Religion
Ambrosino, B., 2019. How and why did religion evolve?. [Online] Available at: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190418-how-and-why-did-religion-evolve [Accessed 23 September 2022].
This BBC article explores the evolution of religion and how spiritual behaviours evolved over centuries of human existence. It explores the idea that religion brings positive evolutionary benefits and gives people a social purpose.
“the shared reverence for the supernatural, sacred, or spiritual as well as the symbols, rituals, and worship that are associated with it”.
This helps illustrate the necessity for religion in modern society and highlighted the differences between a secular and religious society.
"Rituals begin and end. They require both shared intention and shared attention. There are norms involved. They take place in a time within time – beyond the time of the everyday."
It offered an anthropological view on ritual in relation to religion and allowed me to to explore mssing elements of ritual in secular grief.
Serafino, P., 2020. Exploring religion in England and Wales: February 2020. [Online]
Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/articles/exploringrelion [Accessed 8 October 2022].
The ONS study provided a picture of religious life in Britain, or lack thereof.
"The number of people who described themselves as "Christian" decreased to less than half the population for the first time. It was a 13.1 percentage point decrease from 59.3% in 2011 (33.3 million people). This continues the decrease since 2001, when 71.7% (37.3 million) described themselves as "Christian"."
It showed that religion is fast becoming a minority in Britain proving the need for a project such as mine. It shows that religious rituals of grief are not longer enough for people and there needs to be further exploration into this under-researched topic. Comparing this information with the Ambrosino article, it does make you think what the social purpose of society will move to once religion is in the minority. Although this is a much bigger question than I can hope to answer in this project.
Somerset Sacre, 2016. Advice on Attitudes to Death and Grieving in Different Faith and Belief Communities. [Online] Available at: http://www.amvsomerset.org.uk/resources/advice-on-attitudes-todeath- and-grieving-in-different-faith [Accessed 17 August 2022].
This article gave a in depth view of religious attitudes to both death and grief. Along with the previous two articles this helped paint a picture of what religion can offer people that secularism cannot.
"There is huge variety within all religious traditions, and families will often contain members of different faith and belief communities, so it will always be important to take individual concerns into account. Nevertheless, these general notes may help in showing sensitivity to individual cases and in personal discussions with bereaved family members."
This gave an overview of the different major religions found in the UK and provided information on memorial services, funerals and communal grieving. This allowed me to dig deep and work out what is missing in secular Britain.
Grief
Thomas, D., 1971. The Poems of Dylan Thomas. 2nd Edition ed. New York: New Directions Publishing.
I concluded that design is about feeling, not objectivity so I explored grief in literature and art. I came across Dylan Thomas who wrote beautifully about life death and grief.
“old age should burn and rave at close of day”
“Though lovers be lost love shall not”
Whilst this did not provide factual information it did show attitudes to death outside of religion, Dylan Thomas was a famous Humanist so his views exist outside of religion.
Humanist Ceremonies, 2022. Humanist funeral and memorial ceremonies. [Online]
Available at: https://humanists.uk/ceremonies/non-religious-funerals/ [Accessed 12 November 2022].
Humanists provided an insight into the current non-religious rituals in the UK.
"Candles encourage reflection and to represent a human love of storytelling"
This research enabled a surprising conclusion - that a lot of non-religious traditions now still have their roots in religion. For example, the use of candles in Humanism came directly from the importance of light in religions. This led me to conclude that religious attitudes to grief has become a part of the structure of society regardless of religion - it is more traditional at this point than based in religion. This provided me with a clear set of objectives, keeping certain aspects of the Humanist rituals in mind, while developing and changing others.
Lee, K., 2007. Georgie’s Girl: Last Conversation With My Father. Journal of Social Work Practice, 1 November, 21(3), pp. 289-296
The author reflects on struggling with her father’s death and reconstructs her memories of him so they can be integrated into her life. She explores the process of writing from the heart to keep memories alive and uses autoethnography as a cathartic process to help her deal with her loss.
“All I know is time slows down. There is nothing I can do. When I remember his words, I want to be with him. Can’t let go of what once was. What will never be again. He is gone. Gone.”
Writing stories to reenforce memories can be transformative for people – it enables them to continue feeling like the person is with them and creates a tangible record of these memories without the fear of forgetting. Autoethnography is an approach to research where the author uses personal experience and anecdotes to understand the wider social and political context. This autoethnographic approach encourages people to reflect on their time with the departed, to explore their intellect and emotions. It helps people make sense of the ever-changing world around them in a material way – by having stories written down, they can come to terms with loss whilst remembering the positive influences the deceased had in their life. This research provided a possible methodology for the ritual - an insight into how people could write about or illustrate the life of the person lost.
Design/Illustration
Calle, S., 2017. Rachel, Monique.... 1st Edition ed. Paris: Éditions Xavier Barral.
