Narrative Cemetery: Ritual Arrangement and Rearrangement. A Design Proposal for Michigan Memorial Park Cemetery USA

Abstract

“The Narrative Cemetery” proposes a reconsideration of contemporary American rituals of burial and methods of memorializing individuals. An archive of family histories is developed to become a field of monuments confronting several issues within the contemporary culture of burial. Narratives hold a pivotal role when grieving, in the process of “rearrangement”. The Narrative Monument engages this phenomena by interpreting and displaying stories of the deceased on a field of markers and monuments. Personalized and tactile markers engage the mourner and build an immersive setting for ritual, in which the presence of the individual is felt and immortalized.

Keywords

• Cemetery
• Narrative
• Mourner
• Artifact
• Monument