Technik ist neutral, aber verschärfend.

Bochumer Vorlesungen 1991

Flusserian Philosophical Fridays - transmediale edition 1 & 2

The Flusserian Philosophical Fridays (FPF) is an occasion where artists and scholars in residence at the Vilém Flusser Archive at the Berlin University of Art get together to read, study and discuss the thought and work of Vilém Flusser.

On the special occasion of transmediale 2K+12 as part of the joint transmediale and CTM Vorspiel program, there will be two FPFs open to everybody who would like to participate in the discussions.

The first FPF on Friday 27th Jan at 15.00 we will also be welcoming the winner of the Vilém Flusser Residency Program, a cooperation between transmediale and Vilém Flusser Archive, as our special guest. Georgios Papadopoulos is a Greek philosopher and economist who will be working on the project "Iconographies of the Drachma; Speculations on Symbolic Value" during his residency.

The second FPF takes place on Friday 3rd Feb at 12.00. The texts will be provided at the archive and read together.

We look forward to welcoming you all!

http://www.transmediale.de/festival/vorspiel
https://www.facebook.com/flusser.archive

Vilém Flusser Residency Programme 2012

Für die transmediale 2012 wurde der Vilém Flusser Theory Award in das Vilém Flusser Residency Programm für künstlerische Forschung umgewandelt. Das neu organisierte Vilém Flusser Residency Programm ist eine Kooperation zwischen der transmediale und dem Vilém Flusser Archive (Universität der Künste Berlin) und soll Projekte und Arbeiten unterstützen, die sich in einem konzeptionellen Stadium befinden und sich durch ihren praxisbasierten Charakter auszeichnen. Das Programm ist darauf ausgerichtet, neue Forschungsansätze anzuregen sowie bereits bestehende Projekte weiter zu entwickeln.

Für das erste Vilém Flusser Residency Programm wurde der griechische Ökonom und Philosoph Georgios Papadopoulos ausgewählt, denn „Das Werk von Georgios Papadopoulos zeigt auf besondere Weise die Verflechtungen zwischen den Wissenschaften, dem Politischen und dem Ästhetischen auf, welches eines der Hauptanliegen der Kooperation zwischen der transmediale und dem Vilém Flusser Archiv der Universität der Künste Berlin ist.“ (Auszug aus dem Jury Statement) Die Jury bestand aus: Claudia Becker, (Künstlerische Leiterin Vilém Flusser Archiv), Kristoffer Gansing (Künstlerischer Leiter transmediale) und Julian Oliver (neuseeländischer in Berlin lebender Künstler und „Critical Engineer“).

Georgios Papadopoulos Projekt „Ikonographien der Drachme; Spekulationen über symbolische Werte“ reflektiert wie Identität und Gesellschaft, aber auch viele andere unserer Werte durch Geld und Währung konstituiert werden. Es verdeutlicht die historischen und medienarchäologischen Verknüpfungen des Währungsprinzips in einer Gesellschaft, die auf vernetzter Kommunikation beruht. Dieses Projekt hinterfragt in transdiziplinärer Weise kritisch die materiellen und symbolischen Wirkungsweisen von Geld.

Georgios Papadopoulos wird mit seinem Projekt einen herausragenden Beitrag zur aktuellen Debatte über Geld, Währungen und Schulden erarbeiten, der die Identität und das Projekt der Europäischen Union als Ganzes berührt. Als ästhetisches und zugleich politisches Projekt, wird es eine Auseinandersetzung über die Bedeutung von Geld, Währung und der gesellschaftlichen Schulden anstrengen, um auf produktive Weise mit der kulturellen Landschaft Berlins in einen Dialog zu treten.

Am 5. Februar 2012 um 7 Uhr stellt sich Georgios Papadopoulos mit seinem performativen Vortrag „Making Money“ im Haus der Kulturen der Welt vor.

For the festival 2012, the Vilém Flusser Theory Award was transformed into a Residency Programme for artistic research. The newly organised Vilém Flusser Residency Programme is a cooperation between transmediale and Vilém Flusser Archive (Berlin University of the Arts). It supports projects and activities which are simultaneously conceptual and practice-based. The programme is geared towards the initiation of new research or to the further development of existing projects.

Greek philosopher and economist Georgios Papadopoulos has been selected for the first residency. „The work of Georgios Papadopoulos eminently demonstrates the link between materiality, politics and aesthetics which is the driving principle behind transmediale's and UdK's joint Vilém Flusser Residency Programme.“ (Excerpt from the jury statement) The jury members were Claudia Becker (scientific supervisor of Vilém Flusser Archive), Kristoffer Gansing (artistic director of transmediale 2012) and Julian Oliver (Berlin-based, New Zealand artist and critical engineer).

Georgios Papadopoulos’s project Iconographies of the Drachma; Speculations on Symbolic Value reflects how identity, society and all our other values are based on currencies and money. It promises to engage in an aesthetic and political production and dialogue with great opportunity for unfolding in productive and incompatible ways within the cultural landscape of Berlin.

Georgios will invite fascinating commentary around the contentious debt debate, a topic shaking the identity of the European Union project as a whole. The project promises to engage in an aesthetic and political production and dialogue with great opportunity for unfolding in productive as well as incompatible ways within the cultural landscape of Berlin."

Georgios will introduce himself to the transmediale's audience on 5th Feb at 7pm with a performative lecture, entitled "Making Money”.

Annie Goh: Die Dimension von Sound bei Flusser

Annie Goh, Gastwissenschaftlerin im Flusser Archiv, wird die ersten Ergebnisse ihres Forschungsprojektes "Flusser & Sound" im Rahmen des Colloquiums des Berliner Arbeitskreis Kultur-Semiotik (BAKS):"Geräusch - Ton - Musik: Aspekte einer Semiotik der Klänge" präsentieren. Vortrag und Diskussion finden auf deutsch statt. Das Forschungsprojekt wird gefördert durch das Abgeordnetenhaus von Berlin.

