A Speculative Exploration of Digital Memorial Practices

Notes on
Reminiscences

Notes on Reminiscences is a speculative and practice-based artistic project that investigates how the ephemeral and symbolic power of makeshift memorials can be translated into digital space. It examines the convergence of digital, physical, and spiritual realms, proposing new ways of engaging with memory, grief, and presence through the design of hybrid commemorative artifacts. The project emerges from personal observation, critical research, and digital fabrication, culminating in a poetic inquiry into how we remember and memorialize in the age of networks and screens.

At its core, the project is rooted in a moment of repeated encounter: for two months, I passed daily by a makeshift memorial created in honor of Jonas Mekas—the late avant-garde filmmaker and founder of the Anthology Film Archives—outside its headquarters on 2nd Avenue and East 2nd Street in New York City. I witnessed the memorial evolve and eventually disappear, observing how objects accumulated, decayed, or were removed over time. This fragile, public expression of remembrance—constantly shaped by weather, time, and participation—became the conceptual seed of the project. What happens to these spaces when they vanish? And how might they be extended into digital landscapes without losing emotional depth?

Jonas Mekas Lithuanian-American filmmaker (1922-2019)

Outside of Anthology Film Archives (EV Grieve, 2019)

Notes on Reminiscences attempts to answer these questions through the creation of three interlinked artifacts:

A Chrome Extension that embeds a virtual memorial into any website, allowing users to leave and view digital mementos—symbolizing a wholly digital form of ritual and memory.
An Augmented Reality (AR) Memorial, anchored in Google Street View and activated via a physical token, merging physical location with digital overlay—bridging material and virtual spaces.
A 3D-Printed Object, derived from scans of traditional memorial items (such as flowers), symbolizing a digital-to-physical transmutation—memorializing memory in sculptural form.

Together, these pieces act as prototypes for a broader inquiry into how memorials operate in a post-physical, hybridized world.

Chrome Extension early prototype, in-use screenshots (2020)

The project draws on diverse sources, from theoretical explorations of digital spirituality and material culture to the sociology of mourning and emerging digital design practices. Foundational texts include Death, Memory, and Material Culture by Elizabeth Hallam and Jenny Hockey¹, which examines the significance of material offerings in memorial spaces; Peter Jan Margry's Shrines and Pilgrimages in the Modern World², which unpacks secular pilgrimages in contemporary culture; and academic reflections on reflective memorial design in mobile and digital contexts³.

These readings illuminated how digital spaces—websites, apps, platforms—can act as archives and as architectures for ritual and remembrance.
The research also delved into net art, digital preservation (especially via institutions like Rhizome and the Whitney Museum)⁴, and the concept of the web as spatial rather than purely informational. If a website can be inhabited, customized, and revisited, what prevents it from becoming a site of memory akin to a physical shrine? What does it mean to "leave something behind" in a browser window?

Technically, the project utilized 3D scanning tools such as the ARTEC Spider and Structure Sensor to digitize physical objects and repurpose them across different mediums. A key technical insight emerged when attempting to scan real flowers: the lack of material density and form resulted in abstract, glitchy meshes. As a result, fake flowers—often used in physical memorials for their durability—were substituted. The final print, resembling white limestone when produced in PLA, resembled classical sculpture and further emphasized the tension between permanence and impermanence⁵.

Digital memorial made up of 3D scanned found objects (2020)

The Chrome Extension was designed with a minimal interface to allow users to view and customize virtual shrines on websites—selecting 3D-scanned objects, resizing them, and leaving personal marks. This act draws attention to new rituals of remembrance within everyday browsing behavior and raises critical questions: Who owns digital space? Can digital memory be "left" in public? How do browser windows mediate our acts of care?

The AR artifact relies on Street View to locate the memorial at its original real-world coordinates—merging physical presence with digital persistence. Although the feature is not yet public, the prototype functions as a proof of concept for blending locative media with memory⁶.

A physical installation was also envisioned—initially as a minor component but eventually evolving into a central part of the proposal. Displayed as sculptural objects on pedestals, the 3D-printed artifacts invite viewers to navigate around them, encountering memory in fragments—encouraging reflection on the individuality and collectivity of loss⁷.

The context of the COVID-19 pandemic heavily influenced the project's development. With physical rituals suspended and public mourning restricted, digital platforms became sites of shared grief⁸. Memorials once considered ephemeral, makeshift, or secondary now gain permanence through screenshots, hashtags, and tagged images. A personal example of this occurred during the final stages of the project when I encountered a stream of digital tributes to Philippe Zdar⁷, a French music producer, on Instagram. Immersed in user-generated grief, I realized I had started mourning a stranger. I had entered a digital shrine without knowing it.

This moment reframed the project's arc—from a reflection on a physical memorial to recognizing the ubiquity and emotional power of digital mourning. We now inhabit a world where loss is processed collectively online, and digital legacies shape how we remember others and ourselves.

In moving forward, Notes on Reminiscences will deepen its focus on digital grief, exploring how online spaces—designed for connection, expression, and permanence—are also becoming sites of ritual, reverence, and collective memory. Through speculative design, critical theory, and personal narrative, this project positions itself as both an archive of emotion and an evolving experiment in how we might carry memory into the future.

Hallam, Elizabeth, and Jenny Hockey. Death, Memory and Material Culture. Berg, 2001.
Margry, Peter Jan, ed. Shrines and Pilgrimages in the Modern World: New Itineraries into the Sacred. Amsterdam University Press, 2008.
Foong, Pin & Kera, Denisa. Applying Reflective Design to Digital Memorials. National University of Singapore, 2008.
Rhizome.org. “ArtBase and the Preservation of Digital Art.” Rhizome, https://rhizome.org/artbase/.
Rich, Jack. The Materials and Methods of Sculpture. Oxford University Press, 1941.
Farman, Jason. Mobile Interface Theory: Embodied Space and Locative Media. Routledge, 2012.
Jones, Amelia. “Material Traces: Performativity, Artistic ‘Work,’ and New Concepts of Agency.” The Drama Review, vol. 59, no. 4, 2015.
Arthur, Paul. “Death in Social Media: The Digital Afterlife.” Cultural Dynamics, Universitätsverlag Winterringer, 2015.

Rose Bush