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====== Human History as TV Drama (1991) ======

"Human History as TV Drama" is a long unknown section of the original footage for [[tag:person:Michael Bielicky|Michael Bielicky]]'s 1991 production of //[[Flussers Fluss|Vilém Flussers Fluss]]//. It was first published entirely as part of the [[tag:Flusser_Video_Collection|Flusser Video Collection]] in 2021.

These recordings were borne from a conversation which took place on Flusser's garden terrace in [[tag:Robion|Robion]], [[tag:France|France]], with Edith Flusser, Karin Lauerwald (Flusser’s student assistant), Sabine Müller (Lichtblick Film, Cologne), Carl-Ludwig Rettinger (Lichtblick Film, Cologne), Louis Bec and [[tag:person:Michael Bielicky|Michael Bielicky]] in summer of 1991.(([[tag:person:Steffi Winkler|Steffi Winkler]], [[https://www.flusserstudies.net/sites/www.flusserstudies.net/files/media/attachments/winkler-flussers-fluss.pdf|Vilém Flussers Fluß. Transkript der Videodokumentation von Gesprächen mit Vilém Flusser im Sommer 1991]], in: [[http://www.flusserstudies.net/archive/flusser-studies-17-double-issue|Flusser Studies 17]], May 2014))

The title of this video is the translated title of the manuscript //[[Menschheitsgeschichte als Fernsehdrama|Menschheitsgeschichte als Fernsehdrama]]// written in 1991 with a view to a television production.(([[tag:person:Klaus Sander|Klaus Sander]], [[http://s3.amazonaws.com/arena-attachments/1485097/d85714e287d539db39da46f0e5198b20.pdf?1512484296|Flusser-Quellen. Eine kommentierte Bibliografie Vilém Flussers von 1960–2002]], in: Vilém Flusser Archive, Projects, (formerly intended for publication at European Photography, Edition Flusser, vol. I) ))\\
{{vimeo>475660960?750x450}}\\

===== description =====
In this video, Flusser playfully appropriates the etymology of “recounting” human history, i.e. “raconter” in French, meaning to “enumerate again”, counting again, which is related to the process of computation. Departing from this etymology as methodology, Flusser revisits the computer-synthesised image of human history in a series of five programs catalysed by the introduction of historically situated mediations: 1) the emergence of magical, symbolic and mythical writing with pictures, 2) the invention of linear writing, 3) the introduction of the alphabet, 4) the invention of the printing press, 5) the invention of the computer. 

The sixth and final program is yet to be seized by a [[post-history|post-historical]] human project, in which the ability of machines to calculate linear history into pieces joins together with the ability to compute alternative worlds. Flusser contends that while humans already know this, it remains a possibility still difficult to //imagine//. Next to //Imagination//, the capacity to step back from the world and look at it, this sixth program requires //[[new_imagination|Einbildungskraft]]//, the capacity to put ideas into an image.

===== quote =====
>"The last is: Let us have an overview. Two million [years] ago an animal appeared that is capable of realising values and evaluating reality. About 40 thousand years ago, very shortly, this animal succeeded in stepping back from what he is doing and imagining it. About 7 thousand years ago, yesterday, people in Mesopotamia invented linear writing so that they could become aware of processes, of history. About 3.500 years ago, nothing, people invented the alphabet and that made it possible to make science, philosophy and technology. About 500 years ago people invented the press and that made it possible to overcome the alphabet and create  numbers that calculate the world. Yesterday it became possible to make machines that do away with history and start new histories. And all this can be shown easily if you show on television how people put their hand into the world, how they step back and make images, how from these images they make texts, how out of the texts they made an alphabet, how out of the alphabet they make a printing press, how out of the printing press they made numbers, how out of the numbers the make a computer, how out of the computer they make a new world. Now, can there be a more beautiful television program than this? […] This is what I suggest. Now, of course it's not easy to make such an image. It takes imagination.[…] I imagine that it can be done. I imagine that it would have a colossal impact, but not a mass impact."(([[tag:person:Steffi Winkler|Steffi Winkler]] (2014), [[https://www.flusserstudies.net/sites/www.flusserstudies.net/files/media/attachments/winkler-flussers-fluss.pdf|Vilém Flussers Fluß. Transkript der Videodokumentation von Gesprächen mit Vilém Flusser im Sommer 1991]], in: [[http://www.flusserstudies.net/archive/flusser-studies-17-double-issue|Flusser Studies 17]], May 2014, pp. 14-15))  
 
===== transcript =====
The [[https://www.flusserstudies.net/sites/www.flusserstudies.net/files/media/attachments/winkler-flussers-fluss.pdf|transcript]] to this video was edited in German by [[tag:person:Steffi Winkler|Steffi Winkler]](([[tag:person:Steffi Winkler|Steffi Winkler]], [[https://www.flusserstudies.net/sites/www.flusserstudies.net/files/media/attachments/winkler-flussers-fluss.pdf|Vilém Flussers Fluß. Transkript der Videodokumentation von Gesprächen mit Vilém Flusser im Sommer 1991]], in: [[http://www.flusserstudies.net/archive/flusser-studies-17-double-issue|Flusser Studies 17]], May 2014)) and translated to English by [[tag:person:baruch_gottlieb|Baruch Gottlieb]](([[tag:person:baruch_gottlieb|Baruch Gottlieb]], [[http://www.flusserstudies.net/sites/www.flusserstudies.net/files/media/attachments/gottlieb-flussers-fluss.pdf|Translations and Transcriptions from Bielicky’s Recordings with Flusser in Summer 1991]], in: [[http://www.flusserstudies.net/archive/flusser-studies-17-double-issue|Flusser Studies 17]], May 2014)) published in [[http://www.flusserstudies.net/archive/flusser-studies-17-double-issue|Flusser Studies 17]], May 2014.\\

===== technical information =====
 
Title: Human History as TV Drama\\
Genre: [[tag:documentary|documentary]]\\ 
Location: [[tag:Robion|Robion]], [[tag:France|France]]\\ 
Date: [[tag:1991|1991]]\\ 
Published: 2014\\ 
Medium: [[tag:Flusser_video|video]]\\ 
Filmed by: [[tag:person:Michael_Bielicky|Bielicky, Michael]]\\ 
Edited by: [[tag:person:Steffi Winkler|Winkler, Steffi]]\\ 
Length: 00:24:23\\ 
Language: [[tag:english|English (en)]]
Source: Michael Bielicky - all rights reserved\\ 

===== keywords =====
 
[[image|Image]], [[idolatry|Idolatry]], [[myth|Myth]], [[magical|Magical]], [[alphabet|Alphabet]], [[language|Language]], [[linearity|Linearity]], [[machine|Machine]], [[post-history|Post-History]], [[programming|Programming]], [[technical_images|Technical Images]], [[television|Television]], [[new_imagination|New Imagination]]

===== citation =====
Vilém Flusser, Human history as TV drama. With original recordings from Michael Bielicky, //[[Flussers Fluss|Vilém Flussers Fluss]]//, in: [[tag:Flusser_Video_Collection|Flusser Video Collection]], 2021

===== backlinks =====
{{backlinks>.}}

===== tags =====
{{tag>Flusser_source Flusser_video Flusser_Video_Collection documentary Robion France 1991 tag:person:Michael_Bielicky tag:person:Steffi_Winkler english}}

===== references =====