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During a time of rapid change and global crisis, the interdisciplinary DeathTech team at the University of Melbourne is researching the intersection of death, technology and society. We are exploring practices used to dispose of the deceased, from burial and cremation to newly emerging techniques and designs for the treatment of the dead, for example high-rise cemeteries, water cremation and …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5efLmQdpio In June 2020, the DeathTech Research Team hosted a virtual roundtable discussion with death scholars and practitioners in Australia, the UK and the US, to share how funerals have changed under the coronavirus pandemic and to discuss what this might mean for the future of death. The COVID-19 pandemic not only represents a serious threat to human life and livelihoods, …

Our article for The Conversation, “Small funerals, online memorials and grieving from afar: the coronavirus is changing how we care for the dead”, has been translated into Japanese for The Big Issue Japan. DeathTech研究チームから新しい記事が出版しまた。こちらのリンクで読みます。

DeathTech team member Hannah Gould was interviewed for an article in The Canberra Times, exploring how funeral practice is adapting to COVID-19 conditions: There are other ways in which funerals may change permanently, according to Dr Hannah Gould, an anthropologist at the University of Melbourne who studies the rituals of death around the world. “We want to be careful and not make …

Help us understand how COVID-19 is changing deathcare, funerals, and memorialisation worldwide by contributing to this collaborative, open research platform. We have established a platform to share accounts of how the COVID-19 pandemic is changing deathcare, including end-of-life and mortuary care, arranging funerals, and ongoing memorialisation. This information is of interest to us as part of research into death and technology …

A new piece out with ABC News explores the emergence of rituals during the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing restrictions that have transformed funeral practice. DeathTech team member Professor Tamara Kohn said of funerals under coronavirus restrictions: We now need to produce a different kind of intimacy. The full article can be found here.

The team has a new article in The Conversation discussing the transformation of death rites in the context of the COVID-19 global pandemic. "The coronavirus is not only affecting the way we live, it’s also dramatically affecting the way we die. In Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that funerals would be limited to a maximum of ten people to limit the spread of …

Memorial Publics - a workshop on innovative research methods and emerging issues in public communication around the dead and their memorials Date: Tuesday 19 May, 9:00am-5:00pm Location: Brisbane Australia, The Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research, Griffith U Southbank Campus Sponsoring ICA Division: Popular Communication Organisers: Larissa Hjorth (RMIT); Margaret Gibson (Griffith); Bjorn Nansen (Melbourne) Contact: nansenb@unimelb.edu.au Cost: free Website: https://www.icahdq.org/page/2020PrePostconf Description: This one-day pre-conference workshop, supported …

This October, DeathTech Research Team member Tamara Kohn participated in a panel discussion in conjunction with the exhibition Hope Dies Last: Art at the End of Optimism. Hope Dies Last: Art at the End of Optimism is a curated exhibition of Australian and international contemporary art presented across two sites, Gertrude Contemporary and the Margaret Lawrence Gallery at the Victorian College of the Arts. The project focuses on …

DeathTech team member Mike Arnold talked to Patricia Karvelas for the ABC Radio program RN Drive on the increasingly diverse options for dealing with human remains. Listen to the episode here.

On March 6th, 2018, DeathTech Research Network members Tamara Kohn and Bjorn Nansen participated in a conversation on "Our Digital Presence After Death" for the Life Matters program on Radio National. Listen to the full conversation here.

We are seeing a disruption of death. It is normal for people to post on social media at a funeral; you can speak to a chatbot or a physical avatar with the data of a dead loved one; you can curate Spotify playlists to play in coffins. Why? Experts Bjorn Nansen and Tamara Kohn speak with Thomas Feng about the …

In September, Bjorn Nansen participated in a round table discussion on "Memorials" in the series of talks, Dead Calm: Honest Conversations About Death, hosted by the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne. The series aims to "set aside the euphemism, and tackle the taboos head-on" by bringing together diverse voices of scholars, community activists, artists, and writers. The discussion on memorials was framed as …

Last week our team member Michael Arnold launched a new report from Portable, entitled The Future of Death and Ageing, at Portable's headquarters in Collingwood, Victoria.  Portable is a digital design and technology company, who have recently entered the Death space. Their report starts with a provocative, powerful question about the state of death and dying in contemporary Australia: We are all end …

DeathTech Research Network member Hannah Gould was interviewed by Joy FM on death for their radio program What Happens If...? Listen to the full recording here.

DeathTech Research Network team members Tamara Kohn and Michael Arnold are guests on the "Dying to Tell" podcast for Joy FM. Listen here.