look at people’s facebook
contributions you don’t necessarily
19 20
 Niki Lambropoulos
(Intelligenesis)
Dr. Niki Lambropoulos is a researcher,
consultant, e-learning expert, HCI
designer, and online communities’
manager. Her interests fall in the
field of Collective Intelligence,
translated into Collaborative
E-Learning in Computer Supported
Collaborative Learning; Idea and Group
Management in Distributed Leadership;
and User Innovation Networks in
Innovation and Open Innovation.

She currenlty works as the Director of

Intelligenesis and as a Human-Computer
Interaction Education research fellow
for the EU funded project EuroCAT in
LSBU.

Links
www.nikilambropoulos.com

contact me
@nikilambro

21 22
 1984
1984

Question:
The job of the mirror neurons in our
brain is to create the presence of the
Self as well as the co-presence of
the Other(s) in both real, digital or
any other world via empathy. If there
is such an analogy, then in what ways
the absence of one element i.e. the
absence of the Other is affecting our
view of us and our worlds?

23 24
DUNCAN FAIRFAX {A:
This is a very interesting question
and without being too pedantically
academically about it, I think there
are some aspects of the question
that need to be substantially
considered because as is the case
with an enormous amount of academic
discourse, the overly metaphorical
cross appropriation of one idea
in one domain to another in many
instances kind of leads to an
inappropriate understanding. In some
instances possible trivialization
or misappropriation of one idea in
one domain to another. The actual
scientific research on mirror neurons
has not been emphatically linked to
any psychological conceptualization of
self or identity, in many instances
they are probably most consequentially
thought of as being a mechanism of
environmental adaptation, they are a
learning thing so that we can mimic
our adaptive relationships to our
environment, the sort of epiphenomenal
construction or conceptualization of
self in relationship to that doesn’t
have any relationship to that kind of
mirror neuronal capacity if we were
going to look at Churchland’s work in
a kind of really strict eliminative
materialist conceptualization of
neurophysiological process, whatever
other psychosocial embellishment
25
DUNCAN FAIRFAX
we make of that idea, it is really
just that, they are core materialist
physical kind of processes. So
there’s some underlying presumptions
and problems in the question in some
capacity. Then there is also the
problem with the fact that that other,
however it’s construed or constituted
in this idea being constructed
as a digital ‘other’ because
evolutionarily, neurophysiologically,
developmentally, that actual process
is constructed prier to any overt
technological mediatization of that
relationship so the mirror neuronal
relationship is constructed in
relationship to a care giver, now
there may well be some kind of process
of mediation in that relationship
given that then is kind of relevant
to, appropriated by, some form of
technological meditation but I
think that kind of intracorporeal
intrasocial relationship is something
that precedes strict technological
mediation so given all of that I’m
not quite sure how exactly to answer
the question but if I was to answer
it kind of quite generally I think
obviously the lack of the other in
any form of mediation makes the
constitution of the self incredibly
problematic and difficult I think the
more fundamental question underlying
26
DUNCAN FAIRFAX
all of this is something that I know
is essential to Stacey’s research
is what are the intrinsic questions
and problems in the technological
mediatization of these relationships
and then how would we think that
question specifically in relationship
to technology I think is the more kind
of significant or appropriate question
at stake.

27 28
 Nathan Lustig
(Entrustet.com)
Nathan Lustig is the cofounder of
Entrustet.com, a website that helps
people make last wishes for their
digital assets. Founded in 2008,
Entrustet is a free service that lets
you create a list of all of your
digital assets (online accounts and
computer files) and then decide which
accounts you’d like deleted and which
you’d like transferred to heirs.

Links
www.entrustet.com

contact me
@nathanlustig
@entrustet

29 30
Question:
Currently websites are taking a ‘hands
off’ approach toward digital death, if
they have any approach at all. What
role should companies be taking in the
future and what should their policies
toward digital death look like?

31 32
ANONYMOUS {A:
Even here in Switzerland we have had
evidence recently there is a large
number of cases coming up as the users
of facebook grow older and at some
point there will be a lot of users or
the survivors of those users causing
trouble for sites because so much data
is unavailable to the survivors. It
is easy for them to put in the terms
and conditions that they don’t bare
any responsibility because people
don’t read terms and conditions very
carefully so that this matter might
be building up behind the scenes and
there would be many legal cases being
solved in court. So perhaps individual
companies like facebook will have to
find their own individual solutions
a second possibility is companies
like that who inherit, they pass on
their access data to survivors so
that the controversy never arises,
with companies like facebook, their
survivors can merely log on using
the password data and no controversy
arises, except then of course the
survivors have to deal with the
data and whether the data is in any
understandable format, is then another
question.

33 34
Question:
1984
1984 1984

Will online memorials replace

cemeteries? Will they augment
cemeteries? Or will we always want
a physical place to memorialize the
dead?

35 36
JANIS JEFFERIES {A: JANIS JEFFERIES
I am not sure its an either or, it through all sorts of other multimedia
reminds me of course of Inyong’s contributions which you will not be
wonderful project ‘Scanned Memories,’ able to access, I think, in a physical
he’s no longer with us, but he was cemetery unless of course you have,
a PhD student from Korea and why he trees of talking posts, so in some
was interested in online memorials way, some kind of sensor activation,
was the fact that they have run out as you approach the cemetery which
of space in South Korea and according would begin to give you some kind of
to culture and also the Shahid multimedia content.
community there, it very important
on the name day to go every year to
visit the cemetery now this caused
enormous issues with traffic jams,
with the lay of the land and the fact
that in the end people couldn’t get
there and the burial grounds were
getting full. So he was particularly
interested in online memorials because
at least it would fulfill that sense
of being present on the name day, in
some way or another, so you could
say that they augment cemeteries,
in a virtual sense. I am sure that
some people would prefer a physical
place, again that would depend on a
person’s culture, location, rights
of passage. I think this might be
intergenerational, I think it will
lead to the physical context of death
but the point about the online, the
virtual memorial is the way in which
the social media should add a great
deal to the life of that person and to
the memory of that person
37 38
 Roland van Rijswijk
Roland Van Rijswijk works for SURFnet,
the National Research and Education
Network in The Netherlands.

He has been active in the digital

arena since he was six years old at
the start of the 80s and has been
online since the early 90s. He has a
Master’s Degree in Computer Science.

Roland’s professional research

interests include digital security
and identity management. His personal
interests include digital photography,
modern art and making music.

Links
www.surfnet.nl/en
https://dnssec.surfnet.nl/
http://www.jumpfrog.nl/Jumpfrog/Start.
html

contact me
@reseauxsansfil

39 40
Question:
Recently there have been mentions in
the news about faked online suicides
(see for instance http://www.rhizome.
org/discuss/view/45942). People have
also been reported as having died 1984

0100011001
while they were still alive (this Ahhhhhhhh!

famously happened to Steve Jobs

of Apple and even had an impact on
Apple’s share prices). This raises
some interesting questions. Firstly
should you take online announcements
of a death or of a suicide seriously?
How can you prove or disprove such
announcements? And is there such a
thing as digital suicide? If so, how
would you define it?

