Immatrix Publications
“All revolutions are technological revolutions,”
remarked Vilém Flusser in conversation with Florian
Rötzer (“Alle Revolutionen sind technische
Revolutionen,” in: KUNSTFORUM International,
vol. 97, 1988). That also goes for the cultural upheaval
of the 1980s, which, with the advent of
new information technologies, promised the dematerialization
of communication. Flusser, the
seismographer and visionary of this new situation,
was enthusiastic about the digital adventure,
though not without a certain melancholy:
“Away from paper” ran the slogan (“Hinweg vom
Papier,” in: Die Revolution der Bilder, 1995), and
if there was any point at all in composing texts
anymore, then “into the electronic eld,” where
discursive, finalized writing could be replaced by
the dialogical, processual variety.
In 1986 Volker Rapsch and I founded Immatrix
Publications, an undertaking whose aim was to experiment with new forms of publishing, and
which brought out three German titles by Flusser
during its existence: Die Schrift [Writing], Vampyroteuthis
infernalis (both 1987), and Angenommen
[Suppose That] (1989). The name “Immatrix” was
suggested by Flusser himself, inspired by Matrix,
his son Miguel’s software company, although
Jean-François Lyotard’s highly regarded exhibition
Les immatériaux at the Centre Pompidou in Paris
in 1985 may have been the deciding factor (Flusser
wrote a review of it).
The publication of Die Schrift was undoubtedly Immatrix’s
most significant project, and consisted of
three parts: (1) an edition of the book printed on
paper; (2) a digital version on oppy disk; and (3)
a plan to set up a mailbox (bulletin board system).
As an early forerunner of today’s e-books – Immatrix
advertised it as “the first true no-longer-abook
[Nichtmehrbuch]” – the electronic edition of
Die Schrift, supplied on one program and one text
diskette, allowed readers not only to receive the
text, but also to comment on it, continue writing
it, rearrange it.
The associated plan of transferring this feedback on diskette to a mailbox platform was never realized, however. The projected conversion of the book Vampyroteuthis infernalis into a graphic e-book never happened either. In 1989, Immatrix Publications was dissolved, first passing into Edition Immatrix im Verlag European Photography and then becoming part of Edition Flusser shortly thereafter.
Original article by Andreas Müller-Pohle