Rest In Pixels: What is it to grieve in our technologically saturated times

Description

From QR codes on headstones, holograms of the dead delivering their own eulogies, digital fragments of lives remaining after death, AI learning to text like the dead, grief influencers, digital séances, and virtual reality allowing us to touch and speak to a likeness of our departed, there is no doubt that today’s technologies are ushering in a tide of new ways to do something very old: grieve for our dead.

This workshop will give an introductory overview of the countless ways that grief and modern digital technologies are meeting. With grief as our central focus, we will explore what it is like to experience loss against the backdrop of the digitally saturated lives we live today, and amid the new technologies at our disposal. With an interactive approach, and drawing on both real-life examples and the latest research evidence, you will be invited to explore the key debates and dilemmas brought about by these new grief contexts, and to look critically at the possibilities and challenges arising in this digital era of grief.

This workshop will offer practical insight on why it’s important to become aware of the digital backdrop of grieving today. With everyday examples and exercises, we will explore how these new contexts touch us all and influence how we understand and experience digital-age grief, and support others within it. The workshop will be both theoretical and experiential and will allow for discussion of the complexities that arise for those grieving in these digital times, and for those who support them.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of the workshop participants will:

• gain an introductory understanding of the great and growing range of ways in which grief and technology are meeting today
• have an increased appreciation of the potential role of digital technologies for those experiencing grief today
• recognise the range and scale of digital remains that can persist at the end of contemporary lives, and understand the potential role of these remains in grieving
• realise the role of technology companies, the modern mediascape and algorithmic environments in shaping how grief is understood and experienced today
• have a practical, everyday understanding of why these digital contexts matter; for those experiencing grief today; for grief-supporting professionals, services and organisations; and for all citizens of modern digital societies
• be equipped to source further reading, appropriate supports and resources.

Presenter Profile

Dr. Mórna O’Connor is a research academic specializing in grief in the digital age. She is currently working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Århus University, Denmark as part of interdisciplinary research consortium Digital Death: Transforming History, Rituals and Afterlife (led by the University of Helsinki and funded by EU CHANSE, Collaboration of Humanities and Social Sciences in Europe). With a background in psychology, Mórna has been researching digital-age grief for ten years, including academic publications, public interest articles and informational videos, installations and numerous media appearances. In 2021, she was awarded a PhD in Health Studies from the University of Nottingham, UK, for a thesis on digital-age grieving entitled: The Digital Memories Study: Grief and deceased-related digital culture - An exploratory, longitudinal, qualitative inquiry.