Parution en français de Mutations dans les Relations Humaines? De la Communicologie
The forthcoming publication of the French typescript (written 1986) of Flusser’s book Communicology constitutes an important step in the program of French publications of Flusser’s works. Until now known only in its 1996 German version as Kommunikologie. Umbruch der Menschlichen Beziehungen? (the English typescript has not yet been published), the French title reverses the order of title and subtitle: Mutations dans les Relations Humaines ? De la Communicologie.
The publisher, Marc Partouche, worked with Flusser and Louis Bec on several projects in the 80s, among them the exhibition Le vivant et l’artificiel in Avignon in 1984. While Flusser was alive, Partouche published a few of Flusser’s essays in various journals and Flusser gave him several French typescripts, asking him to prepare them for publication.
In this book, Flusser pursues and deepens his pioneering thinking on media, and artificial intelligence, reflections already present in his previous works, making it one of his most important and visionary writings.
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.
Da soggetti a progetti. L'abbandono dell'Humanismus in Vilém Flusser
By focusing on two of Flusser’s last writings, this essay tries to address the question of the relationship between Flusserian thought and the tradition of humanism. Moving towards a form of intersubjectivity based on dialogue and mutual responsibility, Flusser succeeded in breaking the bonds that bind the contemporary subject to modernity’s unbearable burden. He described the meaning of a contemporary becoming human in a very distinctive way. Indeed, the trajectory drawn by Flusser is not entirely superimposable on the actual vernacular of post-humanism and I believe that its deepening could open us up to more responsible ways to deal with technological development and “post-humanist technologies”.