The Art of Memorialising

By: Echoes of Tomorrow: Your Memories Your Life Story Your Legacy Your Way
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  • Summary

  • How will your story live on in the digital age? From #Deathtech to digital immortality and life-story writing, we're crafting our legacies together. Let's write your future together—one memory, one story at a time.

    theartofmemorialising.substack.com
    Peter Billingham
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Economics Social Sciences
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Episodes
  • The Digital Legacy of Sound: How Creating a Personal Playlist Can Keep Stories Alive for Generations

    The Digital Legacy of Sound: How Creating a Personal Playlist Can Keep Stories Alive for Generations
    Nov 12 2024
    Welcome to The Art of Memorialising (TOaM), Digital Legacy Edition #20.Whether you’re interesting in exploring the cutting edge of digital afterlife and digital immortality, or curious about the art of preserving your life stories, TAoM is here helping you leave a meaningful legacy online and off.In This Issue:* How using music can help us connect with our memories, and create a unique digital legacy for life storytelling.* Exploring how #GriefTech and #GriefBots are reshaping our farewells to loved ones.* Can AI truly help end mourning, or does it risk extending grief indefinitely?* What will happen to our parents' social media posts after they pass?* Legal rights for digital twins: are new regulations enough to protect our #Digitallegacy?Featured Product - Playlist for Life - ‘Moments of happiness and flashes of joy.’* What piece of music can instantly take you back to a particular moment, person, or place in your life? * What song’s opening notes are enough for you to recall a memory from your childhood perhaps years ago? (For me, it’s Rosemary Clooney singing, ‘Me and My Teddy Bear.’)Here’s an amazing truth. For those living with dementia, music can reach parts of their world, when spoken words from loved ones cannot. This is the incredible work undertaken by the charity, Playlist for Life who I want to highlight this month. (I’m grateful for one of the readers of TAoM who introduced me to the charity.)Music has unique power.Playlist for Life harness it as a tool to help people, especially those living with dementia, reconnect with their memories. You may know a person or caregiver, who could find their resources of tremendous benefit by creating a personal playlist for someone.Even for those of us not facing life slowly taking our memories away a day at a time, we can use music to recover a memory from our past. It’s another creative way of digitally documenting our life for the next generation.Playlist for Life encourages people to create personalised playlists that serve as bridges to their life stories.Imagine curating a soundtrack that reflects the chapters of your life—from the songs of your childhood, to the anthems of your adolescence, and beyond. This personal playlist could serve as a unique #DigitialLegacy keepsake, helping you capture your life story in an accessible, emotional way, to share with your descendants. Not sure which songs were the songs of your youth? Published by Playlist for Life, and based on the work of volunteer Music Detective Peter Grech, The 100 Year Book lists the top 100 tunes in the UK from 1915 to 2015.To explore their resources and see how music can bring stories to life, visit Playlist for Life.On Spotify you can find several Playlists for Life - Here’s a link to Sir Alex Ferguson’s playlist. Looking through the playlists there, you might find the perfect combination of either sports, movies, even faith based lists. If you would be interested in supporting the work of the charity, you can find details of how to donate to Playlist for Life HERE.Create Your Own Soundtrack To Your Life with Suno Scenes - AI Music CompositionWant to have you own soundtrack to life song created by AI for your memories? Now you can with Suno Scenes. Suno Scenes allows creators around the world to inspire new types of songs through captured memories and visual content. Upload photos or video, choose the genre of the song, and let AI create it for you. When I first looked at this, I was transfixed by the quality, variation and creativity of A.I to make music. Worth a look and creative experiment. But make sure you have plenty of time to play. It’s incredible the ways you could use this to create life story memories. Sponsor Spotlight Opportunity!Are you pioneering the future of digital legacies or revolutionising how we preserve memories? Do have a non-profit or charity like playlistforlife.org.uk/? We're seeking innovative companies in the fields of AI, digital immortality, or life story preservation to feature in our next issues.This is your chance to showcase your product or service to an engaged audience passionate about leaving meaningful digital legacies.Interested in becoming our next featured sponsor?Contact me:5 Memorialisation MorselsQuick bites of #Deathtech #DigitalImmortality #LifeStory news:* How Is The Rise of #GriefTech and #GriefBots Changing Bereavement? BBC World Service Business Daily. The podcast looks at a growing trend of using artificial intelligence to ‘connect’ people to loved ones who have died. According to TechRound, this business sector is on track to generate £100bn globally. What are the ethical issues when we may never have to say goodbye to those we have loved and lost? (via BBC World Service)* Who Will Win The Race to Optimise Grief and End Mourning As We Know It? In 2023, Sunshine Henle used a ChatGPT-powered “ghostbot” of her late mother to navigate her grief, finding solace in its comforting messages. Henle ...
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    17 mins
  • Paws and Petals: The Touching Story Behind a Dog Walker's Memorial

