Death lives in place through the digitized media. Both on the Internet and on TV shelves and remember the survivors.
A white skull is part of the logo on the site MyDeathSpace.com. A good symbol to a forum in which drama and blood is on the agenda.
17-year-old Derek Ball suicide by strangulere itself with a faldskærmsline, while the woman Dashelle Lynch died in a fire. Others have died in traffic accidents, been murdered or have taken an overdose. Common to the beyond is that they rarely have crossed 20 years.
The site is also a virtual map of the United States dotted with black gravestone. Clicking on a gravestone, activates a bubble with information about the person who is dead. There is a photograph, name and cause of death. A few gravestones are red, and it appears that they symbolize that the person has been another death. Cyril Richard in 22 years is alleged to have stuck another man to death and then have him dumped in a river.
The site is, however, created to remember the dead. Clicking on a death, you can come directly to the deceased's website at MyDeathSpace.com, and thus remember the good things about the person.
-- When I visit a deceased friend's profile, it is as if the friend's presence can still be felt. His favorite music still plays on the profile, his blog is still there, the internal jokes and ideas on resolved and settled is easily accessible. To visit a cemetery for me would have the reverse effect. To touch a cold gravestone and read the indgraverede letters of a close friend's name seems distant, painful and finally, the founder of MyDeathSpace, Michael Patterson, earlier told the Kristeligt Dagblad.
Michael Hviid Jacobsen is an associate professor of sociology at Aalborg University and has researched dødsannoncer and call the American concept of dødsfetichisme.
-- I would categorize MyDeathSpace as dødsporno. It is very dramatic. In Denmark it would be perceived as distasteful and strange to make people that way, he says.
Andy Warhols' 15 minutes of fame "will be reduced to 30 seconds, when the German TV channel EosTV a few months goes in the air. For 18,000 dollars to bereaved families have made a 30-second mindefilm on the deceased, which will be shown 60 times in a week. EosTV, referring to the Greek goddess of morgenrøden, will eventually send 24 hours a day.
-- I am sure, will be enough to be a success. More than 800,000 Germans died last year. If you multiply the figure by four, you have the number of dependants. They are our primary target audience, says television is developing Wolf Tilmann Schneider, who cooperate with Germany Begravelsesforening.
-- It is a shame that death has been a taboo for the undeniably belongs together with their lives, and it is a pity if people just disappear when they are dead. We believe that any person leaves a mark on the ground that we have to remember, and we can, among other things by showing their films on television.
In the future, fimene that appear on EosTV, also be available on the web, and just such mindesteder we will probably see more of in the future, believes Michael Hviid Jacobsen.
-- It creates memories of those that are not there anymore, and it can be used for a form of sorgbearbejdning. In the third, it can also lead to a form of udødeliggørelse, because you probably will see mindesiderne online hundreds of years. Datidens mindetavler takes place and disappear, but it does not sites. Mindesiderne also creates sympathy from medmenneskene, and one should not underestimate the sympathy and empathy in the situation. On the English homepage mindet.dk other acknowledge that we have lost, and it is important, he says.
In Denmark, the sites on the dead more discreet and modest. On afdøde.dk people can subscribe to dødsannoncer, and mindet.dk can, among other things, light a candle for them, we have lost. We often talk about amerikaniseringen of the Danish society, but just in this regard think Michael Hviid not, we will see an English version, for example MyDeathSpace and to start with, nor dødsannoncer on television.
-- I do not think we will see something as extreme in Denmark. It is more likely that we will be inspired by Germany, which has a much more vibrant culture, in terms of nekrologer and dødsannoncer. It is more acceptable than the voldsfokuserede death, we see in the U.S., he says.