Datum: 04.01.2012

Ort: Universität der Künste Berlin

Einsteinufer 43-53

Raum 127

Zeit: 17.00 - 19.00

Vilém Flusser Gedenktag: Wir überleben in der Erinnerung der Anderen

Ed Sommer

Vor 20 Jahren am 27. November 1991 starb der Philosoph und Kulturtheoretiker Vilém Flusser bei einem Autounfall in der nähe von Prag. Aus diesem Grund lädt das Vilém Flusser Archiv der Universität der Künste am 9.12.2011 um 15:00 zu einem Vilém Flusser Gedenktag ein. Getreu Flussers Ausspruch „Wir überleben in der Erinnerung der Anderen“ soll sein Tod nicht betrauert, sondern sein Leben und seine Gedanken, mit denen er viele Künstler und Wissenschaftler inspiriert hat, gefeiert werden. So lange wir uns an ihn erinnern, so lange lebt er in uns und unser Erinnerung weiter. Nach einem kurzen Willkommensgruß wird der Direktor des Archivs Prof. Dr. Siegfried Zielinski über die Geschichte des Flusser Archives und die Bedeutung Flussers für seine eigene Theorie und wissenschaftliche Forschung sprechen. Es werden Freunde und Zeitgenossen Flusser erwartet, die über ihre persönliche Beziehung zu Flusser und seine Einfluß auf ihre Arbeiten sprechen. Die Gäste und Teilnehmer des Vilém Flusser Gedenktages werden gebeten kurze Texte, Zitate, Briefe oder Artefakte von Flusser oder über ihn mitzubringen, um mit allen anderen ihre Erinnerung an Flusser zu teilen. Wie bei einem künstlerischen Salon haben die Teilnehmenden die Möglichkeit sich bei kleinen Erfrischungen mit dem anderen in einen flusserianischen Dialog zu treten. Die Veranstaltung wird vorwiegend in englischer Sprache abgehalten.

Twenty years ago on the 27th November 1991, the philosopher and cultural theorist Vilém Flusser died in a car crash near Prague. To mark this occasion, the Vilém Flusser Archive at the University of Arts Berlin (UdK) warmly invites you the Vilém Flusser Remembrance Day. In accordance with Flusser's statement "We shall survive in the memory of others", his death should not be mourned but instead his life and thought, with which he inspired many artists and academics, should be celebrated. As long as we remember him, he lives on in us and in our memory. After a short welcome greeting, the director of the archive Prof. Dr. Siegfried Zielinski will speak about the history of the Flusser Archive and the meaning of Flusser for his own theories and research. Friends and contemporaries of Flusser are expected to attend, who can share experiences of their personal relationship to Flusser and his influence on their own work. The guests and attendees of the Vilém Flusser Remembrance Day will be asked to bring a short text, quotation, letter or artefact by or about Flusser, and to share this with the others as their personal memory of Flusser. In the style of an artists' salon, the participants will have the opportunity during refreshments to enter into a Flusserian dialogue with one another. The language of this event will be predominantly English.

Programme:
- Welcome by Claudia Becker
- History of the Vilém Flusser Archive by Prof. Dr. Siegfried Zielinski
- Introduction by Rodrigo Maltez-Noveas
- Film-screening: "On religion, memory and synthetic image" (Interview with László Beke and Miklós Péternák in Budapest, 07.04.1990)
- Personal memories of Flusser

Datum: 09.12.2011

Beginn: 15:00

Ort: Medienhaus der Universität der Künste Berlin

Vilém Flusser Archive Raum 208

Grunewaldstr. 2-5

10823 Berlin

Nähe U-Bahn Kleistpark

FPF Special Edition at the Sandberg Institute

A Special Edition of the FPF at the Sandberg Institute:

From the technical image to technoimagination in the universe of Vilém Flusser.

An introductory workshop to the thought of Czech/Brazilian philosopher Vilém Flusser, author of several books, among them: Towards a Philosophy of Photography (1984 European Photography) and Into the Universe of Technical Images (1985 European Photography). The workshop will be ministered by Claudia Backer, Scientific Supervisor of the Vilém Flusser Archive and Rodrigo Maltez-Novaes, Researcher in Residence at the archive.

The main objective of the workshop is to introduce the participants to some of the main concepts that run through the work of Vilém Flusser and it will be run as a reading group focussing on three essays.

What is a technical image, generated by technical apparatus? And how does this new emergent image affect the way we think? Flusser uses photography as a pretext to develop a theory of apparatus based on how the way in which we relate to technology is causing an ontological shift with regards to the way we see ourselves as humans. With this in mind we will touch on several concepts such as, post-history, the crisis of linearity, a new form of imagination, apparatus, freedom, politics and aesthetics.

“Apparatus: a toy that simulates thinking.” (Flusser, 1983)

No prior knowledge of Flusser's work is necessary in order to participate.

Essays:

1. Imagination

2. The Photograph as Post-Industrial Object; An Essay on the Ontological Standing of Photographs

3. How Technoimagination Might Work (From Communicology)

Thursday 10.11.2011

From 10-2, 3-5 p.m.

Sandberg Instituut

Fred. Roeskestraat 98

1076 ED Amsterdam

in/compatible Research – Workshop/Conference

in/compatible Research – Workshop/Conference

November 16–18, 2011

Vilém Flusser Archive, Berlin University of the Arts (UdK)

International PhD workshop and conference, organised by the Digital Aesthetics Research Centre/Centre for Digital Urban Living (Aarhus University), in collaboration with the reSource for transmedial culture (transmediale festival, Berlin) and Vilém Flusser Archive, Universität der Künste, Berlin.

