CONFERENCE
Bush Mechanics tinker with Philosophy: lmmanence in lndigenous Australia
18 NOVEMBRO | 18:00 - 19:30
Auditório B2.03, Ed. II, Iscte
Entrada livre
Orador
Stephen Muecke (Australian Academy of the Humanities University of New south Wales)
Moderador
Rodrigo Lacerda (CRIA-NOVA FCSH)
Abstract
lndigenous cultures have an immanentist ontological basis, as opposed to the largely Western ontology
of transcendence. 1 explore the implications for this assertion in the different ways that technological artifacts can be seen to articulate with human and non-human bodies in extended ecologies. My method is one of an lndigenous critique of modernity, which aims iconoclastically to deflate the faith, hope and idealism often invested in technologies. My (counter) examples emerge from the TV series Bush Mechanics, where practical skills are articulated with blackfella magicai powers. These illustrate how bush ecologies are vastly different from suburban car cultures, such that what really matters in people's coarticulations with machines is now open to philosophical speculation via an lndigenous critique of Western modernity. (lndigenous) powers of immanence can be opposed to (Western) powers of transcendence, 1 argue, through disclosure of the operations of the ecologies that sustain them.
Stephen Muecke
Stephen Muecke is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, Emeritus Professor at the University of New South Wales and Professor in the Nulungu Research lnstitute of the University of
Notre Dame Australia in Broome. He recently published The Children's Country: Creation of a Goolarabooloo Future in North-West Austral ia (2027).
Rodrigo Lacerda
Rodrigo Lacerda is an anthropologist and documentary filmmaker. He holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology: Politics and Displays of Culture and Museology (NOVA FCSH and ISCTE-I U L), and a master's degree in Anthropology, specializing in Visual Culture, from NOVA FCSH. His PhD focused on the relationship between lndigenous cinema and heritage in Brazil. He has been an invited assistant professor at
NOVA FCSH since 2017 and held that position at the University of Coimbra from 2019 to 2020.
