[Air-l] Thoughts wanted on virtual grief-community

[Kylie Veale]

Tascha,

I wrote a paper late last year looking at virtual representations of
memorialisation.  The following is an abstract:

"Virtual Memorialisation: Do Memorials Exist in Cyberspace?

Memorialising the dead is an integral part of human nature that can be
traced back to the dawn of civilization.  With the advent of the Internet
however, a new space, or cyberspace, may allow the living to revere the dead
in geographically diverse and interactive ways. Using a unique model based
on the motivations and characteristics of physical memorials from the past,
this paper seeks to find the presence of memorialisation on the Internet.
It also attempts to understand and categorise these fascinating rituals,
while also investigating possible links between the remembrance of the dead
in the physical space and the virtual."

Please contact me directly should you feel this work is relevant to your
study.

Regards
Kylie


Kylie J. Veale  |  Brisbane, Australia
GradDipInvEnv, MInetStds(Design)
Provisional PhD candidate
 
email:	kylie at veale.com.au  
www:		http://www.veale.com.au/kylie 
 
icq:		27938257
msn:		kyliej at hotmail.com 
yahoo:  	kylie_veale

-----Original Message-----
From: air-l-admin at aoir.org [mailto:air-l-admin at aoir.org] On Behalf Of Tasha
Buch
Sent: Saturday, 17 April 2004 9:16 PM
To: air-l at aoir.org
Subject: [Air-l] Thoughts wanted on virtual grief-community
Importance: High

Dear list-subscribers on AOIR:

I am working on my thesis project which concerns a case study in a Danish
virtual grief-community called Mindet.dk [English: The Memorial]. This
community is a possibillity for bereaved to meet other people who have
lost a beloved one. The website contains functions as a official
guestbook, memorials, light a candle and private foras.



In our contemporary society death and grief is such a taboo. I undertake a
theoretical exploration of the ideas of community, death and griefing in
our society, together with an empirical study of community on Mindet.dk in
order to find out if the Internet can be a new space to fulfill a missing
function in our society.



I would very much like to hear from anyone who has experience or
interesting thoughts about what social aspects (negative aswell as
positive) the Internet can contribute to such a private theme as death and
grief.


Best,


Tasha Buch
Graduate Student
IT-University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Design, Media an Communication Program

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