In the context of developing a platform for knowledge exchange, and research across the arts and sciences, transmediale and the Digital Aesthetics Research Centre/Centre for Digital Urban Living (Aarhus University) have established a partnership to foster new forms of collaborative peer-review and knowledge dissemination. Departing from the theme of the upcoming transmediale festival in 2012: in/compatible, a PhD workshop and conference is taking place on November 16–18, at the Vilém Flusser Archive, Universität der Künste, Berlin.

This event addresses the theme of the transmediale festival in a number of ways: in/compatible interfaces, in/compatible methods, and in/compatible markets, focusing on the unresolved tensions in-between different technologies, their cultures of production and use, as well as the tensions between different approaches to contemporary media culture. The PhD workshop and the conference will lead to a collaborative peer-reviewed publication presented as part of the programme of the festival in 2012.

The actual workshop is restricted to the PhD students selected from our Open Call last summer. However, the conference programme will be open to the public. Please note that seating is limited and the language for the three-day conference will be English.

Conference Participants: Christian Ulrik Andersen (dk), Tatiana Bazzichelli (it/de), Claudia Becker (de), Morten Breinbjerg (dk), Geoff Cox (uk/dk), Kristoffer Gansing (se/de), Andrew Murphie (au), Jussi Parikka (fi), Søren Pold (dk), Cornelia Sollfrank (de).

Keynotes: Tiziana Terranova (it), Siegfried Zielinski (de).

Artistic Interventions: Alberto de Campo (de), Dmytri Kleiner (ca/de) & the Telekommunisten Network.

PhD Workshop Participants: Cesar Baio (br/de), Zach Blas (usa), Jacob Gaboury (usa), Baruch Gottlieb (ca/de), Ioana Jucan (ro/usa), Tero Karppi (fi), Thomas Bjoernsten Kristensen (dk), Magnus Lawrie (uk), Aymeric Mansoux (fr/nl), Rosa Menkman (nl), Gabriel Menotti Gonring (br/uk), Anne Popiel (usa/de), Morten Riis (dk), Lasse Scherffig (de), Matthias Tarasiewicz (at), Marie Thompson (uk), Nina Wenhart (at), Carolin Wiedemann (de).

Conference Programme:

Day 1 - Wednesday 16 Nov

in/compatible interfaces and methods

18.00–18.10 Tatiana Bazzichelli & Christian Ulrik Andersen – introduction

18.10–19.00 Keynote: Siegfried Zielinski, moderated by Kristoffer Gansing

Panel

What methods allow for the investigation of neglected histories and technologies? How to use the tensions between various approaches productively?

19.15–20.30 short presentations by Cornelia Sollfrank, Morten Breinbjerg, Jussi Parikka, Søren Pold/Christian Ulrik Andersen and moderated discussion by Claudia Becker.

Day 2 - Thursday 17 Nov

in/compatible methods and markets

18.30–18.40 introduction

18.40–19.30 Keynote: Tiziana Terranova, moderated by Geoff Cox

Panel

Knowledge production relates to different economical frameworks, but how to avoid the deadening forces of marketisation? Can this be reconceptualised outside the confines of financial capitalism?

19.45–20.45 short presentations by Andrew Murphie, Tatiana Bazzichelli, Søren Pold/Christian Ulrik Andersen, and moderated discussion by Geoff Cox.

20.45–21.00 transmediale statement - Kristoffer Gansing

21.15–late: open interventions and VJ performances by the workshop participants + bar

Day 3 - Friday 18 Nov

plenary session

15.00–17.00 What next? A common reflection on in/compatible research practices hosted by the reSource for transmedial culture and moderated by Tatiana Bazzichelli, with the participants of the programme and the public audience.

Ongoing artistic experiments:

::R15N:: (beta-test) by Dmytri Kleiner & the Telekommunisten Network

"Varia Zoosystematica Profundorum - Experimental studies in deep sea communication" by Alberto de Campo

More info:

http://darc.imv.au.dk/incompatible

http://www.transmediale.de/content/resource-incompatible-research-workshop-conference

Collaborating Institutions:

Digital Aesthetics Research Centre (http://darc.imv.au.dk) is located at Aarhus University, Denmark, and functions as a shared intellectual resource that researches current topics across the arts and technology sectors.

Centre for Digital Urban Living (http://www.digitalurbanliving.dk/about/) is based at Aarhus University, and is involved in strategic research of new forms of digital urban living affected by the societal and technological development of a new digital economy.

The _Vilém_Flusser_Archive (http://www.flusser-archive.org) looks after the work of philosopher and cultural theorist Vilém Flusser (1920-1991). As intersection of the international Flusser research, the archive extends its collection by supporting artistic and scientific projects related to Flusser. With several Projects like the “Vilém Flusser Theory Award” and the “International Flusser Lectures” the archive keeps his ideas alive.

transmediale (http://www.transmediale.de/) is an international festival for art and digital culture in Berlin. It presents and supports the advancement of artistic practice reflecting on the socio-cultural, political and creative impact of new technologies, network practices and digital innovation. transmediale is a project of Kulturprojekte Berlin GmbH in cooperation with Haus der Kulturen der Welt, funded by the German Federal Culture Foundation. transmediale 2012 takes place between January 30 and February 5, 2012.

Friedrich Kittler (1943 - 2011)

"We shall survive in the memory of others".

On the 18th October 2011, Friedrich Kittler, a great friend and supporter of Vilém Flusser died. He met Flusser at several conferences in the 1980s, they were both inspired by each other and became important for each other's theoretical work. Friedrich Kittler invited Vilém Flusser for his first and last professorship at the Bochum University for which Flusser revisited his whole philosophy. Thank you Friedrich Kittler for the support of the remembrance of Vilém Flusser.

in/compatible.research - Call for Participation

International PhD workshop and conference, organised by Digital Aesthetics Research Centre/Centre for Digital Urban Living, Aarhus University, in partnership with the transmediale festival for art and digital culture, and Universität der Künste, Berlin.

