Tag: death

Categories
Digital

What happens if I die? Online lives on…

http://www.rgbstock.com/photo/mnfkdJe/Black+Ribbon
http://www.rgbstock.com/photo/mnfkdJe/Black+Ribbon

A really interesting article has popped up on Mashable in the last hour – and I’d been talking to my Mum about this this afternoon… what happens to your digital accounts/data when you die? And what should those, such as me (and in fact most people) do to prepare a ‘digital will’ to say what others can do with your accounts if you die?

Jed Brubaker has studied ‘post-mortem social networking’ for 3 years.

“I think what the really interesting thing is here is that the online social networks we have are radically changing our relationship with death,” he said. “It used to be your mom told you someone died. Now, with Facebook that guy you knew in Kindergarden — you’re connected to him, so when he dies you’ll know. Your generation will have more encounters with death than ever before because we’ll never have lost anyone.”

I’m thinking TV immortalised a great many famous people, continually seeing them ‘young’ on TV, but social media takes this to a new level.

See the Facebook ‘If I Die’ app, which allows you to send out your last words as a Facebook status.

Categories
History

Abstract Accepted: Depicting Death at War

socrel

For: http://socrel.org.uk/call-for-papers-socrel-annual-conference-material-religion/ (accepted)

Abstract:

In the Second World War, the second ‘total war’ of the Twentieth Century, death was a daily reality for both those on the fighting fronts and those on the Home Front in Britain.  The Ministry of Information (MOI), officially formed at the outbreak of the Second World War, was the central governmental publicity machine, working with other official bodies, including the War Office. Its role was to tell the citizen ‘clearly and swiftly what he is to do, where he is to do it, how he is to do it and what he should not do’.

Posters produced by the MOI needed to deal with the ever-present reality of death:  How did governmental bodies deal with the representation of death, ensuring that the seriousness of their message was conveyed, whilst avoiding too “starkly realistic posters” for those who “already knew so much of reality”. What are the moral, religious and other discourses drawn upon and depicted within the posters? Are there clear differences between the images aimed at soldiers, industrial worker and civilians? Was humour ever seen as an appropriate tool in relation to the possibility of death? What were some of the more subtle symbols of death which recurred within wartime posters, particularly within health and “Careless Talk” campaigns?

Biographical Details:

Dr Bex Lewis is Research Fellow in Social Media and Online Learning for CODEC, University of Durham. She is both a communications historian and a digital practitioner, with a particular interest in mass-popular forms of communication. The focus of her research, which she is currently developing to book form, is upon British propaganda posters. Further information can be found on http://www.ww2poster.co.uk. Her most recent publication was an article for The Poster Journal on ‘The renaissance of Keep Calm and Carry On’. She has also featured in a range of press coverage, and published with both London Transport Museum and The National Archives.

Categories
Academic Digital

Social Media helps us get over fear of death?

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1381198

Interesting

Today, she argued, social media mean that “like porn, we can access images of death and dying on demand, endlessly, whenever the appetite strikes us…you will find a mind-blowingly diverse selection [of images], from the everyman to the artist, from high art to tawdry neo-realist and downright depressing”.

All this might indicate that we have begun to “transcend the taboo that surrounds talking of death, if not for good, at least for now…similarly to the way in which we can now speak freely about sex and endlessly chronicle our fixation with it”.

The positive interpretation of all this, continued Ms Kioussis, is that artistic  representations can help us “view the image of death as spectators” and “process the concept of our annihilation”.

Read full story. See also the active Facebook group on “Death at Winchester“.

Categories
History

Death Day: May 15th 2010

Death Day Poster

Strand: Either: ‘Death and the Arts’ or ‘Death and Culture’

Title: Death at War

Abstract:

In the Second World War, the second ‘total war’ of the Twentieth Century, death was a daily reality for both those on the fighting fronts and those on the Home Front in Britain.  The Ministry of Information (MOI), officially formed at the outbreak of the Second World War, was the central governmental publicity machine, working with other official bodies, including the War Office. Its role was to tell the citizen ‘clearly and swiftly what he is to do, where he is to do it, how he is to do it and what he should not do’.

Posters produced by the MOI needed to deal with the ever-present reality of death, whilst it was often difficult to be too realistic, as graphic images of death would not necessarily have been well received. How did governmental bodies deal with the representation of death, ensuring that the seriousness of their message was conveyed, whilst avoiding too “starkly realistic posters” for those who “already knew so much of reality”. Are there clear differences between the images aimed at soldiers, industrial worker and civilians? Was humour ever seen as an appropriate tool in relation to the possibility of death? What were some of the more subtle symbols of death which recurred within wartime posters, particularly within health and “Careless Talk” campaigns?

Biographical Details:

Dr Bex Lewis is Lecturer in History, Associate Lecturer in Media Studies and Blended Learning Fellow at the University of Winchester.  The focus of her research is upon British propaganda posters, further information can be found on http://www.ww2poster.co.uk. Her most recent publication is a chapter for London Transport Posters: A Century of Art and Design, and she was a major contributor to: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/theartofwar/.

For more: Facebook Group: Death at Winchester