flusser_research:techno-imagining
Table of Contents
Original article published in: Flusser Studies 20, December 2015
Techno-imagining Flusser
This paper is a personal statement and a call out to Flusser scholars around the world. Maybe we can fulfil the dream of creating a Flusser research environment that not only spreads his message, but also enables us to engage in relevant dialogues. Maybe it is about time to realise this dream technically, as there are very promising state-of-the-art free and open source collaborative collection management and authoring tools as a basis. Driven by my own experience of struggling with the large scope and complexity of Flusser’s work, this contribution is also about creating order by delineating information, and about accepting the challenge to practice the “new imaginative power”.1)
Given the extent of digitization of the Vilém Flusser archival material2) and also its up-to-date online presentation by Flusser Brasil, maybe the time is ripe to rebuild a “hypertext structure” that organizes commentaries and explanatory annotations with Flusser's work at its centre (Wingert 1992: 137-138). Doing so could fulfil the long-standing wish to “[make] the Vilém Flusser archive publicly available as a crosslinked intermedia collection […] establishing a network structure, which supports research as a process of connective acting”3) (Röller 2001: 1).
Flashback to the initial impulse
My media and communication studies seemed to finally make sense, thanks to a seminar on Communication and Culture (Vilém Flusser). The role of communicative codes in Flusser's writing about the Mutation in Human Relations 4) immediately caught my attention. My research on Flusser5) started by drawing on Flusser’s pseudo-historical narrative of an epochal media evolution model6) to explore the processes of transformation of communication structures with regard to Weltanschauung and self-image. In doing so, my research takes up one of Flusser’s leitmotifs by increasing the awareness for the potential of new forms of recognition, reasoning and responsibility.
Gründlichkeit: Aiming for a Comprehensive View
My ambitions to engage in Gründlichkeit with regard to Flusser’s work were soon thwarted by the extensive range of Flusser sources. One way to frame the scope of research is certainly to focus on some of the main works. However, there did not seem to be any consensus on what were actually Flusser’s major works, and even if there was, it would still encompass a very broad range.7) In their 2011 introduction to Flusser, Anke Finger, Gustavo Bernardo and Rainer Guldin offer a selection of fifteen works as Flusser’s most significant texts (Finger et al. 2011: xx-xxvi).8)
The following photograph of one of my bookshelves shows my collection of printed, primary and mostly German Flusser material, much of which was supplied by antiquarian booksellers. Maybe this ironically illustrates what Peter Sloterdijk recently pointed to by questioning philosophical ambitions, which are supposed to lead to enlightenment and which perhaps instead only lead to full libraries (Sloterdijk 2009: 25). But it may also illustrate the distribution of Flusser's book publications during his lifetime and the preponderance of posthumous publications, which Silvia Wagnermaier estimated to be at a ratio of one third to two thirds (Wagnermaier 2009: 274).
This collection of printed material is supplemented by two current e-books9) and so far over 100 stored digital documents from publicly available online sources. To organize this volume of material, the state of my study of Flusser sources is still being transferred into a reference management and knowledge organization tool and its data could be visually arranged by years of origination (and publication), publication form and languages of composition, and is still a work in progress.
Bibliography
Bröckling, Guido (2012). Das handlungsfähige Subjekt zwischen TV-Diskurs und Netz-Dialog. Vilém Flusser und die Frage nach der sozio- und medienkulturellen Kompetenz. Dissertation. München: kopaed.
Finger, Anke et al. (2011). Vilém Flusser. An Introduction. Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press (Electronic Mediations, 34).
Flusser, Vilém (undated). Mutation in Human Relations. Typescript. Vilém Flusser Archive document no. 1712, in particular “How technoimagination migth work points of view time experience space experience”. Vilém Flusser Archive document no. 1735.
Flusser, Vilém (1957). Das zwanzigste Jahrhundert. Versuch einer subjektiven Synthese. Typescript, Vilém Flusser Archive document no. 1423.
