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/ Communication at end of life.
Why not talk about it? Visit dyingseries.ca
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/ Originated by: Dr. Kate Sellen, Karen Oikonen, Maria Cheung
/ Collaborators: Dying.series collective / Community Partner: DesignTO |
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/ Overview
Key Words: Death, dying, design, art, festival
Dying. is an event series running in conjunction with DesignTO, Canada’s largest design festival. The Dying.series offers an opportunity to creatively engage in conversation about death, dying, and grief through the lens of art and design. |
Background: In the Dying. series, dying and death is explored by researchers, artists, designers, and medical practitioners in collaboration with people from the public and the wider community. Past events included in Dying. have included art-making workshops, public art shows, public lectures, participatory art installations, participatory design workshops, and evidence-based game play. Our goal is to enable and encourage dialogues between social science and humanities researchers, the public and the larger community on issues associated with dying and death. Through these events, researchers in a variety of fields and disciplines have had the opportunity to share their expertise and learn from colleagues, while simultaneously engaging in knowledge mobilization with the public.
Need: Traditionally, death has been imagined as a moment of transition. In North America during the twentieth century, the place of death shifted from the home to the hospital, medicine came to dominate the discourse about death and dying, and death itself came to be conceived as a problem to be controlled or prevented. This has resulted in the widespread Western denial of death as a part of life, meaning often people are unprepared to face death when it occurs. Death denial is overcome by bringing death out of the closet; hence, the rise in recent years of 'death cafes,' 'hospice hikes,' 'death festivals,' 'death exhibits', 'death with dignity events,' and a host of other such initiatives. |
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/ Engagement
The Dying.series was founded by Maria Cheung, CEO at Taboo Health, participatory designer and researcher, Karen Oikonen, and Dr. Kate Sellen, Director of the Health Design Studio at OCAD U. Over the past five years, the Dying.series has attracted over 5000 attendees, 26 speakers, including 4 opening and keynote speakers in the disciplines of design and healthcare and 29 exhibiting artists and designers. In the first 4 years, the Dying.series has had two primary components: Dying.exhibits an exhibit installation hosted at Artscape Youngplace as part of the match a designer program of the DesignTO design festival, and Dying.dialogues a speaker event lead by Dr. Kate Sellen at OCAD U. In June of 2023, co-founder Maria Cheung stepped back from the Dying.series which will now be co-led by Karen and Kate while acknowledging the significant contribution of Maria and Taboo Health through the Dying.series first four years.
/ Components
Dying.dialogues:
A symposium on design and death, dying, and grief that invites participants to share and reflect on design practice as it relates to death and dying. A variety of work is shared in this event whether these be speculative, exploratory works, community engagements, or interventions for specific groups or circumstances. The symposium engages inter-disciplinary participants - designers, artists, scholars, health care practitioners and the wider public to come together to explore wide-ranging topics on end of life. These dialogues are an opportunity to engage with diverse perspectives and participate in open conversations about death, dying, grief, and design. |
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Dying.exhibit:
An exhibition series on end of life that invites participants to think about their relationship with life and death as a process. The exhibition serves as an opportunity to engage with diverse perspectives and participate in open discussion about death and dying through engaging art and design works and participatory experiences. The Dying.exhibit has previously held in Artscape Youngplace, as well as OCAD University.
An exhibition series on end of life that invites participants to think about their relationship with life and death as a process. The exhibition serves as an opportunity to engage with diverse perspectives and participate in open discussion about death and dying through engaging art and design works and participatory experiences. The Dying.exhibit has previously held in Artscape Youngplace, as well as OCAD University.
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Outdoor Participatory Installation:
In past editions, the Dying.series has developed public outdoor participatory installations, including: Dying threads (2020):
Dying.threads invited the public to reflect on death and dying using natural materials, thread, and seeds. The installation asks participants to consider three choices for their end of life (1) How do you want to be remembered after you die? (2) Where do you want to be when you die? (3) Who do you want to be with you when you die?. Dying.threads generated a web of responses that investigate the varied inter-connected values, perspectives and experiences surrounding death and dying. Before I Die... (2019):
The 'Before I Die' project reimagines the ways the walls of our cities can help us grapple with death and meaning as a community today. Candy Chang, artist and urban planner, created the first ‘Before I Die’ wall on an abandoned house in New Orleans after the death of someone she loved. A ‘Before I Die’ wall was mounted outside OCAD University as part of Dying. series in January 2019. |
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Publication
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Dying._(2020)
Using a Public Event Series As a Research Tool to Open Communication on Death and Dying
Authors: Kate Sellen, Molly McGovern, Emma McGregor, Karen Oikonen, Maria Cheung
Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Design4Health Amsterdam 2020 Vol. 3 July 1-3,2020 ISBN: 978-1-8381117-0-0 |
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