41 42
JANIS JEFFERIES {A: JANIS JEFFERIES
Well I think I am of a generation for having some degree of accuracy
that might slightly distrust online the thing that’s really interesting
announcements but on the other here is what happens if this is
hand if we think about fakes and ficticious, to answer that question
the whole issue of fakes, whether about Steve Jobs having an impact
that’s to do with people writing on apple share prices, you can only
biographies or whatever. There are speculate that that was a deliberate
some famous examples about some people act to affect the stock market. That
writing about their war experiences then raises other things about those
particularly and holocaust survivors kind of hacking interventions that
and some of these have proved to be can play havoc of course, in both the
fakes. The British museum is full of commercial and the private world.
fakes and there is the question of
how material gets authenticated and
by whom. So that also brings in the
question of an expert, but if there
is a question of a suicide then the
other thing you have to think about
is that this is still considered
illegal in some cultures particularly
those that are, how can I say heavily
Catholic orientated because it is
considered a mortal sin to take your
own life under that high religious
objection. So there are all sorts of
issues about what suicide is in any
context, and if it is in abilitous
reign then I suppose it depends on how
those portals are managed, so that is
a kind of management material issue as
to how it gets authenticated unless
it becomes like wikapedia where you
can add in material but somehow the
community does take responsibility
43 44
 Michela Magas
Michela Magas graduated from the Royal
College of Art in London with an MA
in Communication Art & Design and
now juggles design consulting with
PhD research. She is co-founder of
the Stromatolite Design Lab where her
clients include Apple, Nike and Nokia.

Since 1995 Michela has been developing

ideas and innovation for product and
media, conceptual design, systems
architecture, iconography and new
education methodologies.

Links
http://stromatolite.com/
http://www.mhashup.com/
http://tinyurl.com/ydux73s
http://openproduct.blogspot.com/
http://www.decibel151.com/
http://www.criticalpractice.org/

contact me
@elasticengine

45 46
Question:
On ghanaweb.com it states: “Funerals
[for the Ga tribe in coastal Ghana]
are a time of mourning, but also of
celebration. The Ga people believe
that when their loved ones die,
they move on into another life …
They honor their dead with brightly
colored coffins that celebrate the way
they lived. The coffins are designed
to represent an aspect of the dead
person’s life -- such as a car if 1984
1984

they were a driver, a fish if their

livelihood was the sea -- or a sewing
machine for a seamstress. They might
also symbolize a vice -- such as a
bottle of beer or a cigarette.” Baring
this in mind, can digital death be the
equivalent of Ghanaian Ga coffins?
(see: http://www.ghanaweb.com/
GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/photo.day.
php?ID=52081)

47 48
JUDI CLARK {A:
The question that comes to me is about
the Ga tribe in coastal Ghana that
celebrate their death through physical
manifestations and beautifully
decorated coffins. So the question
being asked is can digital death be
the equivalent of these coffins and I
think it certainly can and should.
There’s a lot of options in the
digital domain to represent yourself
in a visual way, and in a lot of
different spiritual ways and a lot
of different expressive ways. The
limitation is that there is not a
physical thing that you actually can
hang on to. It really is something
you can explore and that can be more
interactive. So, here’s a website
that has a number of pictures of the
different coffins that are being
represented and as some of the coffins
are like a dead man’s love for smoking
and his cigarette business. There is
no end of expressiveness that people
can have about their lives and I think
that you can really be quite creative,
and ways to express and to explore.
I think this could be a very healing
process because not everybody has the
same life. Similarly there’s a lot of
places where the love of things, the
love of something can be expressed in
49
JUDI CLARK
a lot of different ways so, I think
it is incumbent on us to give this a
bit of thought and exploration, see
what we want to communicate, or what
metaphors there are for expressing
things that we love online. There’s
certainly a lot of opportunity to
explore whatever we want.
Yea, that’s a very interesting thing,
cultural bias about death. You know,
if we have this, this reverent state
where you know the funeral home and
the process of how we treat our dead
people here is the only way we are
going to see the world then that
really closes off a lot of expression.
I think the world is a very colourful
place and we should be curious about
how we deal with death in the US. The
developed world’s way of dealing with
death isn’t really the only way of
healing, anymore than it’s the only
way of celebrating.
I think the Ga tribe is a very
interesting perspective: they put a
lot of time and energy into these
things. You should see these pictures.
You know for them to say theirs is the
only way is just as ludicrous as for
us. You know we could have a hard time
coming up with these coffins that are
so unique and so individualistic,
50
JUDI CLARK
everyone should, could benefit by
being curious about how other people
heal.

51 52
 Death Reference Desk
We are two librarians [Meg Holle and
Kim Anderson] and one professor of
death and dying practices [Dr. John
Troyer], geographically dispersed but
unified with dark inside. We combine
our expertise to inform the casually
interested and morbidly curious alike
about All Things Death: the bizarre,
the batty and the beautiful, from
interesting blogs and recommended
books to commentary and analysis of
death in the news.

Links
www.deathreferencedesk.org
www.facebook.com/pages/Death-
Reference-Desk/116246178416445?ref=ts

contact me
@DeathRef

53 54
Question:
Is there a distinction between the
physical self and the digital self?

1984
Or, have we and technology advanced
to the point where these distinctions
are no longer relevant? What, if any,
implications are there for NOT making
the distinction? Especially in death.

55 56
TONI SANT {A: TONI SANT
Well to begin with I am very pleased of electrons. So I think in as much
that the question doesn’t make a as atoms can decay I am not sure if
difference between a physical self that’s scientifically accurate though,
and a virtual self or a real self and electrons are harder, I don’t know you
a virtual self. That is to say for can split an atom but can you split
me the physical self and the digital an electron, I mean I don’t know, I
self are both real. So with death what should look that up probably…
changes is reality, reality changes
but it doesn’t cease to be, so in that
way I think the distinction between
the physical self and the digital self
is a different one then one between
something that’s living and something
that’s not necessarily living. In a
sense that both the physical self and
the digital self are living selves
and also because they are both real
selves, now also at the same time they
can also be not necessarily real in
a sense that the digital self can be
a made up self and the physical self
can be a self that is performed even
though one could argue that every self
is performed in some sense or other.

So, I think to really unpack this idea

of the physical self and the digital
self we have to take them in relation
to life and death but also in relation
to what’s real and what’s not real and
what’s virtual and what’s physical,
in relation also to the idea that the
physical self is made of atoms whereas
the digital self is made
57 58
Question: 1984
1984
1984 1984
1984

Facebook allows the family of deceased

users to put these profiles into
memorial mode. Given Facebook’s
potential longevity, at some point 1984
1984
1984 1984
1984
1984

the population of the dead will exceed

that of the living. Does Facebook have
a moral obligation to maintain these
profiles?
1984 1984
1984 1984 1984

59 60
NIELS DE JONG {A:
So… well that interesting, I’m not
sure if there is a moral obligation to
do that because … There’s not really
a morel obligation to maintain any of
those profiles. You are not actually
paying for it, you sign on and then
make a profile and if you are not
maintaining it yourself why should
you have them kept up just because you
put it in memorial mode. I am not sure
they have any responsibility for that.
NIELS DE JONG
maybe its not so I mean there has to
be some kind of way or system to do
that or some kind of argument why you
want to keep it there? If you provide
the option to create a memorial there
must be some kind of protocol that you
can follow or some rule… I don’t know?

I mean, if people would pay for it

or if people have like an actual
graveyard or a cremation centre you
pay those people to maintain the grave
and you don’t do that with Facebook
you make a profile and then if you die
you put it on to memorial mode.

I mean there are actual memorial

websites which you have to pay for
like for a real grave and as long as
you pay for it they have to keep the
memorial on. I mean, I am not sure
where the moral part is?

But there has to be some kind of

contact person that they could send an
e-mail or some kind of notification
that they want to remove that memorial
site because no one is visiting it for
maybe a year and then that contact
person could say ‘yes that ok’ or
61 62
Question:
If you die and the Internet doesn’t
notice, do you have die again and
again?

