School of Design Communication
Jiang Jiarong
Jiarong is graduating with an MA in Design from LASALLE College of the Arts.
Her research focuses on the innovative use of discursive design to challenge the social taboo of death, encouraging Gen Z to reflect and engage in open dialogue on life and mortality. Through participatory workshops such as 24-Hour Life Choices, DIY Funeral Co-creation, and Legacy Message, Jiarong explores how design can create empathetic spaces for public discussion, aiming to enhance death literacy and inspire positive social awareness.
Work
One Last Dry Run: Exploring discursive design-led approaches to reimagine death through reflection and dialogue
In Singapore, death remains a persistent social taboo. This project positions Discursive Design as its core transformative tool, structuring a comprehensive intervention around the four-stage participatory workshop series 'Will'. It not only aligns with Gen Z’s increasingly open attitude toward life-and-death topics but also channels their curiosity into meaningful and sustainable engagement. Unlike traditional death education, which often carries a sense of heaviness or alienation, the value of discursive design is precisely activated here: it does not prescribe fixed viewpoints but instead creates a safe space for dialogue, guiding participants to actively confront avoidance or trivialization and cultivate conscious engagement and public discussion about death.
The first stage of the 'Will' series, 'Will_Start the Talk. 24 Hours', uses a calendar-style installation as a tangible manifestation of discursive design. Each page presents prompts drawn from real stories, such as “If you only had 24 hours left, what would you do?” Through lightweight interaction, the workshop lowers emotional barriers, allowing participants to approach life-and-death topics naturally through choices and reflection, transforming dialogue from being merely 'acceptable' to genuinely 'willing to discuss'.
The second stage, 'Will_Confronting Death DIY Funeral', continues the logic of discursive design by replacing instruction with reflection. Participants select funeral theme cards—covering music, decoration, rituals and more—and scan them into a system to customise their own funeral scenario. The design does not define what a funeral should be; instead, through tangible creative engagement, participants are prompted to question whether death must always be solemn. This hands-on process breaks ingrained perceptions, making detailed discussions of death publicly conceivable.
The third stage, 'Will_What Remains. Leaving a Legacy', extends the dialogic nature of the design to connections between self and others. Participants write virtual wills or imagine commemorative messages or images others might create for them after death. They can also browse archives of previous participants’ contributions. By combining symbolic creation and sharing, the design allows individuals to reflect on the value of life, creating implicit dialogue among diverse perspectives on death and transforming legacy from an abstract concept into a tangible emotional medium.
The fourth stage, 'Will_Conversation Tool', translates discursive design into everyday contexts. Three question boxes, arranged by emotional depth from curiosity to reflection, are placed in spaces such as cafés alongside reflection walls. The design maintains the core principle of guiding rather than instructing, enabling low-pressure engagement where Generation Z can continue exploring life-and-death topics in informal settings. Side prompts facilitate mutual understanding, strengthen relationships and extend the influence of discursive design beyond the workshop into long-term daily dialogue.
Throughout the project, discursive design serves as the anchor. It does not seek singular answers but rather encourages participants to actively recognize their cognitive blind spots and reconstruct their understanding of death through interaction. This approach not only breaks taboos and enhances death literacy but also drives dual transformation of personal cognition and social perspective, reframing death from a taboo topic into a critical lens for understanding the meaning of life.
