"Constellations", Karen Oikonen & Kate Wilkes

"Ghost Stories", Ellen Snowball & Kristi Poole-Adler

"DNR (No Code)", Corbett Fogue

"Time Moving Workshop", Kate Sellen

"DIYing Free", Justin Tyler Tate

January 25
Symposium Agenda

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We are all going to die - so why not talk about it? 
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Dying. an event series, explores death through the lens of design and art, running during the DesignTO Festival.

Dying. is in fact about living, living with the human experience of dying; What aren’t we talking about? What matters at end-of-life? Bringing together perspectives from families, caregivers, clinicians, and research to spark public conversation through community creation and interactive experiences. The series invites us to think about our relationship with death and dying as an individual, a member of a family, social network and as a human being in society. Let’s get comfortable with the uncomfortable and start talking about what truly matters.

Dying. presented by Taboo Health and OCAD University’s Design Studio, is taking place at four exhibits across three locations including public talks and hands on activities in Toronto, January 18 - 27 2019.

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Inspired to start discussions on death and dying?

 Check out our partner Speak Up Ontario's website for resources on how you can get the conversation going. With specific information for individuals and families, health care providers, and non-health care professionals, it's a one-stop shop to help you navigate this difficult topic.

Don't Miss the Opening Party

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Event Program

• All Events
• Party
• Installations
• Interactive
• Presentations

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filter2 filter3 - "Ghost Stories", a two-part installation that offers a critical perspective on the liminal spaces of care and the grieving process-- Ellen Snowball & Kristi Poole-Adler.

filter2 - Footage captured during a trip documents our emotional processes, and our father’s quick decline, as well as some of the banality of death. Nearly ten years later, artist and son, Lucien Durey changes its narrative using song and video editing to reflect on its themes, and considers the subsequent decade of personal growth -- Lucien Durey

filter3 - ‘Time Moving’ invites members of the public to explore the concept of time and temporal change at end of life by different stakeholders in death in a workshop format --Kate Sellen

filter2 - "Missing You" asks people to allow me to photograph them in a place that has meaning for them. Then I photograph that place without them in it.The process opens up a conversation about our mortality, first to imagine the world without us in it, and then to talk about our own death -- Robin Pacific.

filter2 - “The Cage” is a witness of my devotion to my father; it is a visual of his health record, and a commentary on the pharmaceutical industry of the twenty-first century. -- Helen Zajkowski

filter2 filter3 - A do-it-yourself cardboard coffin seeks to turn death into a sustainable enterprise through design, technology, and open source methods. Would you dare to try it out for a #coffinselfie?-- Justin Tyler Tate

filter2 filter3 - An exploration of the personal experience with end of life, Constellations sets out to explore how families — however we choose to define family — experience the dying and death of some we love - Karen Oikonen & Kate Wilkes

filter2 - The public are invited to add to the work through probing questions to express perceptions of the experience of time at end of life. Posing questions about disorientation/orientation to time horizons, perceptions of time as we move towards death, while building curiosity about decision making at end of life - Kate Sellen

filter2 - A performance piece that naturally deflates over the course of the 10 day event. "My father was a DNR patient. This confused me for years. This is my reconciliation." --Corbett Fogue

filter2 filter3 - Candy Chang, artist and urban planner, created the first ‘Before I Die’ wall on an abandoned house in New Orleans after the death of someone she loved. There are now over 4,000 ‘Before I Die’ walls in over 75 countries and 36 languages, and with the support of OCAD University, one of these walls is here at the Dying. event series.

filter2 filter3 - ‘Until the Last Breath’ explores themes such as communication, perception of time, family and caregivers, memories and grieving through interactive, digital, and participatory installations - Group exhibit.

filter4 - A two-day mini-symposium on design for end of life, through interdisciplinary discussions across the academy, medicine, the broader public, and the art and design community. Key note by Ivor Williams; Williams leads the end-of-life care projects at the Helix Centre, an innovation design lab inside the Institute for Global Health led by Lord Ara Darzi and St Mary’s Hospital in London.

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