    Paws and Petals: The Touching Story Behind a Dog Walker's Memorial
    Oct 22 2024
    The Cherry Tree Memorial - How A Group of Gun Dogs Taught Us About Loyalty, Loss and HopeWhy was I standing by a freshly dug hole in the park, surrounded by a small group of my friends and their dogs? The answer lay in the cherry sapling nearby, its thin bare twigs reaching towards the sky like fingers grasping for hope. The air in the park that morning was heavy with the smell of soil and sadness. If given time, nature could work her mysterious miracles. Season after season, year after year, the beauty of the pink blossom would come to the tree’s barrenness. All it would take is time. But I had no time. ‘Go on Pete, say some words.’Words can feel futile when standing by a hole in the ground. But words often are all that’s left to express how we feel. It’s in moments like these, the sacred is close if we would stop and notice. These are the moments when the very essence of our limited time here on earth seems so precious. We can feel them heavy like velvet, but barbed with the pain of loss. I glanced at the surrounding faces, looking to me to speak words which might have seeds of hope within them. Words that, too, given time, might make some sense of the loss and confusion we all felt. For among us, our good friend, time had ended. For all of us, one day, time will end too.So I began. Shelagh would have loved this. All of us, and all our dogs together...A Pack of Friends: The Dog Walkers' Daily RitualTwenty years have passed since I was standing with a group of dog walkers around a hole in the park. The council that morning dug the hole to make room for the cherry tree that was about to be planted. The earth from the hole piled high next to us all. A pack of dogs laid down in twos and threes or sat next to their owners.For over three years, every day, same time, same paths of the park, we had walked together. I was the only man in the group. Gentle teasing and cheeky banter oiled smooth daily strolls with our dogs. The pack comprised only gun dogs - Labradors, Spaniels and Golden Retrievers, mine included. Not a pheasant in sight, to scurry or aim for. The odd squirrel would dare a run from cover now and then. The only thing we would shoot would be the breeze.Shelagh: The Heart of the GroupIn her early sixties, Shelagh’s short grey hair was as spiky as her wit. Her curious, enthusiastic character overflowed like the Angel Falls, rushing over us with wonder at the ever-changing natural world, her black lab always at her heels. Sarah wouldn’t leave her side, save for a swim in the brook, returning like a slick oiled otter.When Spring came to the park, the trails of pink and white blossoms would hang like leftover Christmas baubles. Our dogs would romp through the petal rain with unbridled abandonment, aware of only the present moment as dogs teach us that vital truth about living. What joy to live unconcerned with what anyone thinks, only to be lost in a moment's beauty. That was Shelagh. Shelagh was full of the joy of life and living, and forever making it overflow with laughter. The joker and storyteller of the dog walkers. Tales of her mishaps, the wry observation of one of us, her humour never with malice, just fun.Shelagh was forthright and direct, more like a Terrier than a gundog. It would cut through the small talk on our walks. She stood no nonsense, and we loved her all the more for it. As a self appointed organiser of our group, she brought coffee and cake for us and the dogs to celebrate the bandstand opening. She always included everyone in everything.When Laughter Fades: Shelagh's Battle with CancerShelagh’s once spritely walks around the park slowed as her back ‘played her up.’ As time marched on, Shelagh’s effervescent vitality faded from spring to winter.They had found cancer in her spine. Shelagh was a fighter. She had guts. Shelagh bravely never hid the truth from anybody. Her determination to fight was as unrelenting as her sinister enemy within.One day, she didn’t turn up. And, as the days passed on, Shelagh and Sarah the lab never walked with us and our dogs again. I wish I had known the day when it was the last time we would have walked together. I’d have taken more time to notice the moments, to listen with more attention, to see the eternal in the temporal. I suppose we should treat each moment as the last, as someday it will be. The last thank you, the last kiss, the last, ‘I love you.’ But we don’t. We imagine life will continue on. We missed Shelagh’s vitality, vigour and vim for brightening even the darkest and dankest of dog walking days. The park was much the same. The cherry trees bloomed in spring. But something then on was always missing.I kept in touch with Shelagh and visited her. Taking my dog, we’d chat. She kept optimistic, and hopeful, waiting for the days when she could join us again. Wanting to know the latest news, and what the trees in the park looked like.The dogs would play, and we would chat. She was renowned for her love ...
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    12 mins
  • Create, Capture, Cherish: Immortalise Your Life's Story in a Digital Memory Box

