Final Year Project

Project Title

In Lieu of Forgetting

Description

The past 18 months have been difficult. Death has lingered closer than ever. It has been hard to pause, grasp, process, and absorb. A barrage of information- most of it bad- has overruled our lives. People became casualties. A mere number. Each death only added another digit to the daily death toll. The departed souls' lived lives, experiences, relationships, friendships, secrets, and quirks stopped mattering. The pandemic had multi-dimensional social ramifications that changed the relationship between the living and the dead. This research has aimed to traverse the process of memory-making and remembering after losing someone to death and how this process has been adjusted by the social conditions enforced by the pandemic. Furthermore, it is a study about how the living maintain their ongoing relationships with the dead and how the residuary belongings of the departed help in this process by evoking memories in the context of Pakistani culture.