Afterglow is a speculative company that manufactures analogue afterlife artifacts out of the digital footprints of its deceased customers. By collecting, distilling, and subsequently erasing the data, the service gives meaning to a lifetime’s worth of search histories, purchases, streams, chats and feeds.

The service

Afterglow follows the following sequence for every customer:

Intake: When a customer first signs up for Afterglow, they take part in an intake interview. The interview establishes what data the customer wants to use, what this data could be turned into, and who should receive the artifacts. This intake can always be adjusted or retracted if the customer’s wishes change.

Collecting and designing: After the customer’s passing their entire digital footprint is collected. All data not in possession of friends and family is extracted from all databases. The data specified by the customer is used in a bespoke design process to create their unique artifact.

Distribution and erasure: When completed, the artifacts are distributed to the people specified by the customer. All the collected data is then erased.

The Artifacts

An example of such an artifact is that of Beko, who wanted to leave behind his creative spirit and his love for music and movies. Afterglow was allowed to use the following data:

• Spotify listening history
• Discogs collection information
• Letterboxd account
• Video streaming service history
• Uploaded YouTube videos
• Music files on Logic Pro X
• Design files in google drive
• Text messages

Using this data, Afterglow designed a set of multimedia swatches. The swatches contain a still from the movie, a description of the shot’s circumstances, the inspiration, the colour scheme, and, on the back, an audio clip. The swatch can be played on a record player.

Combining the watching and listening data gave perspective of what media was consumed as inspiration for Beko’s own movies. The uploads provided stills and colour schemes of the movie’s most watched moments. The text messages along with the design files allowed for a short description of the scene and its production. Finally, the Spotify listening history and the Discogs collection information determined the song engraved on the back of the swatch.