The reinvention of death in the 21st century, referred to as ‘The New Death’ by LS:N Global, does not explicitly consider what makes death human: our grief. Yet in the face of an aging society, the global covid pandemic, the mourning over a dying planet, individualism and a redefined spirituality, grief is more present and complex than ever before. Where previously traditions were maintained, this change demands the development of new perspectives. As part of my master's degree, I developed these novel angles on grief culture based on design and trend research. My goal was to make sense of modern grief culture to promote an empathic exchange with grieving people. The content of my studies was published in form of a trend report and further explored in a two-day pop-up exhibition titled ‘New Grief’.
The reinvention of death in the 21st century, referred to as ‘The New Death’ by LS:N Global, does not explicitly consider what makes death human: our grief. Yet in the face of an aging society, the global covid pandemic, the mourning over a dying planet, individualism and a redefined spirituality, grief is more present and complex than ever before. Where previously traditions were maintained, this change demands the development of new perspectives. As part of my master's degree, I developed these novel angles on grief culture based on design and trend research. My goal was to make sense of modern grief culture to promote an empathic exchange with grieving people. The content of my studies was published in form of a trend report and further explored in a two-day pop-up exhibition titled ‘New Grief’.
On the day of my grandmother's funeral, we planted a tree over her cremated ashes in a nearby forest. We recited poetry, played music, and drank wine until we saw the Starlight Express pass overhead late at night. In that moment, I noticed nothing reminded me of how society still portrays grief. My master's thesis examined whether my experience was singular or the result of deeper changes. I began to reflect more on my experience and started doing research on grief communities. Participating in multiple grief workshops prepared me for working with bereaved people and conducting empathic research.
„There is a crack ineverything, there just needs to be a light to shine through it.”
M. Furrer, personal communication, 18.08.2021
A snapshot from one of the workshops: Six participants, ages 20 to 45 years old, two women, four men, sharing their experiences with grief and what needs to be done to reduce stigma.
02
Research
Trends, Fields and Experts (Research)
My inital research showed me that grief encompasses a kaleidoscope of experiences and feelings, making the models we have to talk about grief for many people meaningless. I therefore decided to focus my research less on the purely psychological aspect of it and more on rituals and products and what they tell us about the needs of the bereaved and how they have shifted. Digging deeper into the material i summerized first what grief is:
Grief is a kaleidoscope - Grief simultaneously describes a comprehensive range of feelings and a process that occurs as a consequence of a loss.
Grief is changing - Grief is captured by many models, but ethnographic data continually complicates them, which i was particularly aware of durning my grief workshops.
Grief needs freedom - Despite this, it is agreed that free mourning and its associated culture are essential for mourners' mental health.
This elementry understanding of grief helped me to draw comparisons between the past mourning culture, the present and the future. In order to keep up with change and novelty, I decided to formulate new perspectives through design and trend research, beginning with the latter.
Tough Talks (Expertinterviews)
For the purpose of critically engaging with my findings i started doing expert interviews. This involved seven interviews at three different points in time. Interview phase one was exploratory and open. Research objectives were determined and results were compared. My second phase of interviews was after my doing a lot of trendscanning and netnography. It was focused on reflecting on the phenomena collected and testing my initial theories. The final round was mentorship and critique and took place after finishing my analysis.
“Design can definitely contribute to rethinking grief and asking: How would this look different?”
Andrea Staudacher, personal communication, 12.05.2021
Left to Right: Andrea Staudacher (event designer), Katherine Mazzei (innovation researcher, bereaved), Jennifer Beitel (creative technologist, co-founder of Farvel Grief Room), Meinrad Furrer (pastoral counselor), Charlotte Wiedemann (grief and communication expert), Stefanie Schillmöller (death & grief trend researcher), Lorenz Widmaier (researcher in the field of "Participatory Memory Studies").
The aforementioned trend scanning followed the goal to observe and understand the changes of grief on a western scale, since living in a globalized society meant that nowadays more than ever, cultural grief codes were starting to mix and merge.As a means of documenting the changes in mourning culture, I collected over 250 'Weak Signals'. Identifying these 'Weak Signals' forms one of the most critical aspects of the trend identification process and illustrates the dimensions and spheres of influence of the New Grief.
Dimensionalisation of Keyfactors and first theories of the spheres of influence
At this point i had gathered a large collection of data, consisting of phenomenon complexes, observations and interviews, so that i was able to ease into the next leg of the journey: The analysis. I was comfortable enough to define my research area more precisly as the research on ‘New Grief. This New Grief was constituted through the following insights:
✹ Death and mourning rituals have become more private since medical advances. As traditions are lost and individualism takes over, modern death and mourning rituals are in demand as the bereaved are tasked with creating their own forms of grief communication.
✹ In this private world of mourning, the individual stands apart from socially accepted behavior. This leads to a general uncertainty about mourning and dealing with mourners.
✹ Based on the concept of 'New Death', I define the 'new' mourning as 'New Grief.' This refers to the changes in grief communication that are occurring in the face of aging societies, pandemics, individualism, and a redefined spirituality.
With the help of design and trend research, I, therefore, aim to create a novel view of contemporary mourning culture, which I define as the ‘New Grief’. It stands for an individual and changeable mourning experience outside traditional institutions and models and has been created by people for people.
03
Analysis
Breaking down change (Analysis)
During the analysis phase, I critically engaged with the collected findings and used grounded theory to formulate my own theories from the advancing collection of empirical data. In the transition phase i already started testing theories with speculative design objects and interventions (for more information ↗Hybrid Comfort). Grief analysis requires an understanding of human identity, which is formed by participation in three life systems: individual, social, and environmental.