Sophie Calle has no religious belief whatsoever. I was interested in how this affects her attitude to death and approach to art. Calle is unconcerned by death, using it as inspiration in her artistic life. From exploring her parent’s death to commissioning her gravestone containing the secrets of her friends and family, she doesn’t hide from it. She stands up to it, embraces it. She uses storytelling to memorialise her late mother, remembering the good times (the photo album) and the bad moments (the installation) of her life.
The more personal a piece is, the more people relate to it and feel a connection to your work. The handwritten captions deepen this - reading the writing of someone that has passed as they intended it to be seen is powerful. The way Calle tells the story of her mother’s life through space, text and imagery resonates, showing the power of exploring grief not only with telling stories but also having a safe space for it. This is in contrast to Lee’s approach to death in Georgie’s Girl (Lee, 2007) as Calle celebrates the life of her mother rather than focussing on the loss.
Gent, P. for sarah. Peony Gent [online]. Available at: http://www.peonygent.com/for-sarah
Gent’s book is a beautiful piece of art in which she explores the loss of her friend through written and visual communication. Reading the comic, you feel her grief journey and inevitably relate it to your own. For example, “I have all these memories and I don’t know what to do with them” (Gent, 2021). That is how I felt: full of memories with nowhere for them to go, terrified I would forget something.
“a comic about loss, grief, and guilt. Something originally made in a process of catharsis, which I hope may also aid you in anything similar you may have gone through”
Gent talks to her friend directly. It feels like you are experiencing this deeply personal journey with her, intimately involved in the story. By using phrases like, “you and I would go down to the river and poke at the beer cans left in fire pits” it takes you back to things you did with the person you lost. This highlights a key element of discussing grief - the more people identify with what you are creating, the more impact it has.
Andrews, G. Finding Joy. Gary Scribbler [online]. Available at: http://www.garyscribbler.co.uk/finding-joy---doodleaday.html
Gary Andrews is a former Disney animator who started a Doodle-a-Day and uploading them to social media in 2015. In 2018, his wife Joy suddenly passed away (Andrews, 2022). Gary continued the Doodle-a-Day, documenting the heartbreak and the lighter moments of the grieving process. I thought this was the perfect case study when considering how art and storytelling can contribute to a new ritual of dealing with grief.
“Creativity is so fundamentally tied to our emotions. To truly be creative you need to feel it. If grief is all tied in with emotions, then finding a creative outlet must be a good thing.”
Speaking with Gary and reading this book made it clear that creativity is inherently linked to our emotional state – documenting the grief of losing his wife helped him and his family process it. It also helped the family feel like Joy is still with them. Gary states: “There’s that saying no one ever truly dies when they’re spoken about. It keeps their memory alive with you and the spirit of them present”. This relates to my research on religion and grief – without belief in an afterlife, non-religious people often feel that their loved one is simply gone. However, their presence is still felt when memories are recorded, and stories are told.
Moreton, S., 2021. Where?. 1 ed. London: Little Toller Books.
Where? (Moreton, 2021) is a beautiful love letter from Simon Moreton to his late father who passed away suddenly. Moreton returned to Shropshire and realised it was full of childhood memories, everything reminded him of his dad. In the book, he explores memory through photography, illustration, and writing. Like Gent, he uses hand drawings and channels the feelings evoked by a place to record these ideas.
“His death left a huge hole in my life, but like a hole in a spider’s web, the monumentality of mending that hole becomes only apparent after you see the complexity of the structure that’s been broken. So you don’t mend the hole - you just make peace with it.”
I like the imagery in this statement, the idea that life is so complex that losing a large part of it can’t be prevented and must be lived with. In the context of this project, learning to live with grief could refer to creating rituals for people that can be intertwined with everyday life. The relationship between storytelling and illustration has emerged in this phase of research.
O’Sullivan, S., 2006. Art Encounters Deleuze and Guattari: Thought Beyond Representation. 1st Edition ed. London: Palgrave Macmillan
I also wanted to look into philosophical views of the purpose of design. At one point in the project I felt like I was being too objective. Reading the following statement changed how I viewed it completely.
“if philosophy deals with ideas and science deals with objectivity, art and design deal with sensation”
This helped me refocus the project and reminded me that it is all about sensation. Even though this is only one quote it is probably the reading that had the most profound effect on the overall direction of this project.
Other
Sonnad, N., 2018. You probably won’t remember this, but the “forgetting curve” theory explains why learning is hard. [Online]
Available at: https://qz.com/1213768/theforgetting- curve-explains-why-humans-struggle-to-memorize/
[Accessed 8 October 2022].
One explanation of why memories are forgotten is the decay theory: the longer a memory is not recalled, the more likely you are to forget it. This occurs on a ‘forgetting curve’. Ebbinghaus’ experiments discovered a sharp decline in memory retention one day after hearing a piece of information. Afterwards, the curve is softened, suggesting it is committed to long-term memory. Ebbinghaus discovered that, by repeating the information over gradually increasing intervals, the curve can be further softened.
Whilst this research was interesting it ended up having very little bearing on the project. I quickly concluded that this research was far too objective and I needed to focus on sensation and feeling. This is why I have included it in my literature review - I may not have used the information directly, it did change the course of this project entirely.
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