The future of mourning in Singapore: an exploration into the use of digital memorials for dealing with loss

Abstract

In South-East Asia, numerous cities are experiencing a dire shortage of columbarium spaces as population density increases and land for the dead diminishes to make way for the living. For a land-scarce city-state such as Singapore, there is an urgent need for the country to find ways of circumventing this impending columbarium crisis while ensuring that the social need of its people to remain present in the world, even beyond death, is appeased. Following the global rise in online memorial sites and services, one potential avenue that Singapore can tap into is the use of virtual spaces to mourn and immortalize the dead. As such, this project aims to create an interactive memorial website that explores the use of virtual spaces for preserving and extending the personhood of an individual after death.

To inform the design of the project’s envisioned outcome, an online survey was conducted among 31 respondents between the ages of 15 to 35 in Singapore on their perception of memorial websites. This age group was chosen as they are the demographic of Singaporeans that would most likely be impacted by the country’s shortage of columbarium spaces in the future. From the results gathered, the survey found significant gaps in the design, functionality, and visibility of local memorial websites that must be resolved in order to convince younger Singaporeans of the feasibility of online memorials as alternatives or supplements to traditional modes of memorialization.

Unlike other memorial websites, the project’s final deliverable - Memori is centered around the concept of creating a “second home” for the dead. In Memori, users are able to design a virtual room for their loved ones using customizable furniture and objects. Upon entering a room, visitors are able to interact with four main objects to access information about the deceased: 1) a calendar that displays a timeline of events, 2) a letterbox that features a wall of messages left behind by family and friends, 3) a large picture frame that shows a short biography of the deceased, and 4) a small picture frame that presents a gallery of photographs uploaded by visitors.

Design Art: Visual Communication

Keywords: Digital Memorialization, Identity Preservation, Spatial Transcendence, Virtual Space, Necrogeography, Death rites, Web Design