leilasumma.info

First announcement: I will have the possibility to give a speech on the 20th of may 2009 at the Critical Incident Festival, Brighton, UK.

A Critical Incident is an event of life-changing significance.  And the festival is a creative retreat in the heart of Brighton with focus on:
Science, Spirituality, Sustainability, Sensuality and Spontaneity

Re-dying & the end(lessness) of the virtual eternity
About the impact of social media on the divergence & convergence of our day of death
Leila Summa, Co-(r)evolutionary strategist, Zurich - Switzerland

Description:
Many people who engage in the virtual world of social media do not contemplate that their “avatar” has assumed a reality of its own. Online, we have our own “estate” which will persist in various ways after we are “gone”.

Just as in the “physical” world, if you do not make a will, sudden death can create all kinds of complications, in the virtual landscape, the problem is replicated, and also creates issues that are unique to its realm, as well as opening up creative opportunities.

When we die in physicality, do we die in virtuality? What happens to our facebook estate? Our images? Our written words, and the footprints we have made in cyberspace?

Do we want to influence and decide what is done with our avatar as well as our physical impressions imprinted into virtuality?

Some companies and innovators are already considering and applying themselves to the virtual mausoleum, the perpetuation of our heart beat through a sound, embedded in a virtual space, top be accessed for eternity for those who survive us.

Can we live on in the virtual universe? Do we wish to? What is our identity and how does it persist in ones and zeros?

Can the nature of cyberspace actually recreate us; do we cease to be a body, but become a map, a landscape, an impression of text, meaning, and image?

This challenging session from the swiss new media pioneer and co-(r)evolutionary strategist, Leila Summa will explore some of these issues.

The objectives of this session are:

Establish awareness for today’s extended possibilities to live simultaneously different roles and identities in our virtual lives by creating and letting our avatars die.

Exploring reasons of committing online suicide

Create a new common understanding of today’s changed meaning of terms like like «day of death», «day of birth», «online identity», «online suizide», «electronic testament», «re-dying», «last resting place», «reincarnation » and «end(lessness) of the virtual eternity»

Questoning if virtual cemeteries as a resting place can extend your virtual life and if there should be a divergence or convergence of our day of death in the virtual and real world

Questioning if new services offered by some companies e.g. calculation of the own armageddon day, japanese’tombstones with a unique QR-code, virtual cemeteries & memories, swiss’telefon engel etc. can bring us closer to dead friends by creating a possibility to communicate with them in the eternal virtuality

Identify & discuss the need for an electronic testament in order to manage our social media accounts (images, words, thoughts etc.)