Deus ex Machina (god from the machine) roared into Australia’s cultural consciousness in 2006, with some neatly customised motorcycles and a quaint notion that doing something is more fun than just owning something.Deus (“day-us”) didn’t set out only to sell custom parts and hand-built motorcycles, but to celebrate a culture of creativity. The Deus ex Machina showroom/cafe/headquarters in Sydney immediately became a shrine to ‘run-what-you-brung’ resourcefulness and street-honest industrial art.The Deus philosophy recalls an era before the various pursuits of fun – motorcycles, surfing, cycling, whatever – split into exclusive, fundamentalist factions. All come together under the Deus roof, where there’s simply respect for the authenticity and enjoyment of the machine. Since opening the doors at the Camperdown Temple of Enthusiasm Deus has spread its own flavour of internally combustible postmodernism around the globe. The way forward is one down, four up.
