Marc Lenot
In 2005, after a career as an economist following his studies at the École Polytechnique and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Marc Lenot (b. 1948) reinvented himself as an art critic. Since then, he has been writing an online reference blog on contemporary art, Lunettes Rouges, which during 19 years was published by Le Monde (https://lunettesrouges1.wordpress.com). In 2009, he obtained a Master’s Degree from the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris with a thesis on the Czech photographer Miroslav Tichý. In 2016, he obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Paris Sorbonne with a doctoral thesis on contemporary experimental photography, partly based on Flusser’s concepts. His book on the same subject, Jouer contre les Appareils, was published in June 2017 by Éditions Photosynthèses in Arles (http://photographie-experimentale.com/). He was the first “digital” member of AICA (International Association of Art Critics) in France, and in March 2014, he won the AICA France Art Criticism Prize, awarded by an international jury. He is the main coordinator of the website Flusser France (https://flusserfrance.eur-artec.com/) and has published several essays on Vilém Flusser; he was the co-editor of Flusser Studies nº 31 (Flusser and France) and of Flusser Studies nº 41 (Flusser and Artificial Intelligence). Marc Lenot lives between Paris and Lisbon.
Articles of Marc Lenot
Le jeu et son pouvoir subversif chez Guy Debord, les situationnistes et chez Vilém Flusser/ Play and Its Subversive Power in the Writings of Guy Debord, the Situationists and Vilém Flusser
The relation between the Situationists and Guy Debord, and Flusser has never been seriously explored: they were never in contact, but one can find that they had some ideas in common. This essay attempts to analyze one of these commonalities, their approach to play and games, in the light of the theories of Johan Huizinga and of Roger Caillois. The Situationists placed the game at the center of their approach, seeing in it a revolutionary tool that could help change the world radically. Flusser initially saw the act of playing more as a form of communication within the telematic society, but progressively he saw it also as a form of rebellion against the apparatus. Both the Situationists and Flusser emphasized the creative dimension of the game, its subversive power, and the profanation and the quest for freedom that games could empower. But an important difference between them is that the Situationists fostered a collective game —a celebration in which everyone should participate, where time and space are suspended. Flusser, on the other hand, saw playing against the apparatus more as an individual endeavor, where the single actor does not respect the rules of the program and plays against it. However, the point remains the same: to play the game and use it against the system—whatever that system may be.
Hallucinations techno-imaginaires : une critique flussérienne des systèmes d'IA générative / Tecnoimaginando alucinações : uma critica flusseriana aos sistemas de IA generativa
The article examines so-called hallucinations in generative artificial intelligence models through the lens of Vilém Flusser’s philosophy of technology, interpreting them not merely as technical failures but as revealing symptoms of the structure and normativity of these systems. Drawing on Flusser’s notion of the apparatus as a black box, the article establishes a parallel between the photographic apparatus and AI models, whose internal functioning remains opaque to both users and developers. The text critiques the anthropomorphic use of the term “hallucination,” arguing that it euphemizes systemic errors and obscures their epistemological presuppositions. In contrast, hallucinations are understood as productive failures capable of exposing biases, regimes of truth, and economies of meaning within generative models. Mobilizing the concept of techno-imagination, the article analyzes artistic and poetic practices that deliberately explore these deviations as ways of playing against the apparatus’s program. It concludes that such practices establish zones of friction in which provisional modes of critical freedom vis-à-vis contemporary apparatuses can still be rehearsed.
‘La caméra photographique est une intelligence artificielle’ Occurrence of the Notion of ‘Artificial Intelligence’ in Vilém Flusser’s writings
This essay is simply a compilation of the occurrences of the words “artificial intelligence” in all languages in Flusser’s writings. For lack of access to a global database, it is not exhaustive. It includes all occurrences in the French languages, and occurrences in other Flusser’s works that could be analyzed online in Portuguese, English and German. Flusser has used these words between 1982 and his death, in a variety of contexts, and with different meanings. Clearly, they have little to do with the meaning of AI today. While it is difficult to define a pattern of use of these words in his work, some of the quotations are noteworthy.
(Un peu moins de) 20 ans avec Flusser / (A little less than) 20 years with Flusser
Flusser était-il féministe? / Was Flusser a Feminist?
One would not spontaneously associate these two words, Flusser and feminism. Many testimonies point to Flusser’s machismo in his personal life: his relationship with Edith was rather traditional, one could even say patriarchal. But, while his personal behavior could not be qualified of feminist, the two texts, presented in this essay, point to a very modern and even somewhat revolutionary view of the relationship between men and women. The first one is his contribution to a book about love, edited by his friend Alexandre Bonnier; the second is his critique in European Photography of the work of the Greek photographer Lizzie Calligas. Flusser acknowledged forcefully that the adoption of a feminist point of view is an intellectual and moral necessity: by subjecting women’s bodies to their own bodies, men have criminally repressed women and prevented a dialogue in favor of a male monologue, thus making men and women strangers to each other, even though they may love each other. Such a point of view would force us to redefine the meaning of the word ‘love’.
Premier discours, premier article et première interview de Flusser en français : au sujet de la 12e Biennale de São Paulo
En hommage à Louis Bec (1936-2018)
Louis Bec, who died three years ago, was one of Flusser’s closest friends, one of the few with whom he never quarreled, and the only one with whom he co-authored a book. They met every Saturday to exchange their ideas. This essay discusses Bec’s life, his creation of the “Institut Scientifique de Recherche Paranaturaliste”, his work as a “zoosytematician” and his theories about bio-art and artificial life, some of his artistic installations, such as the Sulfanogrades, as well as their most important project, the Vampyroteuthis infernalis. Their friendly and intellectual complicity lasted seventeen years: it is difficult to imagine what Flusser would have been without Bec, or Bec without Flusser.