November 16-18, 2011

Vilém Flusser Archive, Universität der Künste, Berlin.

SUBMISSION DATE EXTENDED TO 22nd AUGUST 2011

"transmediale 2012 postulates that incompatible beings drive the logic of contemporary cultural production. in/compatible beings are understood as aesthetic things and processes that do not necessarily connect on the terms we are used to. The festival wants to raise the question of what happens when such incompatible beings are brought to the fore rather than hidden away in the dark underbelly of digital culture?"

In the context of developing a platform for knowledge exchange, and research across the arts and sciences, transmediale and Aarhus University have established a partnership to foster new forms of collaborative peer-review and knowledge dissemination. The first project will be a PhD workshop and conference departing from the theme of the 25th transmediale festival upcoming in early 2012: in/compatible. This theme adresses unresolved tensions in-between different technologies, their cultures of production and use, as well as the tensions between different approaches to contemporary media culture.

“The simultaneous monumental failure and global ubiquity of technology seems to move us beyond the polarity of utopia and dystopia. Instead we are entering the blurred environments of the unadapted, monstrous and ‘uncorporated’. These increasingly unclear tension-states between open and closed, military and civilian, idealistic and commercial, are giving rise to a new kind of ‘techno-cultural uneasy’. The in/compatible in this context is a singular moment where it becomes evident that certain technologies or models of thought are not possible to use in combination. Artists, practitioners and thinkers engage this imperfect nature of technology. They give it a cultural shape, developing a critical reflexivity that responds to the ever-changing social and economical terrains of the networked world.”

(From Open Call for Works, transmediale 2012: in/compatible. Read the full thematic call...)

The aim of the in/compatible.research PhD workshop and conference is to explore the compatibility and incompatibility of various objects, processes and systems. For DARC, the workshop is a continuation of research in interface criticism and the role of artistic practices and aesthetic theory within interface culture. One of the assumptions is that critical insights and new possibilities derive from the various incompatibilities of interfaces (including those between humans and machines, as well as within humans and machines). For transmediale, the workshop represents a beta project of its new “resource for transmedial culture,” which is a framework for transmediale related events happening before and after the festival. The resource is a new distributed working methodology of the festival based on continuous knowledge development and community involvement throughout the year; thus the workshop is both an independent event and a research-based exploration of the forthcoming theme of transmediale.

We are looking for proposals from PhD researchers to take part in this international workshop and conference to explore the forthcoming theme of transmediale: in/compatible.

A total of 15 PhD international researchers will be selected and asked to participate: firstly initiating a discussion process in a blog, and then in the PhD workshop held at the Universität der Künste, Vilém Flusser Archive in Berlin, Nov. 16-18. The outcome of the process will be published in a transmediale thematic publication and presented as part of the programme of the festival in 2012. In the selection of participants, we are looking to address the theme of in/compatibility in terms of the diversity of research traditions and disciplines represented, including practice-based research. Across the same days as the PhD workshops, an international research conference will be held to create a platform of exchange between scholars, researchers and artists exploring the in/compatible topic.

We are seeking proposals consisting of a biography (500 characters), a statement on current research/description of PhD project (1000 characters), and an abstract for a paper presentation (1500 characters).

Deadline: Aug. 15

SUBMISSION DATE EXTENDED TO 22nd AUGUST 2011

Acceptance: Sept. 15

Organised by:

Digital Aesthetics Research Centre, Aarhus University, DK (http://darc.imv.au.dk/)
Centre for Digital Urban Living, Aarhus University, DK (http://www.digitalurbanliving.dk/)

transmediale festival for art and digital culture, Berlin, DE (http://www.transmediale.de/)

Promoted by:

transmediale resource and Vilém Flusser Archive, Berlin.

Hosted by:

Universität der Künste, Berlin, DE (http://www.udk-berlin.de)

Full details here.

Vilém Flusser Residency Programme

CALL FOR ENTRY

Submission Deadline: August 31, 2011

For Vilém Flusser theory and praxis are intrinsically tied to each other. His nomadic thinking was shaped by a philosophy of positions, experimental testing of different ways of thinking and the linking of different disciplines and methodologies played a significant role for him. Not the search for the truth but rather the playing around with the aesthetic constitution of truth characterised his thinking, often developed in dialogue with others. A fundamental principle of his philosophy is the dialogue between the disciplines, points of view and methodologies. Knowledge production as a dialogue between different standpoints, such as between science and art, laboratory and applied research, old and new media, local and global forms of organisation, is therefore the guiding principle for the concept of artistic research, which the Vilém Flusser Residency Programme supports.

In the current times of the crisis of revolutionary movements, artistic research is not only a dialogue between theory and praxis. The work within in-between spaces and moments of transitions is necessary in order to make the complex structures of today's networked culture comprehensible.

We are calling upon artistic research to actively explore the capabilities and limitations of transdisciplinary and transmedial situations in contemporary culture and thus to understand artistic research as exploring the links between aesthetics, materiality and politics.

The newly organised Vilém Flusser Residency Programme supports projects and activities which are simultaneously conceptual and practice-based. The programme is geared towards the initiation of new research or to the further development of existing projects. This is not a production grant and while a public presentation/event will be expected, there is no pressure to present finished works. Where applicable, the support of publications, exhibitions, interventions and other results of the residency may be negotiated on a project to project basis. Special priority will be given to young and/or emerging artist-researchers.

RESIDENCY

The program starts from April 2012 on as a 2 month work-and research-residency in Berlin. The applicant selected by the jury will have the oppportunity to further develop the submitted project during the time of the residency. The program includes:

• travel costs to Berlin

• accomodation costs in Berlin

• stipend of 1000 EUR per month

• studio / workspace in the Flusser Archive at the University of Arts (UDK) in Berlin.

