"Making DOCUVERSE" is a presentation by Hannah Brasier, Kim Munro, Nicholas Hansen & Franziska Weidle who make up Docuverse. Docuverse is an ongoing group and forum for the discussion of expanded documentary projects. This presentation talks to where Docuverse emerged from, the making of our first annual symposium, the symposium, our current successes, and ongoing challenges. This talk was presented at the ASPERA annual conference at the University of Canberra, in Australia, on July 5th, 2016.

1. Making DOCUVERSE –
A symposium for expanded documentary & beyond
Kim Munro, Franzi Weidle, Nicholas Hansen, Hannah Brasier

3. From the static, fixed objects of analogue film and video,
documentary is now redefining itself as a fluid,
collaborative, shape-shifting, responsive environment
for encounters we call open space documentary. The
spaces invoked in these works are open to many
iterations, communities and engagements, rather than
closed deductive arguments.
Helen De Michiel and Patricia R. Zimmerman
2013

4. installation
locative
VR
participatory/interactive
site specific/audio

5. Franzi Weidle
EXPANDED
FIELD
Hannah Brasier
Non-linear
Interactive
Essay
EXPANDED
FIELD
art/documentary hybrid
essay
embodiment
industry
interactive
non-narrative
experimental
visual
anthropology
ethnography
media/journalism
documentary

6. PLANNING THE SYMPOSIUM
What was the symposium, and how did it take place?

8.
Call for Contributions
The Docuverse Symposium will focus on individual
documentary projects and their take on theory and
practice, with the aim to facilitate critical discussions
amongst different postgraduate makers and thinkers in the
field.
By addressing these issues, we wish to constitute an
interdisciplinary platform for debate on the matter of
expanded documentary theories and practices in
Australasia with the aim to establish an ongoing meet-up
group to foster practitioners in the area.

9. Docuverse Mission Statement
Docuverse began as a symposium and is now an ongoing
bimonthly forum for the discussion of the intersection
between theory, practice and industry in the expanded
field of documentary. Our aim is to primarily show
interactive, participatory, essayistic, installation and
locative creative works (either finished or in progress)
and explore how these practices challenge what
documentary can be and do. Docuverse is part of the
non/fiction Lab at RMIT.

11. THE SYMPOSIUM
Displaying & discussing expanded documentary projects

12. John Hughes’s presentation at the Docuverse symposium

13. 12 Feb 2016 | Docuverse Symposium | Photos by Kim Munro | Slides by Crystal Abidin & Hannah Brasier

14. “I think being on the fringe allows for more exploration and experimentation, it doesn’t
impose such fixed formats or boundaries on work. Multiple technologies can be
employed and stories can be told in many different ways. Creative freedom is good and
it would be nice if people would get paid for their work.”
Jess Linington at Docuverse Symposium

15. Docuverse Symposium debrief
Photos by Nicholas Hansen

16. BEYOND THE SYMPOSIUM
Bi-monthly forums & ongoing challenges

17. SNAPSHOTS #1: a work-in-progress screening

18. SNAPSHOTS #2: a talk by Judith Aston

19. Successes of our Snapshot events

20. CHALLENGES
1.
reaching a
wider audience
2.
inclusive to this
audience
3.
generating
conversation
4.
creating a
space to make
projects

21. How do we continue to make this an accessible group which
grows and attracts expertise in expanded documentary
production?
Workshops
Future production hub
Symposium
Festival/Events
International guest speakers