Bereavement Workshop

[2025]

My identity as a devoted fan of musicians often gravitates me towards the question “What should I do, if one day, my favorite artists pass away?”

A design research, done at the Keio Media Design, focuses on creating a safe space for fans, takes the form of 30-minute bereavement workshop, exploring their memories of deceased artists and cope with the loss.

While existing bereavement studies have been focusing more on physically-close or related people relationship, this work addresses the bond between fans and artists which often gets overlooked.

Memory drawing sessions and verbal sharing with fellow fans enable reflection on personal journeys, from artist discovery, all the way to their death. The sorrowful nature of the activities makes AI-generated images as reminiscence aids especially helpful to support the storytelling process and visual representation of memory.

Fans eventually recognized positive emotions among the happenings, planned for a better future ahead, thanks to the strength shared among fellow fans.

This work was exhibited as an academic poster at KMD Forum in Tokyo Portcity Takeshiba on 2–3 November, 2025.