“I am become digital death, the destroyer of worlds”

A graduate of the Sandberg Institute’s Design department, S†ëfan Schäfer investigates the compensation of physical absence with virtual presence and vice versa.

We experience and spend most of our time online. Our digital selves have the potential to die numerous discrete deaths at any given moment, even after our bodies cease to be. This trend informed Schäfer’s interest in examining and reconfiguring new structures for dying, new rituals for mourning and memorialisation, and to consider the meaning of death both within the physical and digital domain. He explores the concept of ‘the continuing self’ as a means of relating life to digital life forms, linking the physical end of life to its digital continuation.

Developed in collaboration with Dr. Emily West