Further details of the project presentation at the transmediale festival and Flusser Archive will be negotiated directly with the applicant.

Full details and entry submission via transmediale website here.

Flusser Reading Group presented by THE PUBLIC SCHOOL BERLIN and Vilém Flusser Archive

July 21st – July 22nd, 3pm – 7pm (approx.)
Invalidenstr. 115 (2nd backyard), 10115 Berlin

The next edition of "Flusserian Philosophical Friday" becomes the "Flusser Reading Group" presented by THE PUBLIC SCHOOL BERLIN and Vilém Flusser Archive from July 21st through July 22nd, 2011 taking place at the School’s facilities in Berlin Mitte. Over the course of two days, Claudia Becker and Rodrigo Novaes from the Archive as well as Paul Feigelfeld (Humboldt University Berlin, Institute for Media Theories) will guide us through readings of "The Crisis of Linearity", the unpublished essay "Imagination" and a chapter of "Vampyroteuthis infernalis".

The seminar will commence with a short screening of an interview with Vilém Flusser and a brief introduction to Flusser's life and work. Afterwards, the structure of the seminar is very simple: each of the short texts will be read out aloud and discussed along the way. For this, it is necessary that each participant brings copies of the texts. Preparatory reading is not obligatory, but can't hurt either. The goal of the seminar is to establish a comprehensive understanding of Flusserian terminology and topics, from theory, media and art to culture, imagination, technology and the vampire squid from hell.

THE PUBLIC SCHOOL is a school with no curriculum. At the moment, it operates as follows: first, classes are proposed by the public (I want to learn this or I want to teach this); then, people have the opportunity to sign up for the classes (I also want to learn that); finally, when enough people have expressed interest, the school finds a teacher and offers the class to those who signed up. THE PUBLIC SCHOOL was initiated in Los Angeles in 2007 by Telic Arts Exchange, and exists in eight cities worldwide since. THE PUBLIC SCHOOL BERLIN opened in fall 2010 and is hosted by Program e.V.

To participate and get all info and texts to be read in the seminar just sign up under the following link by pressing the "+"-button:
http://berlin.thepublicschool.org/class/3281

In case you are not yet a member of the school just create an account via the website:
http://berlin.thepublicschool.org/register

If you have any further questions on the procedure or organizational issues please contact:
fiona_at_theoffice.li

Flusserian Philosophical Friday 20.05.2011 at 3.00 p.m.

Erick Felinto

"Of Animals and Stones: From Benjamin's 'Unmensch' to Flusser's "Bichos'"

(Posthumanism and the Metaphor of Natural History)"

Abstract:
Vilém Flusser's Vampyroteuthis Infernalis reenacts and actualizes the time-honored tradition of a mental experiment that purports to efface the boundaries between man and animal. This ancient conceptual device, known in Baroque times as physica naturalis, seeks to illuminate the world of culture by means of its approximation with the world of nature. Instead of opposing poles, nature and culture become reflecting mirrors where man can acknowledge his ties to nature and the animal kingdom. More than just a rhetorical trope, the so-called allegory of natural history comprises what could be defined as a "philosophy of animality," espoused by thinkers such as Walter Benjamin, Gilbert Simondon and Jacques Derrida. In Vampyroteuthis, Flusser resorts to a strange marine creature in order to elaborate a sophisticated meditation on human existence and our relationship with the technological apparatuses we incessantly devise. The goal of this talk is to examine the recent history of the allegory, tracing its developments in the works of contemporary scholars, such as Siegfried Zielinski, Manuel de Landa and Vilém Flusser himself. Moreover, it investigates the applicability of the "philosophy of animality" within the field of art and film theory, suggesting an approach to filmic experience that focuses on the "material" aspects of cinema and regards the spectator's body as a site for the translation of images into affect and sensation.

BIO

Erick Felinto is a full professor in the Department of Media Studies at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. He is the author of five books on topics such as cyberculture, cinema studies and comparative literature. He holds a masters degree in Communication Theory from the Federal University of Rio and a PhD in Romance Languages and Linguistics from UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Universität der Künste Berlin.

OUT NOW!!!

Vilém Flusser: Vampyroteuthis infernalis

(Previously unpublished, first English translation)

With a foreword by Abraham A. Moles and translated by Rodrigo Maltez Novaes

"Science is interesting precisely because it relates to me. It is a human function just as much as breathing is: it is an existential interest. And an entirely objective science would be uninteresting, inhuman. The search for scientific objectivity is revealing itself in its continual advancement not as a search for 'purity', but as pernicious madness. The present essay demands that we give up the ideal of objectivity in favour of other intersubjective scientific methods."

“De te fabula narratur”. Thus starts this paranaturalist treatise by Vilém
Flusser. Author of the seminal Towards a Philosophy of Photography
(1984) and Ins Universum der Technischen Bilder (1985), Flusser introduces us here to an infernal creature from the oceanic abysses, our long lost relative, who slowly emerges, not from the oceans, but from our own depths to gaze spitefully into our eyes and reflect back at us our own existence.

Originally published only in German in 1987, this version has been edited and translated by Rodrigo Maltez Novaes, Ph.D. candidate at the European Graduate School, Saas-Fee, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Siegfried Zielinski, from the original, unpublished and extended Brazilian-Portuguese version of the manuscript recently found at the Vilém Flusser Archive at the Universität der Künste, Berlin. This edition is also accompanied by a selection of previously unpublished excerpts from Flusser’s correspondence with Milton Vargas and Dora Ferreira da Silva, with whom he discussed the development of the present text.

