UCLIC Seminar - Emergent digital memorialisation practices

Speaker: Dr Wendy Moncur, University of Dundee

Memorialization is a ubiquitous human practice, with deep roots in culture and tradition. As digital technologies increasingly pervade our lives, opportunities are created to memorialise and to sustain the bereaved’s continuing bonds with the dead in new ways. While memorials that utilise digital technologies are becoming increasingly common, the design space for digital memorials is an emergent one. In this talk, I’ll describe a novel framework for digital memorials, situated in the context of contemporary digital existence ,  and provide a case study of its use in creating a bespoke memorial for a bereaved parent.

The talk draws on material from the following papers and book chapters: Moncur, W. (2016). Living Digitally. In S. Groes (Ed.), Memory in the Twenty-first Century: Critical Perspectives from the Sciences and Arts and Humanities. Palgrave Macmillan. Moncur, W. (2015). Digital ownership across lifespans. In C. Garratini & D. Prendergast (Eds.), Ageing and the Digital Life Course. Berghahn Books. Moncur, W., & Kirk, D. (2014). An Emergent Framework for Digital Memorials. In Proc. DIS’14 (pp. 965–974). Vancouver, Canada: ACM Press. Moncur, W., M Julius, Hoven, E. van den, & Kirk, D. (2015). Story Shell: The Participatory Design Of A Bespoke Digital Memorial. In Proc PIN-C 2015. Den Haag, Netherlands. Retrieved from http://sites.thehagueuniversity.com/pinc2015/home

About the speaker: Dr Wendy Moncur, FRSA is a Reader in Socio-Digital Interaction at the University of Dundee, where she leads the Living Digital group (www.livingdigital.ac.uk). She is also a Visiting Scholar at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia, an Associate Director of the Social Dimensions of Health Institute in Scotland, and an Associate of the Centre for Death and Society (University of Bath). Her research is grounded in Human Computer Interaction, and focuses on human experiences enacted in a digital age. She has been involved in grants totalling £2.7 Million since 2011, through an EPSRC Personal Fellowship and as a Principal Investigator/ Co-investigator. Full details of Wendy’s publications can be found at http://bit.ly/1kQx2zH. Her next research project, ‘TAPESTRY’, is funded under the EPSRC TIPS program, and will explore normative online behaviour in social groups.

Time: Wednesday 8th June, 3pm

Venue: 66-72 Gower Street, Room 405