Clustering and Unclustering: Understanding dialogic potential in design for Ongoingness

Abstract

We describe three design works from a research through design project seeking to develop new ways to curate and create digital media to support ongoingness - a form of continuing bonds in bereavement that prioritises the present and an ongoing, positive relationship with the deceased. We use the three pieces in this paper as lenses to view how dialogic potential is at play within each piece - drawing on aspects of dialogism, a Bakhtinian theory, to do so. Our aim is that by sharing the work and blending the particular theoretical perspective of dialogism with experiential and design aspects of the pieces we offer up a rich design space and new ways to conceive of design and digital technologies in the context of bereavement and death.