In one of the artists’ studios below London’s neoclassical arts hub Somerset House, I am handed a curious object: a USB stick completely encased in clear epoxy. Printed on it is the French phrase “ne me quitte(s) pas” (from the classic love song by Belgian singer/songwriter Jacques Brel). This is a demonstration model of what participants receive in the performance of ‘Goodnight Sweetheart’ by Audrey Samson.

At a series of installations across the globe, the Canadian artist has been offering “digital data funerals”, where she dons a gas mask and protective gloves to symbolically dispose of all or a portion of someone’s online life, loaded onto one of these memory sticks, which she immerses in a block of fast-hardening resin.

As Samson makes clear with the somewhat ironic ritualistic aspect of ‘Goodnight Sweetheart’, erasing such data is actually very difficult. And this raises some equally difficult questions. It is not an issue that has troubled me duly until now: yes, I have noted down a few important log-in details for my missus, but beyond that have not thought at all about what will happen to my emails, digital images and postings spread across various social media accounts. Would I want them saved as a memorial or wiped away to save someone else the hassle?