Current Research Projects

#digitalfterlife: Using Interactive Digital Technologies to Cope With Mortality and Bereavement

Funding agency: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)

Timeframe: 2027–2029

Project Lead: Prof. Dr. Jan-Philipp Stein (TUC), Dr. Fabian Hutmacher (Universität Würzburg)

 

Research Focus: 

For millennia, humans have used media to document memories of their own lives—or those of people close to them—and to share them with later generations. From cave paintings and diaries to photos and videos, various tools and modalities have been used. In recent years, numerous digital forms of mediated remembering and mourning have emerged (including social media profiles, virtual cemeteries), opening up new possibilities for dealing with one’s own mortality as well as with the loss of loved ones.

Whereas earlier forms of mediated remembrance remained largely passive and one-directional, rapid technological advances in recent years have sparked a fundamental transformation: With the help of modern artificial intelligence (AI), it is already possible to create chatbots that draw on large amounts of data from living or deceased individuals in order to posthumously simulate interactions with them. Additionally, such afterlife AI can further be combined with contemporary methods of computer visualization and speech synthesis to stage immersive “reunion” experiences for the bereaved.

Against this backdrop, the research project #digitalafterlife sets out to investigate the role of interactive digital technologies when coping with mortality and grief. The project follows a clear structure: After examining the use of widely established digital technologies in the context of death and mourning—based on systematic reviews and surveys—we then turn to emergent AI innovations, primarily employing qualitative interviews as well as experimental methods.

Our project is further characterized by its inclusion of two complementary perspectives. Project Cluster A (“The Self”) explores how individuals use digital technologies to cope with the prospect of their own mortality. In this step, psychological insight into human coping mechanisms as well as the generativity framework will serve as theoretical key pieces for assessing the adaptiveness and impact of relevant technologies.

Project Cluster B (“Loved Ones”), on the other hand, focuses on technology-supported coping strategies in the aftermath of bereavement. Here, our investigation will again begin with established digital technologies such as social media apps in their role as coping tools, before addressing the concept of posthumous simulation through AI and examining it in experimental settings.