Publication: The Algorithm of Mourning Subtitle
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Type
Thesis
Degree
BA
Date
2025
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
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Published Version
Abstract
As climate change leads to increasing displacement, loss, and instability, grief is becoming more frequent and multi-layered. At the same time, globalization and digitalization are challenging the relevance and accessibility of traditional mourning practices. This project explores how societies in 2100 might respond to this by outsourcing grief to artifi cial intelligence. It imagines two scenarios: one influenced by American individualism and commercialized self-care, the other by Chinese collectivism and state-guided ritual.
Using speculative design, two videos were created to represent these imagined futures. Both centered around an AI-supported memory reconstruction process that occurs during sleep, visualised through a TouchDesigner animation projected onto a pillow—featured in the American setting. The Chinese scenario includes a Joss paper offering ritual, inspired by culturally specifi c insights from a qualitative survey with Chinese participants. The visual content of each video was generated using region-specifi c AI tools: Kling AI for the Chinese scenario, and MidJourney and Runway AI for the American.
Together, these prototypes explore how grief might be reshaped through technological mediation and raise critical questions about agency, authenticity, and the future of ritual.