Threads to Heaven
a speculative design project exploring the taboo that is death
Death comes for us all, but the emphasis on prolonging life in Western society has led us to shy away from talking about and preparing for death. Instead, the merciless need to keep people alive results in taking away the conversation and control we should have on how we pass away. But the very acts of realizing and accepting our imminent doom is what brings about inner peace and planning for the future. By facing death, not only can we live with passion, but also pass with passion. As Peter Saul, a long-time ICU specialist, explains, "how we die is actually really important" for both us and the people that survive us, but this can only be addressed if conversation is opened.
In our project, Threads to Heaven, we wish to raise the conversation of death — how to appreciate, accept, and talk about it — in our daily lives. It explores a lengthy and involved process of preparing for one's own death in a symbiotic relationship with another living organism, the fungi. As one maintains and feeds the fungi with bits of oneself, such as nails, hair, and dead skin, one can also feed on the fruiting mushrooms. At the end of one’s life, Threads to Heaven can fully cleanse and decompose the body while also becoming the living legacy that carries on their journey.
We explore how one’s relationship with both life and death would change by living with this fungi. We question whether death should be such a taboo topic in the Western society, and whether one can choose and design their own "good death". Through the rituals and stories born from the product, we aim to enable our audience to open their own conversations on death with the people they love and cherish.
Final Artefacts
creating our speculative world
Death is grisly, no matter how we try to reframe it. It was important to us that the world we created around Threads to Heaven felt realistic and grounded in reality. This meant exploring not only how death could be viewed more positively with Threads to Heaven but also the sadness and lack of control that many surrounding our artefacts would feel.
As the copywriter and visual designer for our team, I pursued emotional, personal design that told stories about our personas, and a future that has yet to happen.
Design Process
our design workbook
Over the course of 2 months, my team of 4 worked to conceptualize, design, and create what we imagined death would look like if it was incorporated into society unlike the taboo that it is today. We noted down our thoughts, inspirations, and process throughout this project in a design workbook. This helped us consolidate our motivations and concepts to keep us on the same page constantly while also creating an artifact we would revisit to remind ourselves of our personas, our goals, and our critique.
