Memento mori for the modern day
The brief for this project was to take an object from a different time or culture and redesign it for a new context.
The object I chose was a Victorian mourning locket which traditionally contained hair of the deceased. To bring this into the modern day I changed the ‘identity’ aspect of the necklace from hair to social media data.
I downloaded my own social media data and put it on a USB stick, then cut the microchip into tiny pieces before setting it in a resin pendant. I also wrote an essay on the effect of online presence on the mourning process.
The combination of the essay and the jewellery piece is intended to encourage people to think about what happens to their social media profiles when they die, and how it will affect their loved ones.