Virtual Soul

Lincoln Antonio + Marcela Rueda
Civic-Sacred: Life, Death, and Liminality

This intervention redefines the relationship between nature, architecture, and technology in order to change people’s perspective on the physical presence of death. Existing barriers are breached, and the cemetery is reintroduced into urbanity.

Memorialization in a modern context looks towards the virtual rather than the physical, creating new rituals supporting the journey of death. Individual construct their virtual self by interacting with an AI in isolated or communal situations. Primary data and sensorial reactions within the project are uploaded to a physical server, contributing to a greater collective memory. This memory is gathered, accessed and experienced throughout the building and the site of the cemetery, where nature is distilled through architecture into the five exteroceptive senses, each having a unique effect on the human mind. 

After collecting the virtual soul, the physical body is interred via resomation, and the remains are introduced into a closed-loop system. A curated natural environment filters the nutrient-rich water, which is afterwards used to cool the servers. The heated water is then returned to the resomation chamber, completing the cycle.