Shortly before his death in 1991, Vilem Flusser, a great essayist and one of the most creative philosophers of communication, recorded a three part seminar on the phenomenon of human communication, the structure of communication, and the theory of communication as cultural critique at a workshop held at the University of Bielefeld. In this series of lectures, Flusser explores many of the recurring themes in his scattered, multi-lingual oeuvre. Flusser wrote in German, Portuguese, Czech, French, and English. He published mostly in obscure journals, and to this day there is no complete edition of his works.
Human communication, according to Flusser, is defined by the processing, storage, and transmission of acquired information, a proposition that also contains the kernel of a theory of the human condition. As communicating beings we are part of nature, yet inescapably pitted against it. In processing and storing information we struggle against the second law of thermodynamics, against the never decreasing entropy of a closed system. Culture, as a means of storing acquired information in the form of cities, buildings, libraries, the internet, etc., as a means of preserving improbable order over time, is thus fundamentally opposed to one of the most basic tendencies of nature. Similarly, in transmitting acquired information, we try to extend our lives beyond the inevitable physical death and the limitations of passing on genetic information only, which explains Flusser’s motto: scribere necesse est, vivere non est.
Flusser identifies five distinct stages of history and multiple stages of post-history, each of which corresponds to certain structures of communication. In a nutshell, the process of history is, or was, one of abstraction, in which we (i) left the four-dimensional phenomenal world for the (ii) three-dimensional world of objects, for the (iii) two-dimensional world of images, for the (iv) one-dimensional, genuinely historical world of linear text. Recently, we have passed through (v) a null-dimensional world of computation, and are presently in the process of recreating a post-historical universe of technical texts (1D), images (2D), and artifacts (3D). No structure of communication has ever replaced previous structures in their entirety, rather, certain structures were dominant at certain times, shaping our perception of the world and our concept of the self.
Much of Flusser’s thought is directly related to what has emerged as the blogosphere, the rejection of programmed media, the empowerment of the individual through peer to peer communication, and the eclectic “rip, mix, and burn” approach to culture and creativity. In the coming months, I hope to discuss some of Flusser’s ideas in greater detail. I would be grateful for any pointers to unpublished works of Flusser, including any recordings.
[tags]philosophy, vilem flusser, phenomenology, entropy, communication[/tags]
