Abstract

Losing a loved one is devastating and unfortunately friends and family of the deceased often have tendencies towards various degrees of self- destruction during the bereavement process.

As a designer, I am investigating the possibility of exploring design (at an object/system level) as a tool in overcoming bereavement. There are many areas for consideration that have risen in regards to this phenomenon. The main areas of investigation that are of primary interest are:

How to focus on a healthy future during a mourning period, which is primarily nostalgic?

During the Victorian era, wearing jewelry that was designed to represent a loved deceased, mirrored the lives and times of this particular culture. It was a souvenir to remember a loved one, a reminder to the living of the inevitability of death. But is it applicable in our days?

What is the relationship between an object and bereavement in our days, when our society tends to be more bound to digital and celebrates technology?

Social understanding of death and ways of dealing with death have changed dramatically and continually, though perhaps most drastically during the last century. One main characteristic of this change is that the idea of death often becomes a taboo and repressed, and subsequently mourning becomes a private affair. What is the consequence of this change? And when death becomes the center of attention, how could we support a loved one’s bereavement process to focus more on life?

If our understanding of death is more open, will it make bereavement more livable?