The Posthumous World: Our selves, Our Bodies and a World that Will Continue Without Us

How would our attitudes to death and dying change if we could see how a human body is reabsorbed back into the environment? What kind of visualisation could evoke such a response? The Posthumous World is an interdisciplinary research project about death, dying and our relationship with the planet. At its centre will be a new artwork – a scientifically accurate, visual simulation of a human body being reabsorbed back into the environment after a so-called green burial. The body in question will be the artist's own. Taking the form of a computer animated, durational sculpture, the viewer will see a radical metamorphosis of the corpse and the end of its human identity. The project team is an interdisciplinary group of artists, forensic and taphonomic scientists (the study of decomposition), body visualisation experts and thanatologists (the study of practices of death and dying). This project has potentially far reaching impacts on death literacy, bereavement support, environmental policy and the future of the funeral industry. For the arts it will develop visual languages that can represent complex organic bodies as well as a model of art and science collaboration. For the wider public, it will be used to initiate a deeper conversation about end-of-life choices and the links between the physical and emotional consequences of death. The research is currently in its initial stages with a projected completion date of 2027. This paper describes the context of the project, its aims and implications.