News and Events

Join Open House Melbourne, DeathTech and special guests for a day of panel conversations shining a light on the architecture, places, issues and practices associated with death and the end of life. Six Feet Under: Design + Death is part of Melbourne Design Week 2024, an initiative of the Victorian Government in collaboration with the NGV. Across three moderated panel …

Deciding what to do with a dead friend or relative’s online presence is complicated and time-consuming but there are shortcuts. There is no one-stop-shop or single method to memorialise or delete accounts. Some companies, including Google, are now deleting accounts after two years of inactivity but there is no consistency across platforms. In this article, Dr Bjorn Nansen discusses how social …

The dead are brought front of mind in many ways through our public rituals, festivals and ceremonies. There’s China’s Hungry Ghost Festival, Mexico’s Día de los Muertos, Japan’s Obon Festival and of course, Halloween, which has its roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain. Halloween was originally a time dedicated to warding off ghosts with costumes and remembering the dead – rather than collecting candy. In this …

We’re talking about death technology and future cemeteries with Professor Michael Arnold. With many cemeteries reaching capacity, and some environmental issues emerging around current ways we deal with our loved ones, we look at different burial options and what the future of death may look like. This is an interesting chat with a researcher behind alternative forms of body disposal. Listen to …

Melburnians planning to bury a loved one in the city’s cemeteries are facing steep price hikes, with some grand memorial options surging up to 400% over the past decade. Cemeteries across Australia, particularly in the inner city, are nearing capacity and those vying for a burial plot must fork out for prized pieces of real estate due to rising labour and …

The price tag for a spot in a cemetery or mausoleum has increased by almost 400 per cent over the past decade. University of Melbourne graduate researcher Sam Holleran is part of the School of Culture and Communication's Death Tech Research Team. He joins Sammy J to discuss what drives these prices, and what kind of alternatives are trending. Listen to the full discussion on ABC Melbourne at: …

Death is often an uncomfortable topic, but as an inevitable part of life, it’s something that we should seek to find comfort with. Bone is intrinsically linked to the concept of life and of death, and for this MPavilion event, Catherine Bell (artist) and Prof. Tamara Kohn (from the DeathTech Research team at the University of Melbourne), explored how we can …

When Emma McGregor's brother died 22 years ago, his death was sudden and unexpected. "We had old photo albums of Matthew and we would look through those … to reflect on him," she tells ABC RN's Life Matters. "As you can imagine, back then there was no technology around memorialisation at all." These days Ms. McGregor works for a company that makes memorial plaques …

Around 70 per cent of Australians are choosing cremation over traditional burial after death, says a leading anthropologist. Dr Hannah Gould from Melbourne University's Death Tech team joined David Astle on Evenings to explain why long-held traditions have been left behind in favour of more environmental and cost-friendly options. Listen to the talk on ABC Melbourne here: Why most Australians are choosing to be …

With a number of cemeteries across the country running out of room, it’s not just the living who are facing a housing crisis. Australia's annual death numbers are expected to double by 2050, leaving city planners to face a very grave question: what happens if we run out of room to bury our dead? Listen the opinion from Hannah Gould on ABC …

Death is often an uncomfortable topic, but as an inevitable part of life, it’s something that we should seek to find comfort with. Bone is intrinsically linked to the concept of life and of death, and this event seeks to explore how we can transform it from simply a material, into a concept that collectively connects us. Join us at MPavilion with …

From March to November 2021, DeathTech hosted a seminar series called Death Futures for the Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust (GMCT). All five seminars are now available to watch on the GMCT website. The seminars covered topics including sustainable alternatives to burial and cremation, the role of cemeteries as recreational public spaces, the use of digital technology in the cemetery sector, and high-tech …

Dr Fraser Allison spoke to ABC Radio National's Life Matters program about the proliferation of digital technology at cemeteries. The episode covered augmented reality tours, in-coffin audio systems and digitally enhanced gravestones. Listen to the segment on the Radio National website or on the Life Matters podcast for 14 December 2022).

In this webinar hosted by the International Collaborative for Best Care for the Dying Person, Dr Bjorn Nansen and Amara Nwosu discussed the practicalities of death and dying in an increasingly digital world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96uMDdLphQU

DeathTech's Dr Fraser Allison joined filmmaker/artist Daz Chandler and design researcher Dr Niels Wouters at ACMI X to talk about voice technology. The wide-ranging conversation included a discussion of the long history of attempts to use new technologies to listen and speak to the dead. Watch a recording of this conversation. Event description: What happens when your voice is uploaded to the internet? …

Dr Bjørn Nansen appeared on ABC Radio National's Life Matters program on 24th May to discuss the online services that aim to support people in dealing with death. It may sound very biblical, but in the midst of life, we are in death. Still, death can be a difficult topic to broach. Today though, online spaces are providing more comfortable places …