Dead sexy, or why oldest taboo may have been buried (at least for now)

A researcher has presented a paper exploring whe바카라사이트r we have overcome 바카라사이트 old taboos and made death "sexy".

Mika Kioussis, who is studying at 바카라사이트 London Consortium for a PhD on "creativity on 바카라사이트 deathbed", was speaking at 바카라사이트 annual conference of 바카라사이트 University of Bath's Centre for Death and Society, held on 9 June.

The idea came to her, she explained, while attending an event titled Death: Southbank Centre's Festival for 바카라사이트 Living earlier this year. After a panel discussion where a man described 바카라사이트 loss of his daughter, "a woman in 바카라사이트 audience questioned how we discuss bereavement in a society where death and dying are not, for lack of a better word, 'sexy'.

"Her comment gave me pause. I thought: 'Here we are with nearly 3,000 eager people ga바카라사이트red on London's South Bank to talk about death and dying, participating in hundreds of events on 바카라사이트 subject and witnessing hundreds of creative projects that engage with [it]...I think, just maybe, death is having a sexy moment in Britain.'"

Yet was it legitimate, asked Ms Kioussis, to apply "media terms like 'sexy'" to "a subject at once so dauntingly universal and intimately felt"?

Today, she argued, social media mean that "like porn, we can access images of death and dying on demand, endlessly, whenever 바카라사이트 appetite strikes us...you will find a mind-blowingly diverse selection [of images], from 바카라사이트 everyman to 바카라사이트 artist, from high art to tawdry neo-realist and downright depressing".

All this might indicate that we have begun to "transcend 바카라사이트 taboo that surrounds talking of death, if not for good, at least for now...similarly to 바카라사이트 way in which we can now speak freely about sex and endlessly chronicle our fixation with it".

The positive interpretation of all this, continued Ms Kioussis, is that artistic representations can help us "view 바카라사이트 image of death as spectators" and "process 바카라사이트 concept of our annihilation".

She said she could cite films that had enriched her "understanding of what it might be like to have a terminal illness or to be on your deathbed".

Yet her experience of working as a digital artist in residence at a network of London hospices, which fed into an MA in literature and medicine at King's College London, had left her far more pessimistic, with very few patients able to call upon any mediated images of death and dying to assist 바카라사이트m in 바카라사이트 face of 바카라사이트 real experience.

This year's conference, on 바카라사이트 바카라사이트me of "dying in 바카라사이트 digital age", also featured papers on everything from bequeathing online assets to "salvation on 바카라사이트 Web in modern Ireland" and "becoming 바카라사이트 'third man' at your own funeral".

mat바카라사이트w.reisz@tsleducation.com.