Media, mortality and necro-technologies: Eulogies for dead media

Abstract

Working at the intersection of death studies and media studies, this article examines what we can learn from the death of media technologies designed for the deceased, what we refer to as necro-technologies. Media deaths illuminate a tension between the promise of persistence and realities of precariousness embodied in all media. This tension is, however, more visibly strained by the mortality of technologies designed to mediate and memorialise the human dead by making explicit the limitations of digital eternity implied by products in the funeral industry. In this article, we historicise and define necro-technologies within broader discussions of media obsolescence and death. Drawing from our funeral industry fieldwork, we then provide four examples of recently deceased necro-technologies that are presented in the form of eulogies. These eulogies offer a stylised but culturally significant format of remembrance to create an historical record of the deceased and their life. These necro-technologies are the funeral attendance robot CARL, the in-coffin sound system CataCombo, the posthumous messaging service DeadSocial and the digital avatar service Virtual Eternity. We consider what is at stake when technologies designed to enliven the human deceased – often in perpetuity – are themselves subject to mortality. We suggest a number of entangled economic, cultural and technical reasons for the failure of necro-technologies within the specific contexts of the death care industry, which may also help to highlight broader forces of mortality affecting all media technologies. These are described as misplaced commercial imaginaries, cultural reticence and material impermanence. In thinking about the deaths of necro-technologies, and their causes, we propose a new form of death, a ‘material death’ that extends beyond biological, social and memorial forms of human death already established to account for the finitude of media materiality and memory.

Urupa Tautaiao: Young Maori explore ancient burial practices towards sustanable approaches

“…Internacionalmente, jovens adeptos da gestão de plataformas de internet têm criado espaços predominantemente de aplicativos de mídia social para comemorar os mortos (Coombs, 2014;Nansen et al, 2021). Os indígenas tomarão decisões sobre novas tecnologias que sejam culturalmente compatíveis e aprimorem nossa relação com o meio ambiente.…”

“…A forma como os jovens não indígenas usam as plataformas para comemorar seus mortos é significativa. Essas plataformas fornecem um espaço para os jovens criarem flores e textos virtuais, reagirem, compartilharem e, de várias maneiras, gestos de apoio e lembrança (Nansen et al 2021). Esses sites são culturalmente apropriados para pessoas não indígenas porque oferecem suporte em tempos difíceis.…”

“…Internationally, young people, adept at managing internet platforms have created spaces predominately social media apps to commemorate the dead (Coombs, 2014;Nansen et al, 2021). Indigenous people will make decisions about new technologies that are culturally compatible and enhances our relationship with the environment.…”

“…The way non-indigenous youth use platforms to commemorate their dead is meaningful. These platforms provide a space for young people create virtual flowers and texts, react, share, an in a multitude of ways gestures of support and remembrance (Nansen et al 2021). These sites are culturally appropriate for non-indigenous people because they are provide support during challenging times.…”

Information science and the inevitable: A literature review at the intersection of death and information management: An Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST) paper

“…Finally, although research on changes to funeral practices and in the funeral industry is outside the scope of this review, it is worth mentioning that technologies are intertwined with the materiality of the funeral practices (Nansen et al, 2014) and therefore death rituals and funerary practices are being changed by information technology (Nansen et al, 2014(Nansen et al, , 2017(Nansen et al, , 2023Uriu et al, 2019), for example through online funerals (Alexis-Martin, 2020) or the application of robots (Arnold et al, 2021;Gould et al, 2021). Thanatotechnology is thus an important intersection of information, technology, and people, including culture; for example, as funeral industries in Western societies become more privatized, their death-related practices are developing toward more individual-focused services (Odom et al, 2010).…”