1.1 Background
Since more and more cancer patients were diagnosed, how to help people go through the days before death were the main task of this research. Without
exception, death is an event of being separated from loved ones. When facing death, with the urgency of limited time, people are also aware that they will never have another chance to communicate with their loved ones. The limit of time makes people panic but also activates the process of preparing something for their loved ones. Psychologically, there are several stages people undergo when facing death:
after experiencing the feeling of resistance and then truly accepting the inevitability of death, they would review their lives and share their memories with their family in bidding them farewell(Maeda, Hagihara, Kobori, & Nakayama, 2006). In this situation, what kinds of symbolic objects would people leave for the sake of remaining within their loved ones’ hearts and memories, as well as present their hopes of retaining a connection between themselves and their loved ones through the memorial relics.
People tended to build a new connection with their families which were about to be lost; they believed that there will be a different space for their loved ones, such as heaven, where they can dream of their families and have dialogues with them. The development of a bond is conscious, dynamic, and changing(Silverman, Klass, &
Nickman, 1996). In this research, the main purpose focused on the perspectives of those who left. Most of the people have the experiences of bereavement, when they face to the death by themselves, they will imagine the grief of their loved ones and trying to do something to release the grief and help their loved ones to develop the new bonds. From this perspective, how to help people keeping something they think important are valuable, in previous studies, we found that people have a need to leave something for their loved ones. There are different kinds of motivation people want to prepare the gift. How can we help people to prepare the gift as their wishes if the time is limited? The threat of death or separation can initiate a bereavement reaction(Lindemann, 1944), people will start the preparation when they feel running out of time.
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According to the research before, people want to bid farewell with their family and friends, with this process of speaking out their hope and their concern of their family, they can feel the release of leaving their loved ones. The memorial objects that suggest in this research are trying to help people to leave this last message and express their feelings. There are many different kinds of media that can help people to leave the message. Traditionally, people used letter or some personal items to tell their feeling or their expectations. How to attach the emotion to the objects that can represent the feeling of being part forever is the main task of this research.
1.2 Motivation
Most of the existing memorial services were designed for those who lose their loved ones, these services were designed for bereavement and trying to help people go through the grief. In order to help those who are facing to death and trying to leave something for the family and friends, from their perspective, this research focus on the expression of the last message. How can people maintain themselves in the hearts of the loved ones and stay in the connection with those they loved[1][5]?
Traditionally, people left personal items such as rings, watches, clothes or diaries for their family. These intimate items made their family feel honored, serving as a commemoration, and preserved the identity of the deceased(Hallam & Hockey, 2001). As technology advances, some people chose to leave images, videos, their blogs, or even a digital player embedded in their tombstone. Several related projects offered the potential to combine physical likeness with storage of information, such as a simulation of a human life or an artifact with embedded information(Lombard &
Selverian, 2008). The combination of physical artifact and digital content has initiated many new design directions; the final message can be properly preserved for future generations in a family, or for the whole world, in a more interactive way.
Besides, as technology advances, it is easier for people to preserve their live records, when they face to death, these live records can be used to tell who they are and their life stories. These life records can be easily preserved perfectly. People can also use these digital materials to share their memories with their loved ones. The
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opportunity of using digital material to enrich the experience of sharing the life experiences with other people is also discussed in this research.
1.3 Objective
In this research, the main purpose is to help people say goodbye to their family and help them release the grief when leaving their loved ones. The need when people face to death from different aspect was discussed in this research, what kind of the object they like or what is the purpose of leaving such a memorial object behind?
In this research, “memorial objects” were defined as something that people prepared particularly before they left. Different from “relic”, the memorial object could be regarded as a gift that people can combine the content and the important object in their life for their loved ones.
Through this research, the expectation of the people who thought about the gift could be collected and analyzed for understanding the need and the reason behind, Including the relationship between people and their loved one, the opportunity of using technology to help people express their feelings, the important objects in their lives and their expectation of this memorial gift. The findings in this project will be provided as design suggestions for designers interested in memorial services or products, and promote the new technology opportunities to create interactive memorial services or products. Through this study, the main task was to help those who try to leave themselves in this world at the end of their life, by completing the last gift and also a good souvenir for their loved ones. Is it a machine preserving messages and emotions, or a substitute of themselves? What is the meaning of these things in their mind? By studying the items and content preferred, the
research looks forward to figuring out the best way of memorization people want for the loved ones.
1.4 Scope
The main issue of this project is to discuss what would people leave for the loved ones when facing death, what are the purposes of leaving such objects behind and what is the best way for them to bid farewell to their family? The issue can be
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discussed by two separate periods, first, people have to prepare this memorial object, second, their family will use this memorial object to recall their memory. In this research, the process of preparing this gift was focused. During the preparation, conduct, and completion of the process, the final message was combined with the artifacts for making a more complete expression from view of personal wishes and make use of digital technology to increase the interaction between these artifacts and relics.
Besides, the research only focused on the view of those who are leaving rather than those who alive. It did not focus on release the grief of bereavement but knowing what people need if they are facing death. The research data was collected from those who tried to leave something for their loved ones, and assumed that they will leave some memorial objects or data for some reasons.
In this research, because of the difficulties of asking cancer patients to participant the research, rather than gathering data from people who are dying, most of the participants selected in the research were healthy and they were asked to imagine if they are facing death. Different from those who are really facing death, the
participants in this research are calm and relaxed, they can think about the problem without the pressure of time. Because the participants are only imagining this
situation, the data collected in this research are close to the situation that people are facing death but they still have enough time to prepare something for their loved ones. From this research, we can understand the response of people when they face to death, but due to the participants were only imagining this situation, the result of this research cannot show the effect of urgency of time when people face death.
Since cancer could happen in any age, the age of the participants were not restricted in this research, the participants were recruited from thirty to sixty years old. Due to the diversities of the age of participants, different needs of preparing a memorial object from different ages were also collected in this research.
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