Course:MDIA300/Vilém Flusser

Overview

Vilém Flusser (1920-1991) was a Czech-born philosopher, writer, and journalist recognised for developing the "Theory of Communication" and his philosophical focus on language, photography and science. Growing up in Prague, and later moving to Brazil and England throughout his career, Flusser's studies have been directly influenced by the cultures he has experienced.

Background

Flusser began studying philosophy in 1938 at the Juridical Faculty of the University of Prague, where he later relocated to London to attend the London School of Economics following the Nazi occupation of Prague.

In 1940, he left England and continued his career in Brazil. There, he found out his whole family had perished after the 1939 Nazi Invasion; however, he persisted as his first articles on linguistics and philosophy were published shortly after in 1961.

Flusser later became a member of the Brazilian Institute of Philosophy and was appointed professor of the philosophy of communications at FAAP in Sao Paolo. His first book, Lingua e Realidade, was published in 1963. Due to the military coup in Brazil, it was getting increasingly difficult for Flusser to publish and offer lectures, and so many of his later articles are considered 'lost'.

Major Contributions

Flusser's work is dedicated to blending disciplines of philosophy, history, and art, using his multicultural background to explore the future social implications of emerging media technology. His most famous works are titled under the technical image trilogy, which went into further detail about digital apparatuses, design, and images.

Towards a Philosophy of Photography (1983)

In the first publication of the trilogy, Flusser forms an intricate connection between images, technology, and human existence. He first defines the image as a two-dimensional abstraction that condenses space and time, and uses that definition to expound on the term 'technical image'. Flusser depicts these images as digital apparatuses that are more difficult to decode compared to traditional images, which leave room for interpretation.

Through this book, Flusser identifies the primary elements that underlie the practice of photography and uses it to challenge the traditional conventions of human freedom and agency. To Flusser, photography defies historical linearity and approaches a cyclical process of thinking and information-making that aligns better with human practices.

Into the Universe of Technical Images (1985)

Flusser expands more on his understanding of technical images in his second book, Into the Universe of Technical Images. This book was written during a period of accelerated media and digital technology change, and it offers two distinct choices that the author claims will determine major sociocultural outcomes in the future, continuing his exploration of human freedom amidst emerging digital apparatuses.

He describes two different futures: one completely totalitarian with roles of image receivers and image administrators, a 'telematic society', and one toward a dialogic society with image producers and collectors. Despite this, Flusser acknowledges that the emergence of nonlinear technical images has overpowered the previous dominance of linear texts. With this, Flusser emphasises that technical images are the message, viewing them as having a 'penetrating force' that can disrupt public and political spaces.

Does Writing Have a Future? (1987)

In his last of three books, Flusser adds on to his claim of the end of writing, stating that writing has little to no chance of persisting as a mode of communication in the future, because things that can be communicated through writing can now be recorded and transmitted through other means.

Flusser refers to writing consciousness as a historical consciousness, where the emergence of new ways of writing, such as programming and code, and new methods of writing, such as the mechanisation and automation of writing. This leads Flusser to believe that automated machines can make history, while humans can be left to concentrate on other things.

Through his book, Flusser concludes that writing proceeds by means other than writing, such as visual or spoken language, something that remains a uniquely productive code amidst digital cultures.

Influence on Media Theory

Flusser's technical image trilogy is an important contribution to the media theory landscape, as he attempted to predict the implications of digital technologies ahead of his own time. He provides a compelling and convincing analysis of apparatuses and how they could be used and manipulated in relation to temporalising creativity and human consciousness.

His introduction to a potential 'telematic society,' where communication is mediated by technical images to create a space for dialogical living, provides valuable insight into how our emerging technologies can impact humans culturally, socially, and politically. He provides a new perspective on understanding the human consciousness in relation to new technologies, methods of writing, and programming.

Through his writing, Flusser emphasises the materiality of media and memory, where human memory is intertwined with physical media and apparatuses. He posits that the materiality of memory is an active force that fundamentally shapes thought, culture, and spatio-temporal relations.

These contributions to media theory during Flusser's time are quite rare, as theorists often avoid creating drastic implications so far into the future based on rapidly emerging media technologies. However, Flusser was determined to develop his understanding of the relationship between humans, technical images, and apparatuses to forewarn others about potential risks in the future. His enthusiastic yet guarded optimism highlights his scepticism, but hope of human choice being able to understand how to best move forward.

MDIA300

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