63 64
ELAINE KASKET {A:
Oh my gosh, if you die and the
internet doesn’t know, this is so
interesting, if you die and the
internet doesn’t notice do you have
to die again and again. I will just
tell you right off the bat what my
mind goes with it. It was from the
movie ‘When Harry met Sally’ that film
from the 80s and they are talking
in the car, and he’s saying “what
if you go to New York and you don’t
do anything and nothing happens to
you and then you die one of those
New York deaths where nobody notices
until the smell drifts into the
hallway’ and I was thinking what is
the internet equivalent of the smell
drifting into the hallway. You can
draw that analogy, ok so a New York
death how do they figure it out, it’s
not just the smell drifting through
the hallway it might be the newspapers
piling up outside the door, the post
piling up outside the door or the
fact that someone says oh so and so
hasn’t come out, or gone down to the
corner lately. Or when was the last
time you saw them open their door,
so that those more tangible kinds of
things that might alert somebody in
the actual kind of physical world
that actually somebody isn’t around
anymore. What are the digital,
internet correlates of that?
65
ELAINE KASKET
Part of it is like a negative, so and
so hasn’t shown up on whatever they
haven’t shown up on you know, Skype,
msn messenger, twitter, facebook
or whatever there is a removal of
something, something stops, somebody
doesn’t show their digital face. But
the positive side if someone is dead
the obituary or notification gets
posted in the newspaper, then somebody
finds that and it kind of goes viral
in terms of the persons friends and
family from there but I am sure there
are instances in which, I think in
these days if the internet doesn’t
notice, then that’s a different
question than if the people that you
communicate with on the internet don’t
notice.
What does it mean when they say
the internet doesn’t notice? Does
that mean the internet community,
does that mean the information that
comes up when you Google yourself or
when you Google a particular person
because that’s different. Because
if somebody has died, their internet
community knowing about it, or finding
out about it, or figuring it out or
communicating about it, that feels
different than Googling that person’s
name and being able to find out that
they are dead. Ones presence is
66
ELAINE KASKET
expected ones presence as constituted
by ones responsiveness. This is the
internet equivalent, ok, this is
the digital equivalent of like ‘you
hold the mirror up to somebody’s
mouth and if you see there is fog
on it you know they are breathing
and they are still alive’ and so you
send an email to somebody, you send
a message on facebook your kind of
holding that mirror up and seeing if
you get the fog back and if you don’t
get the fog back. So its so funny
because that absence, that tele-
absence is not acceptable. Even on
holiday, here I am I’m technically
on holiday and I’m chatting to you
and its expected that I am tele-
present still and I feel obligated
to be tele-present to a number of
people in a number of different ways.
There’s a vague feeling amongst some
people these days that tele-absence
isn’t acceptable and if you are tele-
absent then somebody’s going to think
that something’s wrong, I mean my
God where are they?! There they are
holding up the mirror to see if you
are breathing. People always talk
about being too busy or too bombarded
or too connected all the time and
there is something fundamentally wrong
with that or worrying about that or
whatever. But I think that what we
67
ELAINE KASKET
are talking about now is a little bit
different then that, it’s not just
about what we are doing its about what
we are, its what we are becoming its
about this digital side of ourselves
being so much an integral part, that
there’s a feeling of wrongness if you
are not tele-present all the time if
you are not available in that way all
the time, and so it’s not just about
what we are doing, we are doing too
much of this we are involved to much
with that. I get that feeling like I
had when I signed on to my twitter
today (I am on holiday) and I thought
do I really want to be doing this?
But I have no doubt that probably in a
year or two from now that twitter bit
of me might be so integrated into my
life, into my presence into the world
it’s no longer what I’m doing what I’m
choosing to do, its just enveloped
into how I’m being or how I am, you
know?
I read an essay the other day called
‘a hundred fears of solitude’ it was
in the last issue of Granta and this
guy was leading into it by talking
about how when he was at university
which wasn’t a long time ago twenty
years or so he talked about how its
was possible to be silent, how it was
possible to be disconnected if you
68
ELAINE KASKET ELAINE KASKET
wanted to talk to somebody you had to it, because it’s becoming more and
walk across campus and hope you more part of our being it’s not what
found them in and as you walked to we are doing it’s what we are.
your friends door there was the great
potential for solitude, contemplation
and great silence. These days if you
go to the university campus everybody
is wired up to the teeth and they are
in contact all the time and he was
thinking about this and how solitude
wasn’t possible anymore and I think
its a human given its an existential
given that we are always being with
others in the world and Heidegger
talks about this ‘being with others in
the world’ and this is not a condition
you can check in and out of and you
can say oh I am just not going to
be with other people in the world
now or now yes I am going to be with
other people in the world that’s not
a choice it’s an existential given
that is the case all the time but
of course Heidegger didn’t have any
inkling of this level of technology
he was concerned about television and
he thought television had “abolished
every possibility of remoteness”
which is a quote of his and this is
a hundred, a thousand times that now
and I often wonder what a philosopher
like Martin Heidegger would think of
this level of being with others in the
world and how he would characterise
69 70
 Dr. Elaine Kasket
(London Metropolitan
University)
I am a senior lecturer in Counselling
Psychology and a psychotherapist in
private practice. My main research
interests have to do with death and
dying; I have investigated physicians’
emotional responses to their
patients’ deaths and am currently
researching mourning and continuing
communication on Facebook with people
who have died.

Links
http://londonmet.academia.edu/
ElaineKasket
http://www.drelainekasket.com/

contact me
@dreprk

71 72
Question:
When I talk about my Facebook
research, many people are unsettled
- they seem to feel that when someone
continues to interact with a person’s
digital persona after the actual
person has died, it’s pathological
in some way - it says something
concerning about the person (they’re
in denial), or something worrying
about our technologically-mediated
society (that people are carrying on
a relationship or a communication
via the person’s digital persona). Is
their concern well founded?

73 74
NIKI LAMBROPOULOS {A:
One of my uncles died recently, a
dearest one, like in June and I’ve
never experienced this thing in my
family before so I’m quite close to
what this person says about being in
denial because a lot of people in my
family were in denial of accepting his
death and looking, you know, towards
the door to see whether he would be
in, coming in or having the photo
around or everything and I think, yes
their concern is well founded because
it’s quite similar to what happens
in real life … so … people, I think
people create attachments in a way
this is how the world is created,
we are related to each other, we are
connected to each other, so when a
person dies, either digitally or
really, or just hangs up the phone
and moves somewhere else or whatever,
its absence as well. So I think that
there is loss in our world anyway, a
kind of feeling of loss and absence
in one of our connections in a way. So
perhaps we will keep trying to keep
this connection, this link we have but
perhaps its not possible, however we
don’t realize that. I’m just thinking
that, that’s how I see it but perhaps
my mum would see it differently like,
I dunno, probably she get some anger
as well, so perhaps if a person does
not communicate although its digitally
75
Niki Lambropoulos
dead, then the one who wants the
communication back might get angry
as well as trying to communicate and
being in denial, so its probably
similar and its probably more then one
feeling. There may be many feelings
all together, coming and going, or
simultaneously. I don’t think its
pathological because I checked for the
real death, right? Psychologically
speaking its completely justified and
if we keep the analogy for digital
death, then in my opinion I don’t
think its pathological. Perhaps its
normal to a certain extent, like
everything in life I suppose. So it
might be ok to communicate, to keep
trying to communicate but if this
person keeps trying to communicate
after a year or after you know some
time that’s not logical then perhaps
it gets pathological rather then
normal. So perhaps there is kind of
a thin line between the two, a limit
or something, but I’m not the one, I
don’t know there may be more work or
research about it I don’t know.
76
 anonymous

77 78
Question:
The future of cloud computing is
hazy. Younger generations will be
putting lots of personal infomation
on online “safes”, and will need
to work out how to transfer it to
alternative providers if and when the
first provider proves inadequate.
Considering this, what provisions
are made by providers of Digital
Death Websites for preservation of
clients’ data and continuation of
the fulfillment of clients’ wishes
in case of the original provider’s
non-performance due to bankruptcy,
for instance? What about setting up
a providers’ association to ensure
compatibility and continuity?

