BITS OF ASHES: Digital Epitaph Informed by Social Media Data




Type:
Digital Death, Computational Design

Team:
Yinghou WangXinyi Tang

Affiliation: Harvard GSD

Year: 2022

About

With the prevalence of digital technology, virtual presence is no longer the mere mirroring or counterpart of our reality but has become an integrated part of our beings. Just like real objects and assets in the physical world, we create digital content in virtual space, such as texts, messages, images, videos, and sounds. While we eventually rest in peace as ashes underground, our digital selves do not seem to end properly. What happens to our digital remains once we cease to exist physically? How should we announce our digital death? How would we be memorized? Instead of a plain obituary, could we be represented as something unique and beautiful at the end?

Keeping these questions in mind, we developed Bits of Ashes, a project that ceremonially concludes one's digital presence. With sculptural representations made of digital ashes, we aim to top the digital presence with something abstract yet expressive.

With consent, we pull Instagram information as parameters to generate sculptures of digital death. The information is cremated into digital ashes that are abstract yet personal. The ashes are then sculpted in the trace of one's online activities, such as posting, liking, following, and commenting, impressing online identity with comprehensiveness and expressiveness.

**Consent form for participation in Instagram bio (bits.of.ashes) or here: https://forms.gle/Mu8YFgqv2qMfvKMz9




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