Katerina Krtilova
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany
Katerina Krtilova is a researcher and coordinator of the Kompetenzzentrum Medienanthropologie (Competence Center for Media Anthropology) at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. In 2016 she finished her dissertation on Vilém Flusser’s media philosophy at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. In her research she focuses on media philosophy, European media theory and the relations between reflexivity, performativity and materiality in 20th century philosophy. She initiated a number of German-Czech projects in the field of media theory and philosophy, 2013/2014 the DFG funded research project Positions and Perspectives of German and Czech Media Philosophy, 2016 together with Kateřina Svatoňová the research group Teorie/filosofie médií (Media theory/philosophy) at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University Prague. Recent publications: Medienwissenschaft. Východiska a aktuální pozice německé filosofie a teorie médií (ed. together with Kateřina Svatoňová), Praha: Academia 2016; „Medienreflexiv. Zur Genese eines Verfahrens zwischen Martin Heidegger und Vilém Flusser“, in: Internationales Jahrbuch für Medienphilosophie 1/2015; „Technisches Begreifen. Von ‚undinglichen Informationen‘ zu tangible interfaces“, in: Jörg Sternagel, Fabian Goppelsröder (ed.), Techniken des Leibes, Weilerswist-Metternich: Velbrück 2016; „Media matter. Materiality and Performativity in Media Theory”, in: Bernd Herzogenrath (ed.), Media | Matter. London/New York 2015.
Articles of Katerina Krtilova
Can We Think Computation in Images or Numbers? Critical Remarks on Vilém Flusser’s Philosophy of Digital Technologies
The article questions Flusser’s concept of the computational universe based on technical images. Emphasizing the role of the calculative, formal consciousness the article suggests a non-representational, non-hermeneutical approach to “calculating machines” as machines that allow to mechanize a certain type of thinking (mathematical thinking). At the same time, the article reformulates Flusser’s search for a new philosophy as a critical intervention into the programmed universe, arguing that this philosophy must not follow its technical logic, but find a way to reflect how different techniques and practices shape the numerical, imaginative and textual consciousness.
Vilém Flussers Bild-Theorie. Zur Philosophie des technischen Bildes ausgehend von der Fotografie
Towards a Philosophy of Photography presents all aspects of Flusser’s theory of technical images as well as the images’ ambivalence and paradoxes: the relation of writing and image from a historical and a post-historical perspective, the definition of technical images as images of concepts and as products of the (here: photographic) apparatus. The starting point of this approach to the photographic image is meta-theoretical: Flusser’s philosophical method oscillates between ‘telling stories’, a philosophical argumentation in the tradition of phenomenology, language philosophy and structuralism, a specific use of metaphors – and often together with Flusser’s own reflections of his ‘stories’, of ‘method’ and ‘metaphors’. This article explores Flusser’s philosophy as a field of intertwined ‘layers’ of argumentation that overlap in Flusser’s search for a new philosophy, corresponding with the new kind of images he proposes: a new philosophy in or through images. From this perspective, the shift from writing to image is accomplished by a shift from meta-theory to a ‘dia’ philosophy (Dieter Mersch), referring to the ‘metaphorological’ dimension of Flusser’s texts and his ‘gestures’.
Filosofie médiía změna paradigmat / Medienphilosophie und Paradigmenwechsel
In the context of contemporary media-philosophy discussions, the article is focusing on a theory of mediation we can find in Flussers texts. With his concept of a “change of paradigms” Flusser describes the dilemmas of the theoretical reflections regarding contemporary media culture: the evolution of media (or cultural techniques) and these media’s theories question basic metaphysical concepts - objectivity, reality, the material and their symbols, things, rationality etc. Today the focus is on mediation, the forms of knowledge, perception and communication. With his theories of a hierarchy of codes, writing and image, and society as a network, Flusser suggests theoretical models that could help to provide answers to questions of today’s cultural, communication, social and technical processes, and to their interaction.