79 80
NATHAN LUSTIG {A: NATHAN LUSTIG
Its actually a pretty good question. Facebook message, all these different
We get that all the time, so, I know sorts of things. There is even another
what we are doing but I don’t know one out there that will attempt to
what other people are doing. We get hack into a dead person’s online
this question a lot what happens if account if a survivor wants you to
your site goes out of business, we get do it. So that’s why I think if you
questions about whether were going get all the different providers of
to be around when someone needs to services, it might be tough to make
have access to the data. What we have sure that compatibility would actually
come up with is we have put in place work because everyone’s approaching it
a portion of our investors money into from a different angle and no one’s
a separate account and because our going with it in the exact same way.
site is so cheap to actually run we The idea of a providers association
have a two year runway to have all the to ensure compatibility sounds really
servers and keep all the data secure interesting. It would be tough to get
so that if we do go out of business all the providers to do it, but if you
we will have access to be able to could do it, it would make sense.
give all the data back to the people
who had put it in and would delete
it after the two year period. Within
that two year period we would have
taken all that data out and put it in
another secure place if we were not
going to be around anymore. There are
a lot of different companies that are
approaching the ideas of what happens
to you digital stuff when you die,
from all sorts of different angles.
There are companies like us who are
letting you put your user names and
passwords in and say what you want
with your stuff when you die, there
are also companies allowing you to set
up your last tweet or your last
81 82
 Yolanda Kading RGN
Yolanda is a Palliative Home Care
Nurse at The Cyprus Association of
Cancer Patients and Friends.

The Cyprus Association of Cancer

Patients and Friends was founded
in 1986, at a time when cancer was
still considered to be a curse, an
incurable and frightening disease
among the Cypriot population. The
association was set up by a small but
pioneering group of women, all of whom
had already experienced cancer in one
way or another. The associations aim
was and continues to be: to disperse
the taboo and fear surrounding cancer
and thus provide quality care to
cancer sufferers within the Cypriot
community.

Links
www.cancercare.org.cy/EN/index.html

83 84
Question:
Following the death of a teenager at
my sons’ school. His freinds put
together a Facebook page entitled R.I.P R.I.P R.I.P
“RIP + his name.” Although part of
me felt that it was a good way to
honour his memory, allowing people
to post comments and thoughts,I was
very concerned about the effect that
some of the comments may have had on
his family. I guess that it’s a way
of paying tribute to someone but it
bothered me that he wasn’t around to
give his permission for what seemed
like a very public free for all. All
in all it was very distressing for
everyone. My question is who controls
such postings and do the next of kin
have to give permission to allow such
a page to be opened.

85 86
ELAINE KASKET {A:
This is a really interesting question
and I am going to take the last bit
of it first. The person who controls
those postings on a memory site is
the person or the people who have
decided to set the site up, ie the
administrators of the site and these
are actually the people I interviewed
in my research, my facebook research
about their experience of being
administrators of in memory sites.
The next of kin do not have to have
permission for that page to be opened
in fact what sometimes happens is
different groups of friends almost
like rival factions will set up of in
memory sites and sometimes that causes
problems because one group of friends
says ‘oh I’m really upset because
everybody’s going to her memory site
and going away from our memory site
that we set up for our friend’ and so
the relatives next of kin don’t have
to give any permission what so ever.
You can be a complete stranger and set
up an in memory of site on facebook
for somebody who has died.
In my experience the administrators of
those sites, were more often than not
close friends or relatives, cousin’s,
siblings, they will remove or take
away comments they don’t think are
appropriate so they tend to police
87
ELAINE KASKET
the sites very carefully I think. I
am not sure that it is that common
for older generation members of the
family, parents, aunts, uncles,
grandparents etc to get access to
those pages unless somebody alerts
them to the presence of them. People
aren’t quite recognizing that what
is happening on facebook in digital
writing is the same thing that has
always happened. People have always
shown up at funeral homes and funerals
and said inappropriate things, people
have always competed for the role of
chief mourner and like ‘oh no she
was really important to me’ and ‘how
dare you’, all that kind of stuff. It
hasn’t been as public and as easily
available and accessible to everyone.
You know somebody might make a comment
at a funeral and people hear it and
they say oh my gosh you know that’s
really inappropriate and then its gone
into the either whereas on facebook if
somebody doesn’t take it down - there
it is. So it has a little bit more
permanence. But in some ways I feel
it is not much different from what has
always happened its just a little bit
more permanent and visible or it has
more potential to make an impact than
some passing comment that somebody
might make at a funeral or wake or
something of course anytime
88
ELAINE KASKET
anybody dies they are not around
to give permission and this is the
younger generation who often at times
the in memory sites get posted on
facebook for younger people, often
people who weren’t expecting to die
and they weren’t in a place in their
lives to say this is what I want to
happen after my death this is how I
want to be memorialised they haven’t
got to that place yet they don’t do
that, but nobody ever has any control
or is around to give permission for
what happens after their deaths and a
lot of times some relatives or some
friends are around saying he wouldn’t
have wanted this or she wouldn’t have
wanted this or this isn’t appropriate
or whatever it is, but the whole
facebook thing for one it opens it up
to a much wider segment of the public
as these in memory groups are almost
always free to anybody who wishes
to join so somebody might have had
three hundred friends in life on their
profile itself and “one thousand”
friends in death on their in memory
page that somebody sets up. So it is
very public. So but “all in all it was
very distressing for everyone” I’m
wondering who the everyone was, I’m
wondering what the comments were, it
depends so much on…. Im not sure if it
was the comments themselves or this
89
ELAINE KASKET
was the form they were being made the
facebook form or what in particular it
is that was especially problematic,
especially distressing because a lot
of people who I interviewed for my
facebook research said that the family
found it really, really comforting
and found it really lovely to see all
the sentiments and the thoughts and
comments and memories that everybody
posted on, this in memory group and
this is actually the first time I’ve
encountered this description of this
kind of memory site being “distressing
“ for everyone, I haven’t come
across this yet. I think one of the
fascinating, mysterious or noteworthy
things about this phenomenon of
facebook in general. Not just as
regards death but as regards society
as a whole is that more and more we
are interacting with these virtual
others and telepresent people, yea we
might know them in real life but we
might ‘see’ or ‘hear’ a lot more from
them via facebook or Skype or whatever
else rather than actually physically
being there with them and that in
itself is unsettling for some people,
that this is the way we are going as
a society and as individuals and when
that phenomenon caries through into
death and we carry on interacting with
that digital person or telepresent
90
ELAINE KASKET
person rather than necessarily showing
up. I can see in a way the people who
are uneasy with what is happening with
the facebook phenomena about death and
everything might possibly be the same
people who are unsettled by the impact
such phenomena, such technology is
having in life.

91 92
 Ahmet Sekercioglu
Dr. Ahmet Sekercioglu is a member of
the academic staff at the Department
of Electrical and Computer Systems
Engineering of Monash University,
Melbourne, Australia. He was the
leader of the Applications Program
of Australian Telecommunications CRC
until the completion of the centre’s
research activities (December 2007).

Prior to his academic career, he held

numerous positions as a research
engineer in private industry. He has
published 14 journal articles, 2 book
chapters, 56 conference papers and has
filed 2 patents.

His recent research is in distributed

algorithms for self-organization in
wireless networks. He is also working
in the application of intelligent
control techniques for multiservice
networks as complex, distributed
systems.

LINKS
http://titania.ctie.monash.edu.au

93 94
 Im still here! Im still here! Im still here!
1984 1984 1984

Question:
Why do we exist?

