Skip to content
1981
  1. Home
  2. A-Z Publications
  3. Journal of Environmental Media
  4. Volume 1, Issue Supplement 1
  5. Article
Volume 1 Number Supplement 1
  • ISSN: 2632-2463
  • E-ISSN: 2632-2471
file format pdf download PDF

Abstract

Across cultures, death has traditionally encompassed diverse material and ritual assemblages. Funeral practices are a unifying element of death, presenting an opportunity for communal memorialization of the deceased. These practices are environmentally embedded, spanning traditional graveyards and floral memorials, to contemporary green burials and body farms. However, COVID-19 has disrupted socio-environmental practices, due to disease transmission concerns that have manifested new constraints to funerary space. Here, I contemplate the digital deathscape during COVID-19 through three vignettes: the first considers Hart Island mass-burial drone footage and the emergence of a necropticon. The second vignette considers the emergence of domestic deathscapes and their significance to digitally broadcast (DB) funerals. The third vignette, Billy’s funeral, gives interview-based insights into the porous domestic deathscape of a DB funeral guest, Samantha. All three vignettes contemplate the experience of remotely sensing the deathscape and the scenarios that arise when traditionally hidden or ‘in-place’ death rituals arise ‘out-of-place’.

© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Intellect Ltd.
This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY). To view a copy of the licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jem_00032_1
2020-06-01
2025-12-05
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/jem/1/s1/jem.1.supp.11.1_Alexis-Martin.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1386/jem_00032_1&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Arhin-Sam, E.. ( 2014;), ‘ Death rituals in the new diaspora: Funerals in the lives of Ghanaians in South Florida. ’, Ph.D. thesis, Florida International University Digital Commons. Miami, USA.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Arnold, M.,, Gibbs, M.,, Kohn, T.,, Meese, J., and Nansen, B.. ( 2017), Death and Digital Media, Abingdon:: Routledge;.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. BBC ( 2020;), ‘ Coronavirus: New York mass graves operations ramp up amid virus. ’, 10 April, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-52243289/coronavirus-new-york-mass-graves-operations-ramp-up-amid-virus. Accessed 13 May 2020.
  4. Birtchnell, T.. ( 2017;), ‘ Drones in human geography. ’, in B. Warf. (ed.), Handbook on Geographies of Technology, Cheltenham:: Edward Elgar Publishing;, pp 231–241.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Bowring, J.. ( 2011;), ‘ Containing marginal memories: The melancholy landscapes of Hart Island (New York), Cockatoo Island (Sydney), and Ripapa Island (Christchurch). ’, Memory Connection, 1:1, pp. 232–270.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Bush, K. J.. ( 2017;), ‘ Over my dead modem: Death memorialization and technology in 21st century United States. ’, Master’s thesis, Indiana State University. Indiana, USA.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. DaRienzo, G.. ( 2020;), ‘ Exploring grief in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. ’, Order of the Good Death, 13 May, http://www.orderofthegooddeath.com/exploring-grief-in-animal-crossing-new-horizons. Accessed 4 June 2020.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Engelmann, L.. ( 2018;), ‘ The burial pit as bio-historical archive. ’, in Histories of Post-Mortem Contagion, C. Lynteris, and N. Evans. (eds), Cham:: Palgrave Macmillan;, pp. 189–211.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Foucault, M.. ( 1975;), ‘ Discipline and punish. ’, in Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, New York:: Vintage Books;, pp. 195–228.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Gibbs, M.,, Meese, J.,, Arnold, M.,, Nansen, B., and Carter, M.. ( 2015;), ‘ #Funeral and Instagram: Death, social media, and platform vernacular. ’, Information, Communication & Society, 18:3, pp. 255–68.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Miller, L.. ( 2020;), ‘ Our way of holding you: A Brooklyn rabbi on what it’s like to officiate a funeral over Zoom. ’, The Cut, 24 April, https://www.thecut.com/amp/2020/04/what-its-like-to-officiate-a-funeral-service-over-zoom.html. Accessed 13 May 2020.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Pearson, J.. ( 2020;), ‘ You can see New York City’s mass graves from space. ’. Motherboard – Tech by Vice. 6 April 2020, https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/v74ap9/you-can-see-new-york-citys-mass-graves-from-space. Accessed 13 May 2020.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Muzaini, H.. ( 2017;), ‘ Necrogeography. ’, in D. Richardson,, N. Castree,, M. F. Goodchild,, A. Kobayashi,, W. Liu, and R. A. Marston. (eds), International Encyclopaedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment and Technology, Hoboken, NJ:: Wiley-Blackwell;, pp. 40–49.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Nansen, B.,, Kohn, T.,, Arnold, M.,, van Ryn, L., and Gibbs, M.. ( 2017;), ‘ Social media in the funeral industry: On the digitization of grief. ’, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 61:1, pp. 73–89.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Nemorin, S.. ( 2017;), ‘ Post-panoptic pedagogies: The changing nature of school surveillance in the digital age. ’, Surveillance and Society, 15:2, pp. 239–25.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. NYCC ( 2015;), ‘ Committee on public safety. ’, Int 0589-2014, 23 November, https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=444000&GUID=CABD323A-67DF-4C55-8DEE-EE63BC2CBFB3&Options=&Search=. Accessed 13 May 2020.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Perry, H. L.. ( 1993;), ‘ Mourning and funeral customs. ’, in D. P. Irish,, K. F. Lundquist, and V. K. Nelsen. (eds), Ethnic Variations in Dying, Death, and Grief: Diversity in Universality, Abingdon:: Taylor & Francis;, pp. 51–65.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Pitte, J. R.. ( 2004;), ‘ A short cultural geography of death and the dead. ’, GeoJournal, 60:4, pp. 345–51.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Sanders, G.. ( 2012;), ‘ Branding in the American funeral industry. ’, Journal of Consumer Culture, 12:3, pp. 263–82.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Sheppard-Simms, E.. ( 2016;), ‘ Islands of the abject: Absence, trauma and memory in the cemetery island. ’, Landscapes of Violence, 4:1, p. 2.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Sidaway, J. D.. ( 2016), Deathscapes: Spaces for Death, Dying, Mourning and Remembrance, Abingdon, UK:: Routledge;.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Sutherland, T.. ( 2017;), ‘ Making a killing: On race, ritual, and (re)membering in digital culture. ’, Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture, 46:1, pp. 32–40.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Alexis-Martin, Becky. ( 2020;), ‘ Sensing the deathscape: Digital media and death during COVID-19. ’, Journal of Environmental Media, 1:Supplement, pp. 11.1–11.8, doi: https://doi.org/10.1386/jem_00032_1
     [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/jem_00032_1
Loading
  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): deathscapes; digital media; digitally mediated funerals; drones; funerals; necrogeography; necropticon; surveillance

Most Cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test