Expansion of the Trend Cosmos
To understand the New Grief and the changes in grief communication, it is necessary to identify the sociocultural trends most relevant to grief in these three dimensions, which i found by means of categorization and creating a trend kosmos (as seen above):
Ecospiritualism: In Ecospiritualism, nature and our connection to it are reimagined through a spiritual lens. Through this spiritual connection, we negotiate our losses with and within nature.
Shared Connection: Shared Connection is the evolution toward a technologically savvy society that forms its own grief forms and experiences in a phygital space, shares its experiences publicly, and joins together in support communities for personal support.
Autono-me: In the area of Grief Communication influenced by Autono-Me, the new relationship we discover with ourselves is particularly shaped by self-care that tries to understand grief rather than heal it.
With further empirical investigation and application of grounded theory, seven 'grief styles' emerged that describe different facets of the 'New Grief' and provide concrete insights into lived grief. They can be shaped by several of the mentioned trends at the same time. Without my empiricism in the form of interviews and my own experience, I could therefore not derive these grief styles directly from them alone.The seven styles are called: Folk Revival, Nonhuman Nurture, Emotional Wanderlust, Grief Navigators, Ambient Comfort, Memory Pieces, Shared Care.
The seven different grief styles
Their purpose is to convey both the complexity of mourning and the needs and hardships of mourners. Through their help, we can understand how attitudes toward ourselves, the environment, and our social surroundings have changed. As a result, a novel way of dealing with death through mourning is becoming visible. I crossreferenced this grief styles with the sociocultural trends i found to create a sphere of influence:
With this research, the research area of 'New Grief ' took shape and concretized through the formulation of grief styles in a way that allowed for mediation of my research through the trend study 'Hereafter' as well as the artifact, a series of exhibitions called 'New Grief'.
04
Analysis
Designtransfer (Complexity Hiding)
In order to apply the insights gained to the design, design strategies were developed. As well as being a conceptual framework, they communicate grief styles and their content. By doing so, they clarify, stimulate discussion, arouse curiosity, and sensitively communicate changes. Reflecting on my respective roles in the research field, I analyzed different ways to act side by side. The one I chose represented a logical continuation of my research and had the greatest design potential. This step involved structuring and making decisions based on the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis:
Bereaved - Role: Personal / Strategy: Provoke
Designer - Role: Design / Strategy: Provide
Trend researcher - Role: Research / Strategy: Presenting
The SWOT analysis in action - Comparing possible concepts with my role in the field
Due to the novelty and aesthetics of the ethnographic content as well as the diversity and individuality present, the most effective design strategy is to show the research content (Present) in terms of design using grief styles, rather than provoking or designing novel services. Based on my creative framework, I produced two artifacts:
A trendstudy, to fully workout and showcase my theories, as well as an exhibition, that would take my findings and make them interactable.
Left to right: Mindmap used as a basis of the ‘Hereafter’ Trendstudy as well as an exploration of how the exhibition was to structured for certain desirable effects
Presenting Grief Culture (Exhibition Design)
An exhibition (whether digital or analog) is easily accessible, provides a platform for interaction with the expressions of grief explored, can be as enlightening as it is inspiring, and forms a potential site for encounter and discussion. Taking this into account i decided that a single 'altar' is dedicated to each style, while a unifying system links the stations together, creating a holistic exhibition concept.\
First Concept versus the final draft (siteplan and consequently brochure)
I organized the exhibition to take place at the Kulturhaus Helferei in Zurich. For the name of the exhibition, I decided on 'New Grief'. The exhibition draws no boundaries between mourners and non-mourners based on my mourning style 'Mitgestaltet'. I targeted curious, knowledge-seeking, and thoughtful people who want to engage with the topic.
working on setting up the exhibit with Laura Kaufmann and Maher Akraa
Visitors were encouraged to interact and participate in New Grief. Due to this, each altar could be sensually explored. The floor was adorned with a sinuous line to illustrate the chaos of grief. Each altar included a short explanation text and prompts for interaction. This could be a brief pause in the ‘Ambient Comfort Tent’ or a reflection on how one wants to be mourned. It was amazing to observe the variety of interactions.
The proto-exhibition far exceeded my expectations for public engagement with the topic of grief, with over a hundred visitors in the two days of opening. After the finish of the exhibit i decided to create a small video (Link below) to make the observed interactions accessible also to people who were not able to go.
Deciphering New Grief (Trendreport)
The trend study 'Hereafter' identified that grief is a difficult field of research to narrow down and is in a constant state of change. Using design and trend research, the research produced in the study offers a new look at contemporary grief culture, defined as 'New Grief '. This stands for an individual and changeable grief experience outside of traditional institutions and models and has been created by people for people.
The trend study 'Hereafter' identified that grief is a difficult field of research to narrow down and is in a constant state of change. Using design and trend research, the research produced in the study offers a new look at contemporary grief culture, defined as 'New Grief '. This stands for an individual and changeable grief experience outside of traditional institutions and models and has been created by people for people.
Insight, Foresight and Reflexion
A year and a half of research into grief helped me develop expertise in grief expressions. In addition, I developed a vocabulary and phenomenological overview of contemporary grief. Future research in the field of 'New Grief' can also benefit from the additional data collected during the exhibit.Consequently, digitization of the exhibition and a focus on the other two design strategies are possible with more funding. The role of gender in grief, as well as how the Silver Society, transhumanism, and advancing medical possibilities influence grief, could also be addressed by this.
How i want to be grieved: One of many interesting insights of the exhibit was how people wished their loved ones would grieve for them
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