95 96
DEATH REFERENCE DESK{A: DEATH REFERENCE DESK
The easiest answer to ‘why do we The other reason we exist is we exist
exist’ is because we humans have to die oddly if it makes any sense
decided to and why we exist right now because of course the reason we have
hinges upon what this ‘we’ is? who an existence is because it ends and if
is this ‘we’? There was an American there is an end to the existence than
comedy programme called the Lone its something else different to what
Ranger, there is a cowboy and he was we think of it as being.
almost killed by a group of bandits
and then he was saved by this Native
American figure named Tanto and he
goes on to do good and justice and
he shoots bad people with silver
bullets. So he and Tanto where on
their horses one time and there was
this large group of Indians coming
towards them on horses and they know
they are going to die and they are
wondering and he turns to Tanto and
says “Well Tanto, it’s been good
knowing you but looks like we’re gonna
die” and Tonto goes “What do you mean
we white man” and I think its that
question who is the we? That becomes
key because humans have decided that
‘we’ are the ‘we’, if you will in all
of this and that the reason we exist
is because we have decided that we do
and that once another new definition
of what constitutes the human comes
about I think the current form we are
in right now will no longer exist we
will become something else. That’s
inevitable but its also beyond our
comprehension of when that will occur.
97 98
 Richard Banks
Richard Banks is a senior interaction
designer for Microsoft Research in
Cambridge, UK. He’s part of a team
that spends most of its time looking
at family life, trying to understand
the complexities of home, in order to
figure out how the digital should fit
in appropriately. He has a particular
interest in how digital artifacts
change hands when people pass away.
Richard joined Microsoft after
graduating from the Royal College of
Art in London. Since then he’s worked
as a design manager in Seattle on
Microsoft’s Office, Windows and MSN
products before moving home and into
research a number of years ago.

Links
www.richardbanks.com/?page_id=1350
www.richardbanks.com/?p=1987

contact me
@rbanks

99 100
Question:
How are digital and physical heirlooms
different and the same when it comes
to sentimentality and reminiscing?

101 102
DEATH REFERENCE DESK{A:
The key between the digital and
physical heirloom idea, which
in a sense means you can have
the same object in two different
representational forms is this: that
the physical heirloom as regard
sentimentality and reminiscing still
has a tactical quality to it so you
can still touch it, you can still feel
it, you can still handle it and that
actually is something that we humans
for a long time actually have enjoyed
in terms of remembering somebody who
has died or actually even a past
experience, that object that we can
look at sometimes even smell to have
a kind of sensory experience of what
has occurred in the past where as now
in terms of the digital object for
both sentimentality and reminiscing it
exists right now at least, purely in
the realm of the represented object
usually in the form of a photo but it
could also be a song, this is another
thing too, which you could have a kind
listening experience. But we will go
back to just the photo, so the photo
itself as an object is something
we can look at and have a visual
experience with that triggers in our
brain memories of what has gone on but
it is not a tactile experience per say
and there are people who will argue
with this as to what is the nature
103
DEATH REFERENCE DESK
of touch or tactility however what I
would say is that becomes in the next
step where the digital object is not
just a photo but you are actually
able to reproduce it, in a way that
doesn’t take any real time or money or
even work so that you can have that
object wherever you go, you can carry
the object with you on your phone as
one example or keep then online and
look whenever you want to, of a kind
of object experience of a person who
has died and we actually already have
these kinds of technology, in terms of
3D printing, where you can actually
put the photo in the printer and the
3D object is printed, now its not an
exact replica because things are a
little different but never the less,
this becomes the first generation of
what those objects will become. Where
we are right now is in a transition
period between the two and the digital
heirloom needs the entire past human
history of the physical heirloom to
know where to go or give, people
working in these fields an idea of
what to try and create or produce,
because people will use it they will
want it once it is there, especially
for funerals.
104
 Peregrine Andrews
Peregrine Andrews is a radio
producer and sound designer. He was
recently involved in the production
of i-shrine (BBC Radio 4), a radio
documentery which discussed issues of
death and morning in the online space:
broadcast on the 21st May 2010.

Links
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8691238.stm
www.moving-air.com

contact me
@pezzatronic

105 106
Question:
In an age where so much of what
we do is recorded in some way,
possibly forever, what place
does forgetting have? (I.e.
when is it better to forget?)

107 108
ANTONIS TRYPHONOS {A:
There is this school in psychology
called Jung, Jung spoke about two
types of memory. The present memory
and the memory of our ancestors and
that’s the archetypes its kind of like
we carry within our genes images and
dreams that maybe they don’t really
belong to us but they belong to our
ancestors and that’s what we call
social consciousness and it is with
this information that we have that
is being recorded in some way and all
of it is recorded, it will be much
more difficult to escape from the
subconscious level of having this
information coming up again and again.
So, its like an automatic reminder of
our past that maybe we would like to
forget but we are not able to.
ANTONIS TRYPHONOS
the unconscious level. The mind I feel
its gonna peak at the end it doesn’t
matter how much information we have
it will the select the information it
would like to remember and forgetting
again or remembering again it’s a
part of what information you would
really like to retain although
the information will be just there
available at the end I feel it will
balance.

So forgetting, it depends on how we

use the cues of the information we
have but its much easier to retain
information as I feel it and to bring
up from the subconscious level to the
conscious level using the information
as cues to bring us back to those
memories. Its like dreams, when we see
dreams we exactly don’t remember the
whole situation we might take it from
different stimulators we remember from
the dream and that stimulator will get
us into the more conscious level of
the memories that we have instead of
109 110
 Prof. Janis jefferies
Janis Jefferies is is an artist,
writer and curator, Professor of
Visual Arts in the Department of
Computing, Goldsmiths University of
London,Director of thte Constance
Howard Resource and Research Centre
in Textiles and Artistic Director of
Goldsmiths Digital Studios.

GDS is dedicated to collaborations

among practicing artists, cultural and
media theorists, and innovators in
computational media,who together are
expanding the boundaries of artistic
practice, forging the future of
digital technologies and developing
new understanding of the interactions
between technology and society

111 112
 1984
1984 1984

Question:
What do we choose to remember--and to
forget? How are collective memories
formed? How are memories revised and
shaped by the media used to present
them? 1984 1984
1984