Flusser, Vilém (1992). Bodenlos (1992). Eine philosophische Autobiografie. With an afterword of Milton Vargas. 1st ed. Edited by Stefan Bollmann. Bensheim: Bollmann (Bollmann Bibliothek, 10).
Flusser, Vilém (1996). Eine neue Einbildungskraft. In: Flusser (1996). Die Revolution der Bilder. Der Flusser-Reader zu Kommunikation, Medien und Design. 2nd ed. Mannheim: Bollmann (Kommunikation & neue Medien): 141–149.
Flusser, Vilém (1998). Umbruch der menschlichen Beziehungen In: Flusser (1998). Kommunikologie. Edited by Stefan Bollmann, Edith Flusser. With assistance of Klaus Sander. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch (Vilém Flusser Schriften, 4): 7–231.
Flusser, Vilém (2006). Die Geschichte des Teufels. 3rd ed. Edited by Andreas Müller-Pohle. Berlin: European Photography (Edition Flusser, 2).
Flusser, Vilém (2009). Kommunikologie weiter denken. Die Bochumer Vorlesungen. 1st ed. Edited by Silvia Wagnermaier, Siegfried Zielinski. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch.
Flusser, Vilém (2010). On technical images, chance, consciousness and the individual. Interview in München, 17th October 1991. In: Peternák (Ed.) (2010). „We shall survive in the memory of others“. Vilém Flusser. Köln: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König (DVD & booklet): 22-31.
Flusser, Vilém (2011). Into the universe of technical images. Minneapolis, Minnesota, London: University of Minnesota Press (Electronic mediations, 32).
Guldin, Rainer (2005). Philosophieren zwischen den Sprachen. Vilém Flussers Werk. München: Fink.
Kraft, Sabine (1992). Vilém Flusser. Zu diesem Heft. In: Vilém Flusser. Virtuelle Räume – Simultane Welten, Arch+, March 1992: 17-18.
Marburger, Marcel René (2011). Flusser und die Kunst. Dissertation. Köln: Edition_ (Institut für unakademische Studien, 23).
Peters, Isabella (2009). Folksonomies: Indexing and Retrieval in Web 2.0. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Röller, Nils (2001). Ein Archiv im Medienwechsel. In: netzspannung.org/journal, issue 0, September 2001, http://netzspannung.org/journal/issue0/mediachange
Sloterdijk, Peter (2009). Philosophische Temperamente. Von Platon bis Foucault. 3rd ed. München: Diederichs.
Sander, Klaus (2002). Flusser-Quellen. Eine kommentierte Bibliografie Vilém Flussers von 1960–2002. Unpublished Manuscript.
Ströhl, Andreas (2013). Vilém Flusser (1920-1991). Phänomenologie der Kommunikation. Dissertation. Köln, Weimar, Wien: Böhlau (Intellektuelles Prag im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, 5).
Wagnermaier, Silvia (2009). “Kommunikologie weiter denken”. Nachwort von Silvia Wagnermaier. In: Flusser (2009). Kommunikologie weiter denken. Die Bochumer Vorlesungen. Mit einem Vorwort von Friedrich A. Kittler und einem Nachwort von Silvia Wagnermaier. 1st ed. Edited by Silvia Wagnermaier, Siegfried Zielinski. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch: 253–283.
Wingert, Bernd (1992). Flusser-Hypertext. Prototyp und Entwicklungserfahrungen. In: Glowalla, Schoop (Ed.) (1992). Hypertext und Multimedia. Neue Wege in der computergestützten Aus- und Weiterbildung. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer: 137-144. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-77758-5_17
1)
Back in the late 1970s, Flusser introduces the term “ techno imagination ”. It is “capacity for the imagining of concepts, and the corresponding capacity to decipher images of concepts” (Flusser undated: 152, cp. Flusser 1998: 209). Later on, in about 1990, Flusser prefers referring to Immanuel Kant by using the notion of a “ new Einbildungskraft “, new insofar as it is “konkretisierend, projizierend” [substantiated, projected, SW] (Flusser 1996), which is different than the abstracting gesture of the traditional imagination
2)
As part of the cooperation between the Pontifícia Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP) and the Vilém Flusser Archive at the Universität der Künste Berlin, Flusser’s manuscripts and correspondences were entirely digitized in 2012 (cf. flusser-archive.org , Mirrored archive in São Paulo).
