Burial rituals are practices performed by and for the living. Matter is transformed: bodies are buried, submerged, burned, or exposed. Advances in technology allow for a new type of death or (un)death rite: a person’s data can be uploaded/found in the Cloud. Matter is transformed again: an (un)death through the imprints left by our digital doubles. As our virtual extensions become intrinsic to our being, the process of grieving is no longer solely about remembering but about continuing to craft intra-actions with the imprints left by our biological selves. The physical-virtual ritual begins at the tower located at Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn. At this site, the traces left by our biological selves are collected and uploaded into the digital realm, while the corporeal matter is placed in a vessel to undergo the Natural Organic Reduction process. Digital traces become presence; the body becomes soil. Matter continues its transformation. When the NOR process is over, the soil begins its journey towards Pier 6 at Sunset Park. Its accumulation and growth on the memorial landscape allow for mountains to emerge. To be terraformed is also to be transformed, together with all remnants both digital and physical, through the intra-actions enacted within this grieving landscape. This terraformed memorial site becomes the only place where the physical-virtual ritual can be performed. The concept of impermanence expands. We are not dying entirely, yet we are not truly alive, as we are moments frozen in time unless someone interacts with our imprints. A liminal space frames physical-virtual rituals where the connection between our digital and corporeal remains and those who are still physically alive is stronger than ever. While data is uploaded, the body becomes soil. Through a journey that unfolds across both time and space, matter undergoes transformation: neither people, soil, nor data stay the same. This shadow communication allows digital archives to remain and perdure, as long as they are kept “alive.” The intra-actions among those that remain.