113 114
DEATH REFERENCE DESK{A:
Well the first question what do we
chose to remember and forget, that is
really interesting because I think
that there’s a bit of a problem some
people are having now individuals say,
in the first world North America,
Europe and the UK is that there is a
problem in which they don’t know any
longer what to choose to remember and
what to forget or they are having
a problem actually remembering the
things they should remember and
an inability to forget the things
that probably don’t really matter.
There’s become such an overload of
information and so many people have
become dependent on continually
using whatever device they use for
information for email or looking at
the news that they are going through
everything and reading everything but
they are not remembering any of it, I
have a hunch I don’t know but I have
a hunch this is spilling over into
people’s everyday lives, it’s not like
they are forgetting say appointments
where they have to meet someone, but
I think they are forgetting events
things that have occurred.
The last part of the question, that’s
been asked is how memories are revised
and shaped by the media used to
present them. are and immediate ways
to present them. I think the growing
115
DEATH REFERENCE DESK
concern and this isn’t a new one is
the dependence that some people are
beginning to have on whatever the
device they use in order to remember
events they think they should kind
of remember without a backup device
for example being able to always pull
up a video of an event say something
important like your kids talking
for the first time or walking, or a
funeral eulogy. An individual becomes
dependant on that device to feel like
he or she can actually remember what
it was about, as opposed to feeling
comfortable with their memory even
though everyone knows memories are of
course fallible and things change and
things happen over time and it becomes
something else and you may actually
believe something to be actually true
but if you go back and look it’s not
this at all. So I think there is a
growing insecurity on the authenticity
of the memory that is growing
dependant on the actual recording of
it through whatever device is being
used. Even then I am not sure in
fact its going to assist memory, in
part because of course, what you are
looking at is some device re-showing
some event that occurred in say video
form, which may not be what actually
happened either and those kinds of
representations themselves can come
116
DEATH REFERENCE DESK DEATH REFERENCE DESK
with a certain certainty. representing what we are seeing in
And that gets to the last part which visual form that could be reproducible
is how are collective memories formed, and made more quickly into a painting,
well I that’s the big question now. this has altered the very idea of what
What is the collective memory; I human memory is capable of and in fact
will give you one classic example of there are a lot of people who would
this in the American context which argue that in fact human memory began
there has always been since September its great descent, when finally things
11 2001 a big push to discuss the were put in visual form as opposed
collective memory of 9/11 for America to having to understand it and think
and there is no collective memory of it through it terms of its narrative
9/11 for America, people had very form.
different kinds of reactions at that
time and continued to have different
reactions and in fact the reactions
and attitudes and concepts of what
occurred on that day have continued
to striate and have become polarised
than they were initially. I think the
very idea of the collective memory is
now is formed zero kind of opposition
between what it is and what it is not
which exists simultaneously so it
is both this and not this. In part
because you find people who have both
conflicting ideas all the time and
that has a lot to do with politics
and what goes on with the idea of the
nation. Memory is a big ongoing issue
and humans have been tinkering with
this for at least well before the 19th
century but certainly we came up with
early forms of photography and the
geriotypes and the idea of
117 118
 Rob Walker
Rob Walker is a journalist who writes
about consumer behaviour, Internet
culture, and other subjects. He writes
a popular article for the New York
Times Magazine called ”Consumed” and
his recently published works include:
“Buying In” a book which is an
overview of branding and the evolving
relationship between brands and the
consumer.

Links
www.robwalker.net

119 120
 1984
1984
1984

1984

Question:
One thing that motivated me to
get interested in the subject
in the first place was the idea
of “too much evidence” -- is it
possible that we leave behind such
overwhelming amounts of minutia
that it may actually be harder for
the historical researchers of the
future to understand who we were?

121 122
RICHARD BANKS {A:
My background is basically in product
design, the design of physical things
and I moved gradually into interaction
design which is the design of digital
things and so one of the things I
am fascinated by is what is the
difference between our experience
with physical artefacts and the way
we leave them behind and the way
other people inherit them and digital
artifacts all these things we collect
on our hard drives we collect on DVDs
and we put up in the cloud and how
will those be inherited and I think
for me there is no question that one
of the big differentiates between
the physical things and the digital
things is the amount of stuff we are
collecting. The physical things, for
example, are constrained in the amount
of space we have in our homes, so a
lot of us have boxes in our basements
and boxes in our lofts that contain
physical things that we cant bring
ourselves to throw away, they are
very precious to us but eventually
we fill up these spaces and we have
to make these kind of hard decisions
about what we keep and what we get
rid of and we are not forced to do
that with digital things, When we take
shots with a digital camera we are not
forced to pay for every single shot as
we used to have to with analogue
123
RICHARD BANKS
cameras so we can take thousands of
shots and just record as much as we
like. So this is actually a tremendous
opportunity so when my grandfather
died a few years ago he left behind a
suitcase full of analogue photos and
there were only 200, maybe 300 photos
in different envelopes, luckily a lot
of them had dates and places on them
which is quite rare for those things,
it gave me this very kind of narrow
insight into his life and where he
spent his time and who he spent his
time with and I would have wished that
there was an awful lot more about him
particularly what mattered to him
in his life before I was born. I was
born the year before he was retired
so I knew him very much as a retired
person. So, if he was living a life
now, I think there would be a lot more
digital stuff about him so digital
photos taken by him or off him and his
digital life online even his records
of his services and where he lived etc
that would tell me a lot more about
the way he lived than I would have
got in the past. The issue is then
of course, how you manage all this
content and I think one of the ways
in which our relationship to a lot of
this content that is left behind when
we pass away will change is that we
cant experience it all, in the way we
124
RICHARD BANKS
were able to with analogue content.
I could sit down with my grandfathers
photos and flip through his 200 photos
and really study and think about them.
I realize that if I carry on taking
photos at the rate I do my daughter
will inherit about 200 000 digital
photos from me and I don’t expect
her to sit down and go through every
single one of those and it means that
our relationship with all that content
becomes more serendipities. The really
amazing thing about digital content
is you can take 200, 000 photos and
put them all on random and have an
experience with that content that
is kind of spontaneous and draws up
memories that are more unexpected so
there are really things you can do
with digital content that makes that
experience with them quite a rich,
and unexpected compared to how we
might have had those experiences with
analogue content.
Now when it comes to actual research
that of course is a kind of a
personal experience of the person
that you know. When it comes to actual
research I think to some extent the
question is: what are the tools and
technologies that researchers of the
future might use to reassemble
125
RICHARD BANKS
and understand a person’s life and
actually I think to some extent
certainly as far as digital things are
concerned, as a researcher I’d rather
have too much stuff to go through
that can tell me an awful lot about a
person or give me a lot of ammunition
to reassemble a person’s life than a
lot less content. So as far as digital
content is going for example, we have
a team in Cambridge that works on
machine learning so all about how the
computer itself can be used as a tool
to make sense of different content
and reassemble content and bring to
a persons attention things that might
matter to you vs things that might
matter less so I think there are a
lot of room for digital tools to be
built that allow researchers to dig
in, vertically into content instead of
just kind of skimming over the top of
this vast amount of digital data.
126
 Dr. Britta Rensing
Britta Rensing was born in Cologne,
Germany where she studied English
Literature and Language and Religious
Studies at the University of Cologne,
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-
University of Bonn and Friedrich-
Schiller-University of Jena. PhD in
Religious Studies at the Friedrich-
Schiller-University of Jena. Fields
of study / lectures on neopaganism,
wicca, asian ghost movies.

Links
http://www.tectum-verlag.de/9486_
Britta_Rensing_Die_Wicca-Religion_
Theologie_Rituale_Ethik.html

http://www.db-thueringen.de/
servlets/DocumentServlet?id=7577

127 128
 1984
Question:
How do you think people
imagine themselves dying,
in the modern Digital Age?

129 130
YOLANDA KADING {A:
I would imagine that some people
perhaps imagine themselves living
on, in the digital age. It brings to
mind the question of where does it
all stop and when do people call it a
day, after the death of someone. With
something like Facebook in mind which
is very personal to me as a Facebook
addict almost, I wonder when after the
death of someone when this does this
information get taken off Facebook,
and who is it that decides when to
call it a day?
I don’t necessarily think that the
digital age. It certainly hasn’t
affected my concept of death and
dying and I don’t really think it
enters into it. I think the digital
age um has given people the ability
to go through the dying process more
publically and perhaps to feel that
they are not so alone. In that they
can put postings on the computer for
other people all over the world to see
and for their friends to see and even
if they cant get out and cant leave
their bed if they have the ability to
use the computer or to get somebody
else to use it for them then they can
share what they are going through more
easily and plus I guess they can post
photographs of themselves and feel
that they are not so alone
131
YOLANDA KADING
It gives people a voice I guess, a
public voice but also it gives people
access to information which perhaps,
well which wasn’t available to people
years ago so they are more alert and
aware about what might happen to
them, what might be round the corner.
There is so much out there for them
to access. But what really rings
in my mind is the not feeling that
you are so alone, but also the way
somebody might be affected once they
cant access the computer any more. Um
whilst they are in a position.. if
somebody is dying and in a position to
use the computer I would imagine they
will feel they are not alone, but once
they cant access the computer then
perhaps it’s a premature death for
them a premature morning a morning for
them as well.
132
 Esther Makaay
Creative by nature, a philosopher at
heart and (techno)logic in mind, I
enjoy my front row seat of Internet
history by working on new business
development at SIDN, the Dutch
registry for the .nl-domain.

contact me
@esthermakaay

133 134
Question:
The analogy to “if your house burned
down, and there’s one thing (not
person or pet) you could save, what
would it be?” So the analogy follows,
that if the Internet burned down,
and there was one specific thing you 1984

could save/rescue, what would that 0100011001

be? (Answers might consist of an Ahhhhhhhh
SAVE ME!
account to a social networking site,
the e-mail to a specific address,
the digital photo’s you publish
somewhere, your address-book, but not
everything, like ‘my digital backup’.)

