Designing Death

Project Leads: Johanna Schmeer and Anna-Luise Lorenz

Number of participants: 20

Duration: 5 days

Project Outline:

Contrary to other cultures, in which death is omnipresent and understood as an essential part of life, death is a taboo subject in our contemporary Western culture. While its culture and rituals traditionally stem from the realm of religion and the church, the diminishing of their social and cultural importance increasingly leave a void. Design is moving into all aspects of our lives, but death remains a space curiously untouched by design.

In times of AI chatbots impersonating the deceased, Silicon Valley’s techno-utopian visions of eliminating death altogether, the emergence of coffin clubs and death doulas, and an increasing fascination with the differing attitudes to death in other cultures, we will investigate contrasting visions of and approaches to death. We will explore what it means to “design” death – to engage with it, make it visible, to celebrate life through it – designing new rituals, objects, interactions, and processes for death in the 21st century.

In the workshop we will use a new method of conceptual and speculative design, in which fictional scenarios are designed and explored, before discussing and redeveloping these into to closer-to-reality concepts and designs.

Timetable:

Day 1
Visit to City of London Cemetery and Crematorium (Field trip)
Welcome and introductions
Talk by guest speakers

Day 2
Introduction to speculative design and the design approach we will be using in the workshop
A talk about death in the context of design
Speculative design prototyping session guided by pre-prepared research
Presentation and discussion of ideas

Day 3 
Collaborative or individual design and prototyping
End of day: presentation on the current status of the projects

Day 4
Collaborative or individual design and prototyping
Visit Dia de los Muertos celebrations in the evening

Day 5 
Collaborative or individual design and prototyping
Film or photography documentation
Final presentation and exhibition / performance (open to all members of the College)