About Me

Dr Stacey Pitsillides is a Lecturer in Design at the University of Greenwich whose research focuses on Digital Death, CoDesign, Data, Social Design & Ethics. Public Engagement #DeathPositive #Design

MRes in Design

" ‘Research’ involves a fluid, yet reflective, engagement with social and cultural contexts and/or natural phenomena. It is part of a dynamic that moves to extend the horizon of what is knowable and/or the ways we may know. It may also be a way of ‘re-knowing’, ‘knowing again’ or ‘knowing anew’ (differently). It also can (should) lay support for what we may wish to ‘realise’ and in consequence ‘become’ – support for our ‘prospects’. "

Introduction to Social Science Research Methodologies

T.E. Rosenberg

My research practise was built out of my developing interest in a particular topic and field within the final year of my BA in Design. My inability to give up researching the topic of ‘digital death’ was a mix of intense interest, growing concern and passion. This led me to begin to consider research as a career rather then an add-on to my practise. Practise, however, still forms an integral part of my research. Thus practical methodologies such as ideational drawing, model making and info-graphic generation continue to be an important generator of research.

My personal practise generally is instigated and developed through my interactions, discussions and questioning of relevant communities. Consulting forces me to consider the social and cultural implications of my practice and specifically, how human relations may differ in the digital world and how trust and support can be designed for within digital communities.

Through a mix of academic investigation (immersion in texts), generative ideation, keeping tabs on digital disseminations of the topic and participation in events, collaborations and conferences. A thesis is built up which allows for the construction of/ upon existing and new systems and interventions within a research practise.

I intend to explore the use of ideational drawing, with the aim of rapidly testing a range of scenarios, narratives, users and aesthetics. This will be integrated with reality and expanded on through the use cultural probes, designed experiments (both physical and virtual), short films and targeted interviews, the first stage of interviews will be conducted with students within the university who have experienced bereavement and have used the internet as a way of communicating with family and friends over this period, qualitative data about how these students felt about this mediation of their experience and the consideration of what (if any) online tools they would have (or have) found helpful during this experience.

I have begun to form a solid position on my topic, through the use of these networks and my own ongoing research. I aim to understand if and how communal bereavement through virtual communities can be effective, how it works cognitively and how it can be designed/ communicated for effectively, thus allowing the communities to begin creatively designing their own systems. I will thus be in a position to highlight the positive and negative effects of the incorporation of digital communities, which deal with history and bereavement. Thus I will take into consideration all possible scenarios and develop solid strategies that will be aimed at visioning the multi-layered repercussion (historical, emotional, social etc) of Digital Death, thus designing and re-designing structures and systems within (and with) the virtual community.


Auto-ethnogaphic practices, morality and experimentation in Second Life.


Are there impersonators in Second Life? I have yet to come across any impersonators in Second Life, which i strange as in Second Life you are free to look as you choose...

How would people react to seeing an avatar which resembled a public figure in Second Life...? Why is it ok to impersonate someone like Elvis but somehow wrong to do the same for Princess Diana, could this avatar be considered a tribute or is it just disrespectful?


Looking at common cultures and practises within Second Life, asking whether someone could be a Second Life impersonator and how the community would react to this? What is the ethical standpoint on impersonating someone who is dead?