This project is the second in a series of explorations on the topic of death and the digital.
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On February 1st, 2012 the Daily Mail newspaper posted an article with the following headline: ‘I finally got a gun’: Tragic last tweet of high school teen who shot herself dead after posting photo of the weapon online
The subject of the article, 17-year-old Ashley Duncan, used popular social networking tools to share her plans for suicide. As I thought about this tragedy in the context of my previous project, I realized that there was a striking similarity between the two scenarios: Both Ashley Duncan and those grieving for my deceased Facebook friend were having a one-sided conversation with the internet.
However, Ashley’s words were written for an audience of live, sentient people who could have taken action. She cried out, but no one responded. Her conversation didn’t have to be one-sided.
The following is a tribute to Ashley:
I re-created Ashley’s digital message in paper and staged it in the physical world. Treated this way, her words become harder to ignore and can’t disappear into the abyss of the internet.
Ashley’s tweet made me wonder what other famous last words were captured in 144 characters. I found a NY Times article that listed a number of last tweets by celebrities who had recently passed. Some were purposeful, thoughtful anecdotes. Others were flippant, mundane tweets that would inadvertently become a lasting legacy.