Von Akropolis bis Chaos

Nun findet die im Dezember ausgefallene Sendung statt, wir freuen uns, wenn Ihr/Sie hineinhört:

ABC im Medienwechsel - Tracks zu Vilém Flussers Bochumer Vorlesungen

Radio Lora 97,5

10.3. 2011 19h-20h

11.3. 2011 19h-20h

Ein ABC im Medienwechsel von Text, Bild und Ton ist während eines Seminars der Medialen Künste in Zürich entstanden, das nun gesendet und gestreamt wird. Flussers Bochumer Vorlesungen (Kommunikologie weiterdenken. Frankfurt/M: Fischer, 2009) wurden dazu anhand von ausgewählten Begriffen und Namen in künstlerischen Verfahren erschlossen und in Fanzines vorgestellt. Die Fanzines bildeten dann Scripts für Audioproduktionen, die Donnerstag und Freitag in einer Sendung mit Andalus und Nils Röller zu hören sind, und zwar die Tracks:

Akropolis: Irma Novakovic
Algorithmus: Akane Tamotsu
Aphrodite: Alexandra Ketsch
Ästhetische Theorie: Ruben Fructuoso
Aura: Joana Brunkow
Autor: Gabriel Möhring
Bibel: Angelo Brem
Bibliothek: Maria-Cecilia Quadri
Big man: Viktoria Wöss
Bildkritik: Lukas Meier
Blueprint: Aurélie Mermod
Buchstabe: Joris Stemmle
Chaos: Dionys Damman.
FM Frequenz Radio LORA 97.5
Webradio LORA
Webstream Audioasyl Special auf Audioasyl.net
Infos zur Sendung
Infos zu den Medialen Künsten

_vilém_flusser_archive@transmediale.11

Satellite programm: Flusserian Philosophical Fridays
Every second Friday, the artists and scientists in residence at the Vilém Flusser Archive at the Berlin University of Art get together to read, study and discuss the thought and work of Vilém Flusser. On the special occasion of the transmediale.11, their discussion series will take place weekly and will be open to everybody who would like to participate in the discussions. We will read selections from Flusser‘s newly translated books: Into the Universe of Technical Images and Writing: Does It have a Future? which will soon be published by the University of Minnesota Press.

These events will be held in english.

Friday 28 January 2011: Discussing the text Into the Universe of Technical Images
Friday 04 February 2011: Discussing the text Writing: Does It have a Future?

Archive open: 12.30 p.m.

Discussion start: 1.00 p.m.

The Archive will also be open during its regular Tuesday opening hours on Tuesday 01 February 2011, 14:30 - 17:30

Participants: Claudia Becker, Baruch Gottlieb, Rodrigo Novaes & Siegfried Zielinski

german information

Exhibition @ HKW: Hypertext Prototype 2
The Flusser Hypertext Prototype 2 was originally produced in 1992 by the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) of today’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). TheHypertext Protype 2 is futuristic model of a new “multimedia study system” based on the lecture Schreiben fürs Publizieren by Vilém Flusser held on the 2 March 1989 on invitation of ITAS. The original Hypertext Prototype 2 was given to the _Vilém_Flusser_Archive in 2007. The Flusser Hypertext has languished for almost 20 years, trapped in its original Apple Performa 630 chassis, until it was retrieved and rehabilitated in 2010 by the _Vilém_Flusser_Archiv under Claudia Becker.

The Flusser Hypertext at transmediale.11 is a clone of the Hypertext Prototype 2 and is running on an Apple Macintosh System of the time when the Hypertext was produced. The _Vilém_Flusser_Archive is currently working on a weborientated porting.

german information

ITAS website

Screening: McLuhan vs Flusser @ HKW (Theatersaal)

McLuhan vs Flusser vs McLuhan vs Flusser presents: Global Village Idiots - a speculative encounter between visionaries of media theory Marshall McLuhan and Vilém Flusser.

Saturday 05.02.2011: 12.00 p.m.

Vilém Flusser and Marshall McLuhan were arguably two of the most important thinkers of the early Internet Age. Unfortunately both left us before many of the changes they foresaw had come to be. What would they have thought of our current age of ubiquitous networked computing? Both thinkers forsaw in electronic images the beginnings of a cultural turn, away from the the high specialization in the literacy of the modern period, towards a retrieval of a sort of tribal consciousness as images become more powerful.

This screening will feature selections of rare historic video and film documents where each thinker describes his fears and hopes for an age of technical images.

Screening of McLuhan and Flusser archival material with introduction and discussion led by Baruch Gottlieb, researcher at the _Vilém_Flusser_Archiv, and Claudia Becker

german information

transmediale.11 Award ceremony @ HKW (Auditorium)

Vilém Flusser Theory Award

Saturday 05.02.2011: 8:30 p.m.

The Vilém Flusser Theory Award (VFTA) promotes innovative media theory and practice-oriented research exploring current and pending positions in digital art, media culture and networked society. Echoing media philosopher and cultural nomad Vilém Flusser's unique investigative, cross-disciplinary and analytic approach, the Award is a call to reflect upon, act and challenge the rapidly changing technological and societal conditions that underpin the contours of digital culture. The call is open to publications, positions, and projects from a broad range of theoretical, artistic, critical or design-based research that seeks to establish and define new forms of exchange, vocabularies and cultural dialogue. The Vilém Flusser Theory Award was initiated in 2008 as a collaboration with the Vilém_Flusser_Archive of the University of Arts, Berlin (UdK).

german information

Media Archeology practically

The Hypertext is save!!! This picture shows a very easy set up to save 18 year old data - the hypertext prototype 2 - a multimedial system for studying based on a lecture by Vilém Flusser. It will be presented at the transmediale 2011 again.

OUT NOW!!!

