Gravestone as a media. Anthropological view on the circumstances on digital remediation of cemetery in modern Russia

Abstract

In the article, the author regards the gravestone from a media perspective, based on Marshall McLuhan's concept of media, and determines its dual position on the cold media/hot media warmth scale based on examples from field materials. Having substantiated the applicability of the concept of media to a gravestone, the author applies it to the history of its remediation, taking as a starting point the project of Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich “Russian Necropolis”. Then revealing the peculiarities of such a stage of remediation as the creation of commemoration photos and the transformations that this tradition is experiencing today. The focus of the published research is the most relevant form of remediation: the digitization of cemeteries. Digitization refers to the process of creating a digital copy of cemeteries by photographing each gravestone and then indexing the visual data to create text and graphic databases that support search functionality. The various actors involved in the practice of digitization are briefly examined, but the main attention is paid to individuals conducting such activities on a volunteer basis, without special education or affiliation with memorial institutions. Based on ethnographic material, the author shows how grassroots necropolistics works in modern Russia, what motives lie behind this practice, and how digitizers rationalize it. The author concludes digital remediation of cemeteries becomes an attempt to relieve the cemetery as a mnemonic place from the destructive influence of nature and humans.