We are all going to die - so why not talk about it? Dying. an event series, explores death through the lens of design and art, running during the DesignTO Festival. |
Dying. is in fact about living, living with the human experience of dying; What aren’t we talking about? What matters at end-of-life? Bringing together perspectives from families, caregivers, clinicians, and research to spark public conversation through community creation and interactive experiences. The series invites us to think about our relationship with death and dying as an individual, a member of a family, social network and as a human being in society. Let’s get comfortable with the uncomfortable and start talking about what truly matters.
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History
The Dying.series was founded by Maria Cheung, CEO at Taboo Health, participatory designer and researcher, Karen Oikonen, and Dr. Kate Sellen, Director of the Health Design Studio at OCAD U. Over the past five years, the Dying.series has attracted over 5000 attendees, 26 speakers, including 4 opening and keynote speakers in the disciplines of design and healthcare and 29 exhibiting artists and designers. In the first 4 years, the Dying.series has had two primary components: Dying.exhibits an exhibit installation hosted at Artscape Youngplace as part of the match a designer program of the DesignTO design festival, and Dying.dialogues a speaker event lead by Dr. Kate Sellen at OCAD U. In June of 2023, co-founder Maria Cheung stepped back from the Dying.series which will now be co-led by Karen and Kate while acknowledging the significant contribution of Maria and Taboo Health through the Dying.series first four years.
DesignTO and Artscape Youngplace have been critical partners in bringing the Dying.series to the public. While we see this year as a transition year for the series, we are committing to continuing a presence within DesignTO.
DesignTO and Artscape Youngplace have been critical partners in bringing the Dying.series to the public. While we see this year as a transition year for the series, we are committing to continuing a presence within DesignTO.
Meet Our 2024 Team
KAREN OIKONENCo-CuratorKaren is an experienced design researcher, service designer and educator with deep expertise in participatory approaches within healthcare, academia, government and private sectors. As an innovation designer at The Moment, Karen has led projects in design research, service design, strategy and participatory design. She is most interested in understanding the complexities of our human experience, within environments, systems, networks, and communities, as a catalyst for positive change.
Committed to making a positive impact on the human experience at the end of life, Karen’s personal work explores the family experience of death and dying through the lens of design. She has collaborated on multiple participatory installations to engage the public in conversations about death and dying including: Constellations: The family experience of end of life, a collaboration with Kate Hale Wilkes; Going Home to Die, a collaboration with Wilkes, Dr. Sarina Isenberg and Stephanie Saunders; and The Reflection Room as Senior Design Researcher at SE Health. Karen has a Masters of Design in Strategic Foresight & Innovation from OCAD University and is part-time faculty at Sheridan College. She has presented work focused on end of life at both healthcare and design conferences across Canada. |
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MARYAM MALLAKINTeam memberMaryam is a health design researcher with cross-disciplinary experience in Health Science and Art and Design. Her primary field of research and design interest lies in the intersection of mental and physical health, and the intervention design of healthcare systems, services, products, and processes, particularly in the context of public health.
As a researcher and an artist, she extremely interested in applying arts-based data collection and analysis techniques, specifically in practices that aim to improve health and wellbeing. |
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