INTERNATIONAL FLUSSER LECTURE

Siegfried Zielinski: Entwerfen und Entbergen

Projektion bezeichnet ein vieldeutiges Feld von Konzepten, Artefakten und Techniken, Psycho-Taktiken und vor allem visueller Praxen. Im Zentrum geht es um die Frage, wie Ausschnitte aus der erfahrbaren oder vorgestellten Welt auf eine zweidimensionale Fläche zu bringen sind. Daraus ist im 20. Jahrhundert eine allgemeine, weit verbreitete Kulturtechnik geworden. In einer medienarchäologischen Suchbewegung führt der Text wichtige Herkünfte für die Theorie und Praxis der Projektion vor. Er führt die Unterscheidung von Bild- und Sehmaschinen ein. In philosophischer Hinsicht wird das Konzept des Entwerfens von Vilém Flusser mit der heideggerschen Idee des Entbergens zusammengedacht.

Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König 2010

Vilém Flusser Theory Award 2011 nominees announced

The Vilém Flusser Theory Award (VFTA) promotes innovative media theory and practice-oriented research exploring current and pending positions in digital art, media culture and networked society. The call was open to publications, positions, and projects from a broad range of theoretical, artistic, critical or design-based research that seeks to establish and define new forms of exchange, vocabularies and cultural dialogue. Congratulations to the following four nominees of Vilém Flusser Theory Award 2011!

Zombie Media: Circuit Bending Media Archaeology into an Art Method
Garnet Hertz & Jussi Parikka

GATHERINGS 1: EVENT, AGENCY, AND PROGRAM
Jordan Crandall

_Social Tesseracting_: Parts 1 - 3
Mez Breeze

Digital Anthropophagy and the Anthropophagic Re-Manifesto for the Digital Age
Vanessa Ramos-Velasquez

transmediale 2011

Por que duvido? Warum zweifle ich? Why do I doubt?

Das Zitat von Flusser, welches im Rahmen des remotewords Projektes auf dem Dach der Escola de Comunicacoes e Artes Universidade de São Paulo geschrieben wurde, ist vom Satelliten erfasst worden.

REMOTEWORDS # 11
University of São Paulo (ECA/USP)
Words: Vilém Flusser / Selected by Mario Ramiro
Por que duvido? (Why do i doubt?)

The quote by Flusser, which was written in the context of the remotewords project on the roof of the Escola de Comunicacoes e Artes Universidade de São Paulo, was captured by a satellite.

International Flusser Lectures Day 30.06.2010

Zu Ehren Vilém Flussers - im Mai wäre sein 90. Geburtstag gewesen - veranstaltet das _Vilém_Flusser_Archiv am 30.06.2010 ab 15.00 einen International Flusser Lectures Day. Die International Flusser Lectures sind ein Projekt des _Vilém_Flusser_Archivs, das 1999 an der Kunsthochschule für Medien in Köln von Siegfried Zielinski initiiert wurde und seit 2007 an der Universität der Künste Berlin weitergeführt wird. Mit den Lectures hält das Archiv das geistige Lebenswerk Vilém Flussers und sein anregendes Potential lebendig und setzt es mit aktuellen Entwicklungen der Geistes- und Naturwissenschaften in Beziehung. Erstmals werden drei Vorträge an einem Tag veranstaltet und geben somit den Vortragenden die Möglichkeit zu einem direkten und gegenseitigen Austausch ihrer die Kultur- und Medienphilosophischen Ansätze. Auf diese Weise wird der International Flusser Lectures Day Vilém Flussers Philosophie und seiner Theorie des Dialogs in praktischer Ausführung diesmal besondere Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt.

Die Vortragenden sind:

Claus Pias ist Professor für Erkenntnistheorie und Philosophie der digitalen Medien an der Universität Wien und zur Zeit Stipendiat am Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin.

Nils Röller, Philosoph und Medientheoretiker, hat das _Vilém_Flusser_Archiv mit aufgebaut und leitet die Vertiefung Mediale Künste des Departments Kunst & Medien an der Züricher Hochschule der Künste

Florian Rötzer, ein früher Wegbereiter Flussers und Chefredakteur von Telepolis, ist durch viele Publikationen im Bereich der digitalen Kultur bekannt geworden ist.

Datum: 30.06.2010
Uhrzeit: 15.00
Ort: Aula Haus Salomon, Universität der Künste Berlin, Grunewaldstr. 2-5, 10823 Berlin

CFP: The Vilém Flusser Theory Award at the transmediale 2011

Der Vilém Flusser Theory Award(VFTA) fördert innovative medientheoretische und praxisbasierte Forschungsprojekte, die aktuelle Positionen digitalen Kunst und Kultur vorstellen. In der Tradition des kulturellen Nomaden Vilém Flusser verstehen wir dies als ein Denken, Handeln und Begreifen vom Unbekannten her, als Aufforderung, „Hals über Kopf in den Abgrund des Unbekannten zu springen“, um die sich schnell ändernden technischen und gesellschaftlichen Bedingungen der digitalen Kunst und Kultur zu begreifen. Die wissenschaftliche wie künstlerische Auseinandersetzung mit neuen Technologien und Medienformen folgt daher dem Bemühen, das diskursive Vokabular im Sinne eines uneingeschränkten Denkens zu erweitern und neue Formen der Visualisierung, der Analyse und der Interpretation zu ermöglichen. Gesucht werden Projekte, Positionen und Texte die jenseits festgefügter Methoden einen transdisziplinären Kontext zwischen kunstbasierter Forschung und medientheoretischem Diskurs schaffen. Der Vilém Flusser Theory Award wird seit 2008 gemeinsam mit dem Vilém_Flusser_Archiv der Universität der Künste in Berlin (UdK) vergeben.

Einsendeschluss: 31. Juli 2010
Festival Datum: 01. - 06. February 2011

transmediale 2011

The Vilém Flusser Theory Award(VFTA) promotes innovative media theory and practice-oriented research exploring current and pending positions in digital art, media culture and networked society. Echoing media philosopher and cultural nomad Vilém Flusser's unique investigative, cross-disciplinary and analytic approach, the Award is a call to reflect upon, act and challenge the rapidly changing technological and societal conditions that underpin the contours of digital culture. The call is open to publications, positions, and projects from a broad range of theoretical, artistic, critical or design-based research that seeks to establish and define new forms of exchange, vocabularies and cultural dialogue. The Vilém Flusser Theory Award was initiated in 2008 as a collaboration with theVilém_Flusser_Archive of the University of Arts, Berlin (UdK).

