X
Parallel to the process of concealing images and emotions related to dying in private space, we can observe a completely opposite situation in public space, where the rituals accompanying the deaths of celebrities are becoming more and more pompous, more impressive, even deafening. Funeral of an idol is a spectacle created by media, official commentators, music and film stars, as well as average observers. It turns out that participation (direct or screen-based) in such a ceremony results from the desire to warm up in the light of fame, as well as the need to participate in a common cause, sharing and absorbing similar feelings. Public manifestation of presence (sharing photos, comments, songs of the idol, or even using the symbol of a burning candle [*]) directly translates into building the social position of both the deceased and the participants.
In the second half of the twentieth century, it was noticed that our approach to death, seniors and sick people have changed. Natural death, death of a loved ones as a social event disappeared from our consciousness. Death very often, is accompanied by loneliness, both in the case of a dying person and its relatives.
At the same time, we are submitting to the ubiquitous process of commercialization, politicization and unreflective shocking by corpses in public space. We have been attacked with hundreds of images of death, both real ones coming from reportages, everyday news, and the fake ones that spill out of the cinema screens.
Ultra-modern, virtual images that we create and share daily in social media, do not get old. We also have full control over time, as we can edit events from the past at any given moment. Our history can be constantly improved and updated. From the moment of registration each day, at any moment we can (or maybe we are obliged to) build our alternative life, which sooner or later becomes our monument. Nowadays, the border between private and public, real and false is lost. We become prisoners under constant observation and control, in full readiness to show ourselves and to be noticed by others.
| Copyright © Urszula Kluz-Knopek ula@adija.pl |