Roberto Bartholo
Roberto Bartholo is a Full Professor at UFRJ, working at the Production Engineering Program at COPPE/UFR—where he coordinates the Technologies, Dialogues and Sites Laboratory (LTDS)—and is the founder of the "Vilém Flusser Chair - Language is Reality" at the Brazilian College of High Studies at UFRJ. Roberto holds a degree in Economics from UFRJ and in Theology from PUC/Rio, with a master's in Operational Research from the Production Engineering Program at COPPE/UFRJ and a doctorate in Philosophical Anthropology from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany). His academic work covers the thematic fields of digital humanities, relational heritage, and situated entrepreneurship. Roberto is also a Research Productivity Fellow at CNPq and a “Cientista do Nosso Estado” (FAPERJ).
Articles of Roberto Bartholo
A Flusserian Perspective on Legal Due Process
This essay is an inquiry into the nature of due process from the standpoint of Vilém Flusser’s philosophy of language. It expands on his distinction between dialogue and discourse to consider that a fruitful realization of due process is contingent upon relational patterns that enable the pursuit of a commitment to truthfulness. It incorporates concepts from Franz Rosenzweig, and Arnold Gehlen’s and Martin Buber’s anthropological philosophy to qualify this commitment, the relational patterns which can realize its pursuit, and how they constrain judicial utterances. This supports a phenomenology of due process that considers its nature twofold, both dialogical and discursive.
The Sixth Rung
Digital media and its effects on society have been widely discussed and questioned by many authors, for instance one’s additional self (selves) such as Facebook or Instagram and its later ways to behave virtually (Case 2014) or the effects of uninterrupted entertainment on memory, attention span and creativity (Harris 2015). Besides being an occupation during idle time, an internet connection and its gadgets have become an essential tool to accomplish some of the most ordinary tasks, such as track addresses or pay bills, as well as a powerful feature within the scientific-academic environment. The shift from analog to digital has probably been achieved. The philosopher Vilém Flusser argued that the inadvertent use of “technical” media could substantially change the way we process information, the way we think. Although Vilém Flusser had already highlighted the importance of idle time during which critical thought takes place, it is only during spare time that one is able to re-think about what was done, criticize it and adjust accordingly. Flusser’s major outcome is a possible reshaping of historical consciousness.
The following text discusses the gains and losses of cognitive dimensions after the digital shift and its impacts on the architectural design process, based on Vilém Flusser’s “hypothesis that human civilisation has seen two fundamental turning points since its beginning. The first (…) may be defined as ‘the invention of linear writing’. The second (…) may be called the invention of technical images”. (Flusser 2000; 7). The research looks at new media within the architectural design process: tri-dimensional modeling versus two-dimensional representation, use of smartphones and other interactive media by constructing analogies between writing and architectural representation, and how these new procedures are radically changing consciousness and the task of developing knowledge.