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The social context of death, dying and disposal

For this, the 8 International Conference, The Social Context of Death, Dying and Disposal (DDD8), we are again delighted to welcome our delegates to the City of Bath. We have a stimulating academic, arts and social programme to look forward to this year. Once again, the number of delegates attending the conference has grown, as has the range of academic and professional disciplines and the number of countries they represent – over 20 countries from around the world. This year whilst continuing with the commitment to multidisciplinary working, we have focused more heavily on the link between death and the arts. In so doing, DDD8 has been organised collaboratively by the University of Bath’s Centre for Death and Society (CDAS) and the Institute of Contemporary Interdisciplinary Arts (ICIA). The first DDD conference that illustrated the link between death and the arts was held at Glasgow Caledonian University in 1998 and boasted an exhibition of contemporary visual representations of death at the Rennie Mackintosh Gallery, Glasgow School of Art – ‘Like a Shadow’ curated by Robert Wyatt. At DDD7, held at the University of Bath in 2005, ICIA presented a visual arts exhibition alongside the conference. This exhibition, ‘Transience’, featured the work of Canadian artist Barb Hunt with her installation reflecting upon the rituals that surround death and mourning. Artistic and cultural activity associated with death as an area of study provides a vast and diverse range of possibilities. In addition to cultural practices associated with commemorative rituals and memorialisation there are many ways in which cultural representations of (and negotiations with) death are a part of day-to-day contemporary experience; from media representations of death to the more private representations of loved ones in the family album. There are artists in virtually all artforms who have explored death as a subject. Taking the example of contemporary visual art, at the time of writing some of the highest profile visual artists (Rachel Whiteread, Damien Hirst, Marc Quinn, Doris Salcedo) are particularly preoccupied with death, mortality and commemoration. It was the success of the two DDD exhibitions in highlighting some of the work of contemporary artists in this field that prompted us to reflect further on the relationship between death and the arts and the current proliferation of work in this area. Having two pioneering centres at the University of Bath (CDAS and ICIA) which focus on death and the arts respectively, we felt that collaborating on the organisation of DDD8 was an opportunity not to be missed. However, as ever, DDD8 is committed to multidisciplinary work and this is reflected in our choice of plenary speakers and in the make-up of papers in the Mortality, Vol. 12, Supplement 1, September 2007