Deadline: 31st July 2010
Festival Dates: 01 - 06 February 2011

transmediale 2011

Happy Birthday Vilém: you will survive in our memory

Josef Snobl

Heute wäre der 90. Geburtstag Vilém Flussers gewesen. Aus diesem Anlass präsentieren wir die wahrscheinlich letzte Fotografie von Vilém Flusser. Aufgenommen hat sie Josef Snobl am 26.11.1991 kurz vor Flussers letzten Vortrag im Goethe Institut in Prag.

Today would be the 90. birthday of Vilém Flusser. We are proud to present probably the last photography of Vilém Flusser, it's taken by Josef Snobl on the 26.11.1991 just before Flussers last lecture in the Goethe Institute in Prague.

Out now: Vilém Flusser: we shall survive in the memory of others

DVD Booklet

Die auf der Transmediale 2010 präsentierte DVD mit vier Interviews von Vilém Flusser übersetzt in sechs Sprachen ist seit heute über die Buchhandlung Walther König erhältlich.

DVD-Webseite

The DVD with four Interviews by Vilém Flusser translated in six languages is now available at the Buchhandlung Walther König.

DVD-Website

Wechsel im Archiv/ Change at the archive

Das _vilém_flusser_archiv bedankt sich für die langjährige Mitarbeit Marcel René Marburgers. Zusammen mit Silvia Wagnermaier betreute er die Umsiedlung des Archivs (2007) von Köln nach Berlin und war unter anderem maßgeblich an der Etablierung des Vilém Flusser Theory Awards der transmediale in Berlin beteiligt. Die Nachfolge Marcel René Marburgers hat Claudia Becker übernommen, die wir an dieser Stelle herzlich begrüßen.

The _vilém_flusser_archive thanks Marcel René Marburger for many years of dedicated work. In company of Silvia Wagnermaier he supervised the relocation (2007) of the archive from cologne to berlin and was significantly involved to esthablish the Vilém Flusser Theory Award of the transmediale in Berlin. As his successor we welcome Claudia Becker.

Neuerscheinung bei Annablume: „A Escrita. Ha futoro para a escrita?“

"Die Schrift. Hat das Schreiben Zukunft?" ist in in portugiesicher Übersetzung
bei Annablume unter dem Titel "A Escrita. Ha futoro para a escrita?" erschienen.

ISBN 978-85-391-0053-8

"Die Schrift. Hat das Schreiben Zukunft?" is now translated into portuguese
and released by Annablume.

ISBN 978-85-391-0053-8

DVD-Presentation at the Transmediale Festival

DVD

C3, Flusser Archiv

Vilém Flusser: We shall survive in the memory of others

(Four interviews with Vilém Flusser)

More information (PDF)

In der Reihe der International Flusser Lectures soeben erschienen:

ifl cover

Andreas Henrich, Flusser Archive

Alexander R. Galloway:
Außer Betrieb: Das müßige Interface [The Unworkable Interface]

Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König (Köln, 2010)

ISBN: 978-3-86560-787-4

flusserstudies: new issue

Soeben ist eine neue Ausgabe des Netzjournals flusserstudies erschienen:

www.flusserstudies.net/pag/current.htm

Vilém Flusser Theory Award at Transmediale 2010

Transmediale

In order to reflect the increasing significance of theoretical and critical practice works submitted for the transmediale Award competition, the festival has introduced the Vilém Flusser Theory Award in 2008.

This year's freshly announced nominees are David Link, Mina Lunzer, Warren Neidich and Daniela Alina Plewe. The winner will be announced February the 6th at Haus der Kulturen der Welt.

More information under www.transmediale.de.

Opening hours during Transmediale 2010

For visitors of the festival the _Vilém_Flusser_Archive will be open February the 5th from 11am to 2pm.

Die Bochumer Vorlesungen 1991 im Fischer Taschenbuchverlag

Cover: Kommunikologie weiter denken

Herausgegeben von Silvia Wagnermaier und Siegfried Zielinski erschienen die Bochumer Vorlesungen 1991 in diesem Jahr im Fischer Taschenbuchverlag. Versehen ist die kritische Edition des letzten umfassenden Vorlesungszyklus’ Vilém Flussers mit einem Vorwort von Friedrich Kittler, editorischen Vorbemerkungen der Herausgeber sowie einem Nachwort von Silvia Wagnermaier.

„Kaum, dass Flusser die Brille über die Stirn geschoben hatte, sprach er frei. Aus dem Bart des Propheten kamen Worte wie Blitze, weil sie immer auch Urteile waren.“
(Friedrich Kittler im Vorwort)

„Letztlich wurde Satz für Satz bearbeitet, Konstruktionen von ganzen Sätzen wurden umgebaut und einzelne Wörter ausgetauscht. Wichtigstes Prinzip bei der Edition blieb es, den besonderen Sprechduktus, den Stil und selbstverständlich den Gehalt der Rede Flussers zu erhalten.“
(Silvia Wagnermaier & Siegfried Zielinski im Vorwort der Herausgeber)

„Ende des Jahres 1990, nach Vilém Flussers Rückkehr aus dem ‚widerlich wiedervereinigten Germanien‘, wie er in einem Brief an seinen Cousin David Flusser […] schreibt, erwähnt er eher nebenbei: ‚Ich habe eine Einladung zu einer Gastprofessur an der Ruhr-Universität [Bochum] für das Sommersemester bekommen, die ich vielleicht annehmen werde, weil das so nahe von Holland liegt.‘“
(Silvia Wagnermaier im Nachwort)