MTalks—'Nothing Happening' A Symposium On Nothingness • Thu 2 Feb 2017

This event explored the concept of nothingness in scientific inquiry, sustainability, literature and cultures that express that they ‘do nothing’. Was it vague? There was nothing to worry about. This symposium brought together leading academics, thinkers and experimental artists to delve and dive, to poke and prod and explain to you, the very idea of nothingness.
On the night, international law scholar Hilary Charlesworth AM discussed the role of utopia (‘no place’) in international law; Dr Mark McMillan—a Wiradjuri man from Trangie, NSW— who researches in the area of human rights and presented the audience with all or nothing… unpacking Indigenous indifference to being legally “nothing”; founder and co-editor of the Lost Plays Database and lecturer in Shakespeare Studies Dr David McInnis explored the clues to lost plays that can be found in those which survive – clues to existence when nothing remains; Lecturer in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne, and former astrophysicist, Dr Maurizio Toscano drew from the science of human consciousness, from the worlds of particle physics, cosmology and field theory to illustrate how nothing is the authentic source of the scientific imagination; Dr Trent Brown, research assistant at the Australia India Institute, spoke about how nothing has a power that we overlook in our relentless attempts to ‘do something’ and ‘be something’ as he discussed sustainability and food production; Oxford University’s Associate Professor in German and Comparative Literature Professor Barry Murnane spoke about how literature’s nothingness is extremely productive, and how writing allows nothingness to at least be evoked or somehow approximated within its fictional medium; Finally, rounding out the panel, director of the Australia-India Institute, Craig Jeffrey enunciated how young people in northern India refer to themselves as ‘doing nothing’.
At the close of the event, a sound installation was performed by nothing—a semi-automatic percussion system by sound artist Robbie Avenaim. At the talk's conclusion musician and producer Lisa Lerkenfeldt played a selection of music about nothing.
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This event was made possible by the Australia India Institute and the Hugh D T Williamson Foundation through funding for MPavilion’s series of events looking at design & science.