On Death in the Digital Age / Oreet Ashery

Architecture Off-Centre

We don’t talk about the technical and logistical aspects of death enough. For example: How does one’s economic status affect the conditions in which they die? Do gender identities play a role in how people receive end of life care? Can we choose the memories that we want to leave behind for our loved ones? And how does social media become an archive of one’s life after passing? We speak to artist Oreet Ashery about death in the digital age.

Oreet Ashery is a visual artist whose practice navigates established, institutional and grassroots contexts. Ashery was a Turner Bursary recipient in 2020 and won the prestigious Jarman Film Award in 2017 for her web-series Revisiting Genesis, which looks at the emergent field of digital death. Ashery is Professor of Contemporary Art at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford.

To watch Revisiting Genesis: https://revisitinggenesis.net/ Oreet’s work: http://oreetashery.net/