DYING AND BEING DEAD IN XR: IMMERSIVE REHEARSALS OF DEATH; AFFECTIVE ARTEFACTS POST-LIFE

Abstract

We offer in-depth theorisation of two multi-site case studies of dying and being dead in Extended Reality (XR) to investigate immersive death experiences facilitated by these media. Our observations, discussion and critique underscore an emergent and nuanced interplay between spatial technologies and death encounters, their linked phenomenological cultural constructions, and the emerging industry that channels these phenomenon. XR are media technologies that mediate digital data with the physical world in real time. Yet, this might take users ‘out' of their surroundings through VR systems that map-but-hide the physical, and replace it with what programmers desire. Or, XR might seemingly add digital artefacts that relate with the physical world via AR systems that have us peering through screens or – arguably, hearing spatial cues (Boisvert et al. 2023), that are computed to fool our senses of what is ‘in’ the real. What – and who – is able to be brought ‘in’ and ‘out’ of the perceived world has significant consequences for the growing industry of necro technologies. Our work then, focuses on two multi-site phenomenological cases within the digital necro-industry: the first, is taking users ‘out’ of the real (usually via VR) to experience death, dying or the dead; and second, bringing death ‘in’ to the physical world via mediations of the dead, death or dying. The paper concludes with a discussion that syntheses our study of industrial trends and phenomenological-technological critique to consider how stakeholders that have hitherto not been invited to compose cultures of XR death-tech might act.