135 136
ROB WALKER {A:
I guess there is two ways of thinking
about this, one is a less interesting
short term way, you know if, if you
told me the internet was going to burn
down right now I would want to sort of
protect my email because it’s a lot of
live communication that is still going
on there that I would be in trouble
if I lost but… I think that probably
the more interesting thing would be…,
I am an unusual case I guess because
I am a writer I have a lot of finished
public published works online like at
the New York Times site and some other
sites but in particular probably the
finished work, the published work, on
the Times site I would like that to ah
survive and the personal projects is a
difficult one, there is a project that
I am involved in that I am involved in
actually called significant objects
that’s about, its sort of fiction
it’s about thrift store objects and I
would like that probably of the work
that I have done of the stuff that I
have done that isn’t sort of you know
residing on a mainstream publication
website that is probably the thing
that I would most like to survive
but it would be a pretty tough call.
because there is some other personal,
you know but all of this is more work
related stuff, like and work meaning
both what I do for a living, but
137
ROB WALKER
also just projects that are not so
much about me as about, well they
are about me but they are work that
I’ve done as opposed to just like my
personal photographs or you know I
have a Facebook account and all that
kinda stuff but I have very little
there that I would be to terribly
heartbroken to lose, so I guess it’s
a kind of a traditional answer, in
that I want work to survive as opposed
to, as opposed to personal stuff.
Personal stuff I would probably, if I
ever get my act together would see to
it in fact, that it doesn’t survive
me. I just want the work that I feel
like has been, the stuff that I feel
like has been really thought through,
vetted and well while it may be less
personal, its more important to me
that that stuff survive.
138
 Prof. JOHN WOOD
John’s main focus, at present, is
the development of a new approach to
design practice: ‘metadesign’.

John’s first job at Goldsmiths was

Deputy Head of the Fine Art Department
(from 1978-1988). After ten years he
co-wrote, and ran, an unusually broad,
reflective and ethically oriented
BA(Hons) degree in design. This
programme helped to launch the current
Department of Design.

John has published over 100 papers

and articles on ethics and design
in the age of over consumption. His
first book, ‘The Virtual Embodied’
(Routledge, 1998) explored the ethical
implications of different types
of situated practice and his most
recent book “The Design of Micro-
Utopias; thinking beyond the possible”
(Ashgate, 2007) suggests that we can
govern ourselves better using ‘design
thinking’.

Links
http://metadesigners.org/tiki/tiki-
index.php

contact me
@metadesigners

139 140
Question:(voice-Actor)
They have just discovered a new star
[sun] that is 250 times bigger than
any they thought to be physically
possible...can a deeper awareness/
empathy with the vast universe,
through the sharing of oneself and the
virtual embodiment enabled through
1984

the mass of digital networks, make

the idea of one’s own physical death
seem less like a tragic erasure of
ego, and more like a privileged
submersion into an ancestral ocean?

141 142
AHMET SEKERCIOGLU {A:
What is that?! I need to think
carefully now… I think eh. What I
am thinking is, its definitely... I
don’t agree with that. I, I think that
physical death is definitely a tragic
erasure of ego, I don’t care about
getting submerged into an ancestral
ocean because I won’t be aware of it
anyway, therefore I disagree. Um,
that’s my thought at the moment.

At least theoretically it is possible.

Yes I think it is theoretically
possible that human body will become
less important in the future that
you just store your consciousness
into a medium which will be… wont die
basically and will refresh itself
somehow through some kind of energy
source. Would that be…. would that
be…. make the physical death redundant
or less like a tragic erasure of ego?
It is possible Yes Yes it is possible.
but we are long long way away from
that, maybe a thousand years.

143 144
 Niels de jong
Niels de Jong is a Research Masters
student in Groningen, The Netherlands.
His main focus is religion and
modernity, specialising in
Christianity in Western-Europe.

In his academic future he would like

to write his master thesis on David
Icke, a conspiracy theorist who
spreads his ideas mainly through the
Internet but also organizes a lot of
seminars to which all kinds of people
are drawn.

Furthermore on a personal level, he

like to read (currently reading Anna
Karenina by Leo Tolstoy) and listen
to music (metal, blues, jazz, reggea
etc.) Play the MMOG Travian and play
‘real-life’ RISK with friends.

145 146
Question:
Is it possible to draw any parallels
between recent developments in the
music industry regarding something
people like to call ‘fusion’, a
mixture of musical styles which
doesn’t represent a single genre and
the boom of Internet data that creates
mass de-contextualization of personal
data. As with the example of ‘fusion’
music is there anything perhaps to be
gained from engaging in this ‘rich’
mix?

147 148
MICHELA MAGAS {A:
The whole of the internet is already a
data fusion, I mean that’s the whole
principle of the whole thing. In many
ways I think the idea of the fusion
in music happened more as a result of
the data fusion that was enabled by
technologies as opposed to the other
way round, as fusion always happens at
the crossover of cultures. One of
the best things that happened in
Britain was the integration of second
generation Punjabi culture into
western music and some great stuff
has emerged out of that. So things at
those junctions.. things always end up
very interesting.. but the whole of
the world wide web concept is that,
intrinsicly. So is there anything to
be gained? Well, everything really -
it’s everything that we’ve done and
that we know and that we’ve based our
lives on in recent times really, that
has been a result of the fusion.
There is a fusion of the different
personalities that you have left
behind (famously we do generate
personalities for each type of
application: it requires us to
generate a personality) and depending
on what that application is for, you
will be a different person on facebook
(famously) then you are on Linkedin
for instance, (I mean - that’s like
149
MICHELA MAGAS
a cliché..) but that’s how it is..
so if you collate the lot, you see
how this person sees themselves in
terms of one and not the other. There
is a personality fusion that happens
between all those different portals.
So from the stuff that you leave
behind there will be bits that apply
to different parts of your life, that
are quite different. But that again I
think is a reflection of this medium -
its whatever you try and draw out of
people, how it’s installed in the
first place: the tools kind of
dictate, the tools kind of inform
you as to what they want from you
as well.. so how is that going to
reflect? There is more of a fusion
going on than just the few key
pointers that some of these available
tools show about a person.. there’s
more then that and it would be really
interesting to see, if you started
with this in mind (started creating a
fusion personality - started creating
a fusion of different tools that will
enable a personality to show different
aspects of oneself in one place) how
that would look, because you are so
limited by what you are asked to be
in different places on the web, you
almost sort of have to conform to be
a particular type or... Just think of
the rubbish interface on LinkedIn
150
MICHELA MAGAS
(am I allowed to say rubbish without
someone throwing a libel case at me?
:)) I mean its completely hopeless,
you have to be the good boy who is
employed, who has regular jobs from
this date to that date, otherwise you
don’t fit in.. so even people who
don’t have anything of the sort.. they
tend to box themselves into something
in order to actually be on that site.
So you end up with a fusion of stuff
that’s almost like “boxy things”..
so what kind of fusion are you going
to get out of that? :) It would be
an interesting thing to look at what
would genuinely create a fusion, a
digital fusion. What would that really
look like?.. I think it would be an
interesting thing to look at.. so I
mean, its not a rich mix with the
tools that we have available at the
moment..

