From Sound to Sign: Writing as Worldmaking in Vilém Flusser and Walter J. Ong
Writing changes the world. Or so thought scholars Vilém Flusser and Walter J. Ong in the second half of the 20th century. This paper explores the ontological and epistemological consequences of the written word according to the complementary views of these two authors. The pre-eminence of language for the constitution of reality was a stance assumed by Vilém Flusser already in his first book (1963) and later developed throughout his career. In his view, linear thought as we know it now became possible as a result of the technology of writing. Flusser’s reading deeply resonates with the Ong’s study of the transition from oral to literate cultures, as the latter posits that the written record allowed for a reformulation of thinking itself, an opening of the possibilities we know today. Although they wrote in different contexts, the questions they tackle and the conclusions they reach have profound similarities. For comparison, this study relies mainly on ideas found mainly in two seminal publications: Língua e Realidade [Language and Reality] by Vilém Flusser, and Orality and Literacy: the technologizing of the word, by Walter J. Ong.
A Forgotten Publication Project: Vilém Flusser’s “The Fairy Tale of Truth”
In the 1990s, the Bollmann Verlag planned to publish a complete edition of Vilém Flusser’s oeuvre. However, in the mid-nineties, due to financial difficulties, this plan had to be abandoned. In 1996, was published the last volume under the catchy title Kommunikologie. However, the material for another complete volume had already been assembled by Edith Flusser, Klaus Sander and Vera Schwamborn. The working title was Das Märchen von der Wahrheit. Glossen und Philosophiefiktionen (The Fairy Tale of Truth: Glosses and Philosophical Fictions). The first section contained a collection of twenty-seven philosophical fictions and the second nearly all the texts of the daily satirical column Posto Zero that were published from January 22 to April 12, 1972, shortly before Flusser’s return to Europe. For the publication project, Edith Flusser had translated practically all the Portuguese texts into German. The essay also discusses five of these previously unpublished texts in more detail.
Libertad y poshistoria en la filosofía de la fotografie de Vilém Flusser
The object of this research is to trace Flusser’s thoughts on freedom and history as they appear in his philosophy of photography. The investigation focusses on the function of the author of the photograph in relation to apparatuses and programs. It extends, as I will try to show, to the activity of the spectator and of everyone who interacts with images. I follow Flusser’s methodology, which is to relate the philosophy of photography to the theory of games. And that's why I speak about the player, the toy and the game involved in photography. I think Flusser's main inspiration was Wittgenstein of the Tractactus and his theory of the emancipation of meaning from truth or factual falsity. Here I find the ontological key to his philosophy of photography as a philosophy of freedom.
Biomedia and Anthropology of Gestures and Body
The essay is based on two central notions developed by Vilém Flusser: 1) life can be considered as a design project; 2) we are in need of a new anthropology of gestures. It moves from the modern understanding of technology, digital media and its cybernetic regime, to discover biomedia and their ability to invade and conquer bodies, senses and gestures. In the light of this new bio-techno-cultural constellation where media are used to design gestures, old questions about subjectivity, media and communication remain fundamental yet they ought to be reinterpreted.