    Create, Capture, Cherish: Immortalise Your Life's Story in a Digital Memory Box
    Oct 8 2024
    Welcome to The Art of Memorialising (TOaM), Digital Legacy Edition #19.Whether you’re interesting in exploring the cutting edge of digital afterlife and digital immortality, or curious about the art of preserving your life stories, TAoM is here helping you leave a meaningful legacy online and off.In This Issue:* How After Cloud Moments is Transforming Memory Preservation for Future Generations* The Role of AI in Grief: Can Digital Replicas Comfort the Bereaved?* Unlocking Your Past: 125 Life Story Writing Prompts to Spark Your Digital Legacy* Is AI Playing A Role In The Lucrative Business of Grief? * Meta’s Digital Twin Revolution: What Does It Mean for Your Legacy?Featured Product - After Cloud Moments - A Digital Memory Box AppImagine what it would be like having at your fingertips a simple, easy to access journal to capture your life’s story? Suddenly you remember a scene from your past. Where can you keep that lost but now regained memory? Could you use an easy way to tell the story of your past, capture your present, and share your life with future generations?Well, that’s the promise of After Cloud Moments.After Cloud Moments is a digital memory box app. With After Cloud Moments, you can create immersive, and interactive timelines. Add images, text, audio, and video and save your life’s digital legacy in the ‘After cloud.’ It’s free to open an account to try. After Cloud Moments has given you 125 life story prompts to get your memories flowing back. (See below) But it’s more than just about leaving stories. Tommy Dunne received a diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer’s in December 2011. He’s using the app to record his memories while he can. After Cloud has a suite of other fascinating applications. * After Cloud Heritage - gives organisations and individuals a way to bring their heritage or history to life in creative ways. (For example, the history of Adidas.) * After Cloud Classics - So, you own a classic car? Your masterpiece of automotive engineering and history now can have a digital twin! The world’s most expensive classic car, the national treasure that is the AX201, Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, now has a After Cloud Classics Timeline.For more information, and to create a free account check out After Cloud Moments.Sponsor Spotlight Opportunity!Are you pioneering the future of digital legacies or revolutionising how we preserve memories? We're seeking innovative companies in the fields of AI, digital immortality, or life story preservation to feature in our next issues.This is your chance to showcase your product or service to an engaged audience passionate about leaving meaningful digital legacies.Interested in becoming our next featured sponsor?Contact me:Let’s discuss how we can spotlight your brand in an upcoming edition and collaborate to shape the future of digital remembrance together!5 Memorialisation MorselsQuick bites of #Deathtech #DigitalImmortality #LifeStory news:* Why Do 88% of People Overlook Digital Assets in Their Wills ? - According to research from Canada Life, while 95% of UK adults have digital assets, less than half (49%) have a will, and only 12% included at least one digital asset as part of their will. Many don’t believe their digital assets to be of value. (See Which Most People Have No Plans For Digital Death) For a wealth of information on #DigitalLegacy, check out Digital Legacy Management by Mark Krynsky. * The Future of Digital Memorials and Funerals: Personalised Services Set to Transform a $88.6 Billion Industry by 2033 - according to PR Newswire. I see this in my work as a celebrant and eulogy speechwriter. Many clients want bespoke memorials following a direct cremation. Have you attended a memorial service following a direct cremation? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject.* ETERNAL YOU - Is AI Playing A Role In The Lucrative Business of Grief? Eternal You, is a film by Hans Block & Moritz Riesewieck that examines people who live on as digital replicas in the lives of their loved ones. Once a play on emotions of those, bereaved, now A.I. offers the real thing. Block and Moritz Riesewieck talk about the film in an interview at The Sundance Film Festival. * If Humans Can Live (digitally) Forever, Is There A Place For Faith and Religious Belief in Eternity? - Will the promise of A.I. digital immortality challenge long-held religious beliefs? A fascinating study, Where AI Thrives, Religion May Struggle, uncovers a link between automation and a decline in faith. For an alternative view, When humans can live forever, will people still follow Jesus? What do you think? * Is Your Personal Facebook (Meta) Replica or Digital Twin On The Horizon? Mark Zuckerberg’s keynote at the recent Meta Connect 2024, told how Meta Studio AI offers the chance to create your own digital replica. Zuckerberg showed these new chatbots interacting with the audience by mimicking the creator. (Connect Keynote 2024 at about 18 mins in to the video) ...
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    14 mins

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