The starting point of my talk is the figuration of a "scene" in an archaeological shelter which is currently made visible through the processes of photographic and computational digitization. By focusing on this specific case, I initiate a dialogue with theories of image that propose the disconnection of images from the observer, considering the notion of object agency. Among the authors are Walter Benjamin, W.J.T. Mitchell, Phillipe Descola and Carlos Fausto. The conventional duality of subject and object is disrupted. On the one hand, the object can survive the constraints of everyday existence and endure the unforgiving forces of the natural world, all without relying on protective technology. On the other hand, technical reproducibility enhances the object's capacity to endure visually, yet it will remain imperceptible or hidden from observers for millennia. From a Benjaminian perspective, the referential "scene" not only survives ("überlebt") but "afterlives" ("fortlebt"). It endures indefinitely, regardless of whether someone becomes aware of it. Broadly speaking, my research is anchored in the realm of image theories and centers on the particular "scene" I have chosen for investigation, linking some concepts with the more contemporary decolonial discourse in Brazil.

Carla Milani Damião is Associate Professor in Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Federal University of Goiás, Brazil, where she supervises students in the Postgraduate Programs in Philosophy and Visual Arts. Having held fellowships at the Free University of Berlin, the University of Amsterdam, and the University of Padua, she is currently pursuing a PhD in Visual Anthropology and completing a degree in Archeology. She is the author of On the Decline of Sincerity. Philosophy and autobiography from Jean-Jacques Rousseau to Walter Benjamin (Loyola, 2006); and  co-editor and translator of Walter Benjamin: Parisian diary and other writings (Editora Hedra, 2020). In addition to numerous articles, her publications include several anthologies (see e.g.: www.esteticasnocentro.org) and special journal issues in aesthetics.