Could death really be so gentle with the help of technology?

The Latin phrase memento mori, meaning, “remember you will die”, denotes objects which remind us of our mortality. What alternative memento mori practices and rituals might be created in light of current developments in technology and science?

Cloaked in the fictional identity of The MeMo Organization, these ten objects are each accompanied by a short story that explores a range of poetic rituals and attitudes towards death and mourning in relation to emerging developments in science, philosophy and technology.

The research ranges over a wide field, including the relatively recent medicalization and banishment of death and mourning from public experience, the emergence of palliative and hospice care, the funeral industry and the green burial movement, the impact of new digital and biological technologies, and a growing desire for increased meaning in the service of a dying self.

Research has been distilled into a collection of tools which facilitate a series of intimate narratives voiced by characters struggling in various ways with mortality. The characters remain anonymous in these short stories where love and loss are recurring motifs.