Materialising affective experiences: Designing for personal domestic grief practices

In this pictorial, we present the process leading to the creation of NÆRVÆR, an affectively engaging interactive prototype exploring personal domestic grief practices. NÆRVÆR symbolises a physical presence of the intangible affective experiences associated with grief as an ongoing connection to the deceased in the present. NÆRVÆR was developed in a Research through Design process fueled by both personal accounts and participatory engagements using various design probes exploring experiences of loss following the death of a loved one. In this pictorial, we unfold the theoretical, methodological, and material dimensions of this process to show how designers can accommodate grief in design practice as a way of utilising and materialising the affective forces present in such sensitive contexts.