3)
Wissenschaftler, Künstler und Informatiker arbeiten daran, das Vilém_Flusser_Archiv (KHM Köln) als vernetzte intermediale Sammlung zugänglich zu machen.” “Die an der KHM Köln eingerichtete Forschungsstelle des Flusser-Archivs wird eine Netzwerkstruktur schaffen, die Forschung als einen Prozess konnektiven Handelns unterstützt.” [Scholars, artists and IT specialists are working together in order to make the Vilém Flusser archive publicly available as a crosslinked intermedia collection […] establishing a network structure, which supports research as a process of connective acting, SW] (Röller 2001).
4)
Flusser wrote three versions of this book (in German, English and French). The typescripts can all be found in Berlin. The German version of this book was posthumously published as Umbruch der menschlichen Beziehungen? in Kommunikologie (Flusser 1998).
5)
During this time I have been appreciating the pleasure of dialoguing with many Flusser scholars, not least because I had the honour of co-organising two international Flusser symposia (Natal 2012, Berlin 2014) and also of co-editing the conference proceedings ( Vom Begriff zum Bild [From Concept to Image] 2013 and Play it again, Vilém! Medien und Spiel im Anschluss an Vilém Flusser [Media and Game following Vilém Flusser] 2015) with Michael Hanke and Hermann Haarmann.
6)
This narrative appears throughout Flusser’s oeuvre. Interestingly enough, Flusser critically reflects this “pseudohistorical method” (Flusser 2006: 53) from the very beginning of his creative work, e.g., in the first sentences of Das Zwanzigste Jahrhundert [The Twentieth Century, SW] (Flusser 1957) or as cited in Die Geschichte des Teufels [The history of the devil]. Also the most popular version of the “model of cultural history” – in Flusser's 1985 book Ins Universum der technischen Bilder [Into the Universe of Technical Images] – comes with the explanation: “The intention of the model suggested here is obviously not to diagram cultural history. That would be an absurdly naive undertaking. Rather the model is intended to focus attention on the steps that lead from one level to another.” (Flusser 2011:
7)
However, the growing range of scholars with ambitions to (nearly) exhaustively study Flusser sources, for example Rainer Guldin (Guldin 2005), Silvia Wagnermaier and Siegfried Zielinski (Flusser 2009), Marcel René Marburger (Marburger 2011), Guido Bröckling (Bröckling 2012) as well as Andreas Ströhl (Ströhl 2013) list a rather extensive selected biography, certainly with overlaps, which are yet to be identified.
8)
Finger, Bernardo and Guldin list Língua e realidade [Language and Reality], The History of the Devil Posthistory Toward a Philosophy of Photography Into the Universe of Technical Images Does Writing Have a Future Vampyrotheutis infernalis Angenommen: eine Szenenfolge [Supposed: A Succession of Scenes], Gesten: Versuch einer Phänomenologie [Gestures: Attempt toward a Phenomenology], Bodenlos: eine philosophische Autobiographie [Rootless: A Philosophical Autobiography], The Shape of Things: A Philosophy of Design Brasilien oder die Suche nach dem neuen Menschen: Für eine Philosophie der Unterentwicklung [Brazil or the Search for a New Human], Jude sein: Essays, Briefe, Fiktionen [Being Jewish: Essays, Letters, Fictions], Vom Subjekt zum Projekt: Menschwerdung [From Subject to Project: On Becoming Human] and Kommunikologie [Communicology] (Finger et al. 2011: xx-xxvi).
9)
To date e-books are available of Kommunikologie (Flusser 1998) and Kommunikologie weiter denken (Flusser 2009).
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