In 2023, the Emerging Technologies Research Lab commissioned a group of PhD researchers to create a collaborative work for their Futures at the Edge symposium. Supported by a small budget, we designed and co-facilitated Doing Research Together, a multi-day research-sharing experience hosted at the Kathleen Syme Library in Carlton, Melbourne.

Over several days, our cohort gathered to share, test, and physically work through a vast cross-section of creative research methods. To document this intense period of collaborative exchange, we worked directly with communication designers to produce A Messy Manifesto, a zine that captured the generative friction of the encounter and served as our final research artefact.

For me, this event acted as a vital introduction to the world of ‘research creation’ and the sheer diversity of creative methodologies. Crucially, it was my first opportunity to organise and co-facilitate a workshop. Moving through this shared environment revealed the workshop format itself as an active, relational space-making practice. Following this symposium, the act of holding space for collaborative, messy making became a central pillar of my spatial practice.