MASS.RIP explores the neglected space of digital death and remembrance through the physical representation of deceased online identities. While we have centuries-old rituals and traditions for memorializing the dead, online communities are still becoming accustomed to the process of mourning in virtual spaces. The monument presents a continuously growing list of deceased Facebook users on a physical tombstone, shifting the mode of grieving on digital platforms into the material world. Mass.rip renders the dichotomy between digital and physical processes of mourning as the lines between online and offline increasingly blur.

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Milo Reinhardt is a Montreal based multidisciplinary artist currently studying Digital Technologies in Design Art Practice at Concordia University. His practice explores the effects of digital mediation on cultural perception and experience of death, while fortifying connections between the evolvement of identity construction and digital memory. He has exhibited work and performed at Perte de Signal, galerie FOFA, Galerie Éphèmére, Société des Arts Technologiques (SAT), and the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.

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Conan Lai lives and works in Montreal. His research interests include internet network topography, game theory and the issues surrounding anonymity and identity online.