Talk: A cosmic vision of late capitalism by Joël Vacheron
+ Film: Magic Sun, by Phill Niblock
Venue: Auditório da Biblioteca Municipal Almeida Garrett.
Language: English.
Admission is free.
For Aníbal Quijano, “nothing is less rational, finally, than the pretension that a specific cosmic vision of a particular ethnicity should be taken as universal rationality.”
Along the same lines, Joël Vacheron argues that space exploration has universalized a vision of the Earth and the cosmos that is not shared universally. Like the first transatlantic journeys, the invention of the steam engine, and the conquest of the West, the material exploration and exploitation of outer space have always been historically framed in narratives presenting them as a natural expansion led by a minority on behalf of all humankind. By inviting us to “unsee” a selection of images produced in the context of the American space program, this presentation explains why this cosmovision was decisive in the widespread adoption of a worldview that perpetuates coloniality in the postcolonial world.
The session will also feature a screening of Phill Niblock’s film ‘Magic Sun’ (1966-1968).
Composer, photographer, and filmmaker Phill Niblock’s experimental film features a soundtrack by bandleader and visionary Sun Ra and members of his Solar Arkestra, incorporating rare moving images of the ensemble in the mid-1960s, when the Arkestra was based in New York. The black-and-white film was created using a distinctive negative process and ultra-tight close-ups of the musicians’ hands and mouths, growing increasingly frenetic as the images fluidly shift from negative to positive. The result is a nearly abstract music film, edited with meticulous precision, underscoring the autonomy of image and sound—save for one singular, magical moment of synchronization at the film’s conclusion.
Joël Vacheron is a sociologist and writer based in Lisbon. He is a senior lecturer and research fellow at the ECAL (Universtiy of art and Design Lausanne / HES-SO) in Lausanne where he teaches visual anthropology and media studies. He is co-founder of the Centre Culturel Afropea and the author of “Cosmovisions : une étude visuelle de l’exploration spatiale” (Métis Presses, 2025)
Phill Niblock, “Magic Sun” (1966–1968)
17 min, 4:3 format.
16mm transferred to digital file, high contrast black & white, sound
