The Art & Science of Living & Dying is a rolling research collaboration with archaeologist andlandscape historian Lucy Walker. This shared work explores how we live and how we die. Targeted research areas span dying, both in cellular and somatic terms; where we die; end of life care; euthanasia and human rights; body disposal; burial traditions, ceremonies and rites around the world; issues of remembrance and legacy; plus the role played by new technologies in all of the above.
The output of our experimental research is applied to a range of new art projects, public conversations, artistic and academic publishing, creative exercises, content made for digital formats, installations, and participatory public projects.
Projects to date generated by The Art & Science of Living & Dying include the single channel video installation Thread (2014), a Death & Dying Salon on our research objectives (2017), the creation and public installation of a life sized human skeleton jigsaw puzzle Shared Frameworks (2018), and creation of the beer Zombie (2018). We have also been working on a child friendly version of Shared Frameworks titled These Bones, to get younger people learning and talking about death and dying early, prior to only facing these topics when first experiencing bereavement.