Augmento Mori:

Designing life into death

Exploring design interventions that rebalance the place of death and dying in modern society.

Status: Active primary research. Are you, or is someone you love. a person with life-limiting illness in palliative care who wants to share your story? Are you a member of a medical, spiritual or death support care network? Are you curious to explore your own views on death and dying?

Take a brief survey here

What does it mean to die well in a world obsessed with living forever?

In the modern Western world, death is expensive, over-medicalized, traumatic and under-discussed. It makes sense- thinking about our own death or that of our loved ones isn’t easy to do. It’s a hard topic to broach. And our technology is advancing so fast that many believe we will soon live in an age of undying.

Death is normally a part of any natural life cycle but for us, it’s quite clearly disconnected. On top of that, nearly all of us want to die at home, but most of us die in institutions like hospitals and ICUs meant to keep us alive at all costs. These places are designed to preserve Life, not let it go.

What does it mean to die naturally in the digital age of the eternal and undying? Where do we find meaning and purpose from life if death is taken out of the human loop?

The way that we die, is changing. The modern tech of our world have made death and dying hard and brutal for some, and cold, medical and foreign for others. What does the way that we die say about the way we live?

Dr. Kathryn Mannix explains the very simple, ordinary, process of dying. It’s quite boring, actually, and mostly looks nothing like it does in the movies.

  • Our death-denying digital age needs design that reconnects with death as a natural, regenerative part of life's cycle, particularly in healthcare systems that prioritize longevity over dignity and meaning.

    This thesis researches the impact of culturally-sensitive (digital and analog/ immersive) experiences and interventions that honor end-of-life transition, preserve cultural practices and family connections, and are designed to help transform society's disconnected relationship with death to one of sacred, sustainable, dignity for every human being on this planet.

  • Dying With Dignity is a Human Right.

    Avoiding death is a percussive and persistent themes that dominate cultural and clinical paradigms of the Anthropocene age.

    But everything dies. Doesn’t it?

    Today, the natural process of dying has been sidelined, creating environments that inadequately support terminally ill patients and their loved ones.

    This research explores design that transforms palliative care systems to provide comfort, dignity, and holistic support, challenging the over-medicalization of death. It suggests interventions of human-centered design, evidence-based research, and service design methodologies in creating innovative solutions for globally holistic and dignified end-of-life care.

    This examination urges a systemic rebalancing that integrates social, spiritual, and relational aspects of terminal care into clinical environments.

    Principles rooted in human dignity provoke hyper-individualized, adaptive palliative environments and experiences that respond to physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of patients and their caregivers.

    This work addresses inequities in access to culturally sensitive care, fosters community-centered death practices, and advocates for sustainable approaches to dying.

    Ultimately, this work reimagines the palliative care experience and redefines how we die—sustainably, relationally, and with profound comfort and support.

    We seek to return death to its critical and natural place in the ‘closed loop’ of the life cycle of modern humanity with great compassion and care.

  • What if end-of-life care environments restored dignity, sustainability, and cultural relevance to terminal ill patients, families, and communities?

    Is it a failure to die in the digital age of living forever?

    What if the end of life be a holistic, human-centered experience?

    What would the world look like if death, dying and grieving were openly recognized as a part of life and the opportunity for healthy dying and healthy grieving were available to everyone?

    What if design could reconnect death as a meaningful, integrated, and sustainable part of life and culture?

  • Chair: Scott Boylston, MFA
    Deepak Chopra
    Rahaf Harfoush
    Jaron Lanier
    Alex McDowell
    David Meyers
    Pamela Shamshiri
    Cameron Sinclair
    Saty Sharma
    Wyatt Troll

  • Augmento Mori combines the Latin term memento mori, meaning "remember you must die," with the word "augment," to enhance or extend, support, or make larger.

    This name encapsulates the aims of this project to enhance our modern understanding and experience of death, transforming it into a dignified, meaningful, and supported process through design and innovation.

“Our tech is advancing so much that many of us assume that soon, dying will be optional. Or at the very least least, we will live for much healthier for much longer than we currently do. But that just isn’t the case for much of the world and most every other living thing found in nature. ”
— Augmento Mori

Do we really have to die?

Not everyone thinks so. Are they right? Is dying immoral or are we simply running from the inevitable?

What does it mean to die in the age of eternal youth?

According to some people, death is a plague that can and will be eradicated. What happens to our sense of order, and our understanding of life— without death?

Is dying a set of factors in our control? If so, does that mean that dying is an act of violence, destruction and self harm?

But for nearly 70 percent of people who took this poll, living forever just is not in the cards for humanity. And no matter what happens in the future, most of us will die in the coming decades.