Mapping in Flusser, Deleuze and Digital Technology
Deleuze and Guattari understood Mapping as an unfolding of becoming and an all-encompassing and connecting event. Vilém Flusser on the other hand treats mapping as a creative yet private and isolated activity. The insistence on the primacy of holistic mapping over subjective tracing in Deleuze’s and Guattari’s account bears the danger of cutting off the subject from a physical environment, the possible results of which are illustrated in Flusser’s essay “My Atlas”: the loss or radical reduction of sensual impressions as well as the end of shared intersubjective experience. I compare both accounts of mapping to underline the active and passive implications of embodied experience in a physical environment. Building on these results I draw out the difficulties individuals are facing when engaging with digital technology, in particular Google Maps.
„Paradies und Hölle“. Vilém Flussers fabelhafte Expedition in die Abgründe der Tiefsee und des Menschen
Flusser’s philosophical fiction Vampyroteuthis Infernalis develops a complex and paradoxical conception of space and place, strongly inspired by Lamarckism and Darwinism and by his reading of Heidegger’s Being and Time. Exploring these and further intellectual sources, scientific contexts and similar literary scenes of submarine life, this paper reconstructs Flusser’s diabolical trip into the abyss and his intent to overcome anthropocentrism. From the methodological point of view, the paper belongs to the field of literary and cultural animal studies and focuses on topographical aspects included in Flusser’s hybrid tale of a deep-sea squid. Thus, the intrinsic relationships between completely different appearing spaces and species are highlighted.