151 152
 Duncan fairfax
Duncan lectures on the MA Design
Critical Practice, and MRes in Design
at Goldsmiths. He is also the PhD
research associate on the “Mediatised
View” research project that is part
of the larger Leverhulme funded
Goldsmiths research programme on the
“Future of Media.”

His research interests include the

limitations and contraints of the
“productivist metaphysics” of design
theory and practice, the significance
of various strains within contemporary
“materialist” philosophy to their
possible reconceptualisation, and the
question of the “ontogenetic” quality
of design in general.

Links
http://www.aut.ac.nz/material_
thinking/materialthinking2/people/
consultingauthors.html

contact me
@duncanfairfax

153 154
Question:
Is there any fundamental difference
between the so called “technological”
and the “natural” or is the natural
always already intrinsically
supplemented by the technological – 1984

especially in the context of the human

condition – and if this is the case
how do we begin to construct any basis
from which to critique or evaluate the
question of the ethical significance
of the technological mediate of our
condition, whether that is asked in
the context of emotion, bereavement,
grief, or identity.

155 156
STACEY PITSILLIDES {A: do we begin to evaluate that, when
we are so intrinsically built into
these systems. And if these systems
I think I am going to break down
are actually having an effect on how
this question a little bit slowly
our brains work and how our minds
and try and answer each bit a little
work, than perhaps there really is
bit in turn. So, the first part of
no way of really stepping back from
the question talks about this idea
that and beginning to ethically
of whether there is any difference
kind of evaluate it in any kind of
between the technological and the
a real way but I guess the question
natural, or is the natural is already
is maybe we have to try. It talks
intrinsically supplemented by the
about the ethical significance of the
technical? Now in my readings thus
technological mediate of our condition
far especially looking at the work
and whether that is asked in the
of Bernard Stiegler. There a co-
context of emotion, bereavement. So,
development of our societies and the
perhaps when we are talking about
way we exist within the world and
something as emotionally charged as
our technics so the way we develop
bereavement, grief and identity we
technologies and the way we are
do need to think about the way we act
developing within those systems, so
within these systems and how these
to think about something like the
systems are affecting us and perhaps
human condition perhaps there is
progression does not always mean going
no way of separating out what is
forward, perhaps there is a way other
intrinsically natural and what is
than the technologically mediated
perhaps something we that have created
society to readdress these issues and
and thus becomes technological. So
to think about how these things like
then, to take it a bit further how do
bereavement, grief or identity are
we begin to construct any basis from
being augmented or changed within the
which to critique or to evaluate, the
virtual space. And that is a question
question of ethical significance
I think for our futures, that should
so I guess that means we have to go
be an important part of us going
back and really think about what is
‘forward,’ because perhaps like I said
it we are really making, if we are
forward is not forward.
as human being in the human condition
making the internet than how does
that actually effect our lives in a
really kind of pragmatic way and how
157 158
 Judi clark
Judi Clark has been involved with
the subject of identity and identity
management for many years. She’s
blogged (on other blogs) about this
since late 2002.

Judi is a personal coach, and a group

coach. If you want to get personal
about your self (or selves) she is
the person to call on. She is also a
business coach for companies who wish
to understand who they are and what
path they might take into this new
“social media” world. She is a unique
interpreter and trail guide here to
support your interests.

Links
http://digitalIDcoach.com/

contact me
@judico
@IDcoach

159 160
Question:
1984

When someone dies, others grieve the

loss. The grieving process is healing
for those that continue living. To
aid in the healing process, we might
wish to give advance thought to how we
want to be remembered in the digital
domain. What questions should we
be asking to help guide us? Should
we and how can we begin to develop
“Best Practices” or “Frequently Asked
Questions” about this?

161 162
ROLAND VAN RIJSWIJK {A:
That’s a very hard question to answer
because to be able to answer that
question you need to have already
thought how you want to be remembered
offline in the real world and that
is in itself a difficult question
to answer, right? Do you want to be
buried, would you like to be cremated,
would you like a church service etc
and this adds a whole new dimension to
the dilemma and I guess people feel
uncomfortable thinking about their own
death and how they would like to be
remembered. So I guess online the same
thing applies. If you think about this
are you willing to write that down
etc. It’s a hard question to answer.
ROLAND VAN RIJSWIJK
probably also applies to the person
from the insurance company who visits
the people that are left behind.
Right now, when someone dies the
owner of the funeral home or whatever
organization is going to arrange the
funeral usually comes by to discuss
options with the families and perhaps
they should include something like
an on line page where people could
offer their condolences or an on line
page, which contains an area where
people could leave memories of the
deceased and I think that is something
that could be incorporated into some
existing processes.

At the moment there are, if for

instance you get an insurance in case
you die, they usually help you with
a questionnaire about what kind of
things you would want at a funeral
um so I guess that could be extended
to include online remembrance for
instance, would you like websites,
would you like a register where people
can type their condolences for family
and friends, what would you like
this website to look like would you
like pictures on it, of you, or of
things you enjoyed etc so I think that
could probably be incorporated into a
process like that and this
163 164
 Antonis Tryphonos
Antonis Tryphonas has a MA in
Psychology as well as an Masters in
Health Administration.

Since 2000 he has worked for The

Cyprus Association of Cancer Patients
and Friends, as a psychologist as part
of the home care team. His research
interests include bereavement, end of
life care and the burden placed on
care givers.

Links
www.pasykaf.org.cy

165 166
Question:
My question is can we make a list
of all the people we would like to
receive an emotional response from
us after we are dead? And how would
we go about creating this ‘emotional
response’ digitally?

167 168
NATHAN LUSTIG {A:
So the question is asking is there
something we can send almost like an
e-card? When you wouldn’t know exactly
what to say, like “I was thinking
about you” or “you affected my life”.
If I were to die it would get sent
out after I was dead to people that
I wasn’t really good friends with
but people that I might’ve connected
with a little bit or something like
that. I think there is definitely a
place for creating a list of friend’s
maybe facebook friends or twitter
followers people that you just have
online connections to or even offline
connections to but are not people
you would see every day or even every
week, that you might not have a deep
connection to. I think there is
definitely a space in this industry,
and just in the digital afterlife
to be able to send someone out that
notifies everyone that everyone that
you actually have died.
Sort of a little bit of a pivot on
this question is how will we know when
our friends die even 50 years ago
people would look in the newspaper for
obituaries to find out when someone
had died but I cant actually remember
the last time I look at a physical
newspaper and so if one of my friends
were to die or someone in my family
169
NATHAN LUSTIG
were to die except for my close family
I might find out on line either via
email or facebook or twitter or
something like that and its going to
be interesting to see how that changes
or develops from a former industry
that was all on paper to being digital
and how that effects people getting
notified about death. Would facebook
and twitter be too impersonal or would
you rather have a phone or a service
or something I am not really sure
where it will end up but I definitely
do believe there is going to be a
space for notification and emotional
response to those people who are not
in your close circle of friends and
family but you still want to let
people know you have died.
170
 1984
\\QUESTION
RELAY\\
WAS
1984

1984

DESIGNED
1984

CURATED AND
1984
DOCUMENTED
BY

1984
1984
1984 1984
1984
STACEY
PITSILLIDES
1984

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1984 1984
1984 1984 1984 1984

1984 1984
1984 1984 1984