Infinity Burial Project

While searching through the TED website several months ago I stumbled upon one video in particular that I felt deeply inspired to write about. Jae Rhim Lee is a visual artist, a designer and a researcher whose work proposes unorthodox relationships between the mind/body/self and the built and natural environment. In July 2011 Jae Rhim Lee spoke at TED about her most current research; proposing alternatives to what happens to our bodies after death and understanding the physical implications of the choices we make in regards to that.

Her current work is called the Infinity Burial Project, where she is working to develop a new strain of mushroom (fungus if you will) that will feed on and decompose our dead bodies and re mediate the industrial toxins we store in our bodies and efficiently transform them into nutrients.This is also done with a body suit embroidered with mushroom spores and a two-part fluid that activates the spores to develop.

converting corpses into compost comes with some heavy psychological/philosophical baggage. What I love about this woman is she is not only a revolutionary in regards to her perma culture design but she is also bringing the issue of death acceptance into the forefront of scientific research. How do we make ourselves more aware and accepting of death? This requires a certain amount of environmental consciousness and a re-imagining of our connection to the earth and the stark reality that we have over-populated and over-exploited it.

this project has really resonated with me on many ethical and moral levels. As a human living in an urban area of western society, I have searched for ways to live sustainably, and as far as the bigger picture goes, I would be incredibly honored to be a decomposing subject for Jae's project.