University of Washington Informatics students, Amy and Daniel, introduce their capstone research into digital legacy practices among young adults
Hi there! We are Amy Sun and Daniel Kim, two seniors at the University of Washington Informatics program with a focus on UX/UI design. We’re extremely honored to work with the Flickr Foundation, who have generously sponsored our capstone project exploring digital archiving in the context of digital preservation and legacy planning, alongside our professor Dr. Temi Odumosu who has served as our mentor throughout this project. With our backgrounds in culturally sensitive UX design and accessible design, we are incredibly excited to begin this project with the Flickr Foundation.
For the past two months we have stepped into the world of memory work as welcomed strangers, taking the time to learn about the importance of digital archiving in order to preserve our shared cultural heritage. Being among some of the most forward and preparatory thinkers addressing digital preservation has felt like walking through déjà vu, where we are designing and thinking about future solutions that were anticipated in the past: our present moment.
Our research questions
Our first step of research was to explore the vast literature surrounding archival work where we became particularly interested in digital death and destruction. We were especially struck by the following concepts, which led us to some key questions::
Digital estate planning: We found an online guide on how people can dedicate a “will” or “legacy” to loved ones to have access to their digital accounts.
- How can people be given the tools to think through posthumous digital assets?
The scale of digital mortality: It is estimated that by 2070, those who are dead will outnumber the living on Facebook… we might assume a similar scale for Flickr. Physical death doesn’t necessarily account for a person’s digital footprint.
- How can we address the fact that digital content will outlive its creator?
- How long should these memories last?
- Who should have the right to decide what happens to this content?
Deathlogging: The digital persistence of deceased individuals on the internet creates new mourning rituals between the living and the dead.
- What is the experience of users interacting with deceased accounts?
- How can this experience provide insights into how those in the future might interact with content (or Data Lifeboats) created by deceased creators?
Archival Refusal: In the Pittsburgh Queer History Project a marginalized community’s artifacts and information were intentionally protected and excluded from museums and curators, serving as a critique of archival research’s encroachment on the personal. This reading revealed that unchecked preservation risks distorting precious cultural memory, while intentional removal risks erasing vital histories.
- What happens if digital content is taken out of context or misrepresents cultural histories, and archival or set expiration dates on archives for this reason?
- What contradictions exist between an archive’s promise to empower through acquisition and its compulsion to expand by any means necessary?
Alongside these readings, we found ourselves in a unique design space: considering digital power and autonomy today.
While talking with Dr. Odumosu, we discussed why this is an urgent issue. She highlighted the mass deletion of information in the U.S. federal government through data purging. The “death” of data at the hands of our government exposes the false promise of online permanence.
This is not limited to those in power in the U.S. federal government. Corporations closely tied to the administration—such as Meta (founded by Mark Zuckerberg) and Amazon (founded by Jeff Bezos)—hold immense power over our individual and collective digital assets. If these corporations were to adopt a similar shoot-from-the-hip approach to digital assets, what steps can we take to ensure digital legacy planning remains in our hands?
If the livelihood of data can be deleted in a split second by our government, what decisions about longevity and time-constraints on our digital assets should be given to the user?
What promise of preservation could something like Data Lifeboat reasonably offer to the user?
We question the systems of power safeguarding, saving and holding crucial information. It gives us the language to say,
“We are saving and archiving because there are power structures that actually control what we thought we had control over.”
In the coming weeks, we will be exploring these themes through interviews and an educational workshop aimed at increasing literacy surrounding digital preservation for young adults.
Thank you to Tori, George, and Dr. Odumosu for their ongoing mentorship throughout this project and we will keep you posted on our research in our Part 2.
