Jae Rhim Lee Infinity Burial Project

Description

The Infinity Burial Project explores the choices we face post-mortem and how our choices reflect our denial or acceptance of death’s physical and psychological implications. The two components include a modest proposal in physical form for a new land and energy independent burial system. The Infinity Burial System converts corpses into useable biomethane gas, detoxifies the corpse using a new hybrid mushroom (Infinity Mushroom), and creates clean compost. The Infinity Mushroom, a future hybrid mushroom will perform three functions: 1) decompose bodies, 2) remediate the accumulated industrial toxins in bodies, and 3) deliver nutrients from bodies to plant roots. The second component includes a documentary film about death denial, cryonics (the ultimate form of death denial), the development of the Infinity Burial System (the antidote to death denial), and Lee’s own confrontation with death through illness while she develops the Infinity Burial System.



Biography

  • Jae Rhim Lee

    Jae Rhim Lee is a visual artist and designer whose living units, furniture, wearables and recycling systems propose unorthodox relati…

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Project Updates

  • 2011: Lee presents the Infinity Burial Project at TED Global in Edinburgh, Scotland

  • 2011: Lee develops Infinity Burial Project while in residence at the MAK Center for Art + Architecture in Los Angeles

  • 2011: In conjunction with Infinity Burial Project, Lee presents “Postmortem Options: A Workshop on the Dead Body” at MIT

  • 2011: Lee builds DIY mushroom lab where she is training the Infinity Mushroom

  • 2010: Lee designs and constructs the Infinity Burial Project laboratory and completes initial tests of the Infinity Mushroom

  • 2010: Lee completes a course in mushroom lab technique and cultivation, and identifies half of a scientific collaboration team for Infinity Burial Project

Work Samples