Ulrika Wachtmeister,

Sweden

This is a conceptual project exploring the domain in between the private and the public, the virtual and the physical, memories and present, through the development of a fictional company offering alternative spaces for commemoration and mourning.

With secularisation and globalisation new burial traditions have begun to evolve challenging the monopoly on afterlife once held by the church. Nowadays the trend is to have ones ash spread outside of public spaces like cemeteries in favour of places more directly connected to the life of the deceased. The spreading of a deceased ash is not connected to a specific religion and is gaining in popularity among all groups of society. The non-identity of the nomad in a mobile society corresponds with the anonymous grave that disappear into somewhere or other, however the need for places to remember is still a vital factor for those left behind when someone passes away.

Nowadays there exist several commercial companies offering alternatives to conventional graveyards and memorials. This conceptual project was developed to explore the relation between memory, death and capital, as well as the relation between the private and the public, through the fictional company Pepperholm Ltd. The company offers personal memorials on the internet linked to a light installation on the artificial island Pepparholm in Öresund. The company idea speculates on the individual's wish to have their ash spread and the loved ones need for a manifestation of lives gone.

Sites
Pepperholm is situated in Örsund, in between two growing regions, with the ambition to become one regardless of physical, psychological and territorial borders. The island is strategically placed as a link in between the two largest cities in this area, Copenhagen and Malmö, but without a defined identity or urban purpose of its own. It was created to support the transition between the bridge and the tunnel connecting the two cities.

Pepperholm is divided by the bridge / tunnel transition without connecting to it. The intersection creates its own separate space only allowing you to access the island visually and when in motion. This creates a contradictional situation for the island, where on one hand it is fully displayed for cars and trains passing by and on the other completely unreachable for the same actors. The light installation is designed for this specific situation, but could also be placed in other urban spaces with similar conditions. The light installation consists of a field with 1.5m high light-poles connected to the internet through mobile technology. The field is placed on the thinnest part of the island and stretches out into the water on both sides. The light-poles get their energy from sun-powered batteries.

On the internet a society is build up around a virtual memorial, offering possibilities for personal memorial pages, condolences, correspondence, support-groups etc. On one hand, this virtual community mimics the traditional role of the church and the conventional graveyard; on the other hand, it opens up for new ways of commemoration and recollection.

When the virtual memorial is visited, a light-pole on the island is turned on only to slowly start fading away after a while. The effect on the island will be a glimmering field of lights, which you pass through on your way to somewhere else.

The project consists of a company description, a TV-commercial for their services, drawings and visualisations of the island and a speculation on the content of the web-community.