Things of Dying. Assemblages. Goods. Transmitters. An applied design-anthropological exploration of the current death culture
This practice-oriented dissertation investigates with design-ethno- graphical methods the material culture of end-of-life-spaces. At the border of palliative, social and spiritual care, consumption, design and trend forecasting.
Things of dying are being reflected under aspects of the visual, material and postmodern turn and with regard to individualization, value change, digitalization, demographical change and holistic health. The applied design-anthropological exploration of the new death culture is questioning the current lifestyle of dying:
How? do the spirit of the age and death consciousness materialize in things of dying?
Which? roles entail things of dying in end-of-life-settings?
Who? are the (un-)professional designer and con- and prosumer?
What? support can end-of-life-design provide to improve quality of life and care of dying people, relatives and nurses?
Things of dying are irreplaceable in (un-)professional dying settings. They are non-verbal actors and aktants. (Latour 2007) They have functions and roles, construct identity and transport knowledge. They are involved in (self-)care, conversations and crisis (Bosch 2014, Bourdieu 1987, Goffman 2003.). Things can be (dys-)functional or (un-)comforting. The (non-)human-centered design creates (in)dependence, (non-)quality of life, dignity or unworthiness. The material culture of dying (Hahn 2015, Tietmeyer 2010,) represent values and moral standards of concepts of good dying.
All of of them are designed, produced, distributed and get consumed. They are present in dying settings, absent in our every-day life. Their sensually perceptible qualities have eceived less attention in cultural science and medical research. (Sandelowski 2003, Smith 2006, Artner et al. 2017).
Bitten Stetter combines her design practice research. Lifeworld practices, communicative with cultural studies interactions, rituals, symbolic meanings and forms of sociality will be investigated usingdesign anthropological and design ethnographic approaches.
The multisite and multiscape ethnography complemented by cultural probes and design interventions. The methodology situational analysis, based on grounded theory after the postmodern turn (A.-J. Clarke), understands mappings of discourses and narratives and data visuali- zations as an analysis as well as an knowledge transfer tool.
The field research takes place at the Center for Palliative Care in the City Hospital Waid in Zurich, at Hospice Aargau and PalliaViva, a charitable foundation for mobile palliative care. One part of the PhD-research is funded by the Swiss National Fonds. This interdisciplinary project Settings of Dying (2020–2024) focus on four perspectives: language, religion, care and design. It is a research cooperation between the Bern University of the Arts and Zurich University of Applied Sciences.
