Vilém Flusser’s (12.5.1920-27.11.1991) theoretical work is an example of the critical understanding of the dominant role of writing in western society. On the other hand he serves as a counterexample: Flusser substitutes the domination of writing by the dominance of computing. He replaces one medium on the top of the hierarchy of communication by another one. His work integrates aspects of modern nomadism with the theory and history of exact sciences. As a writer he felt challenged by the impact of computer technology on text production. On the one hand Flusser argues that computer culture will dominate all aspects of civilized life, on the other hand he strengthens the position that this domination has to be counterbalanced by inter-subjective values. One part of his thinking is a prophecy, saying that exact sciences and their major tool – the computer – will overwhelm the culture of writing. He regards computer processed mathematical functions as far more sufficient in describing phenomena than writing. Therefore the art of bookmaking and of authorship will die. On the other hand thinking and philosophy will survive when the computer is used dialogically. Flusser believes that the computer on the one hand will help to establish a technocracy of scientists, a new authority, but on the other hand it can be used to set up intersubjective relations and to overcome the authority of monological narrators. Flusser points out the communicational and mediational potentials of the computer. We see Vilém Flusser engaged in a conflict between the traditional communication of writing and the event of computer based communication. Problematic is Flussers impetus to establish the sovereignty of the computer. He reorganizes written history under the effect of a technological revolution, and establishes by himself a historical order, leading directly to the advent of the computer, which he regards as a tool to establish a new technocracy. Often he writes that the remaining time in which to fight and avoid this technocracy is short.*

On occasion of Flusser’s birthday we post “Serie Flusser” from Darya Berner.

* Extract from Nils Röller: „Hierarchies of Communication“. In: Diebner, Hans and Ramsay, Lehan (eds.): Hierarchies of Communication. Karlsruhe: ZKM, 2003.

Bloom offers one slight  allusion to hope: A form of hope which gains its impact on the basis of a nihilistic  résumé. One has to think (according to the protagonists of Bloomism)  that subjects were never able to join a community. Subjects always had the illusion to participate in an community, but never participated in.  Now – with the advent of Bloom – the ruins of this illusion became evident. Given this, constructions of comunties may evolve.

Realometer is sceptical about this. Constructions are only conceivable within the framework of texts.

Jabès is in favour of this, because since the book of god did evolve, subjects are reinforced to invent themselves via fragments. He remembers Reb Fluss. Once asked to write about cities, Reb Fluss proposed to conceive cities as “Wellentäler” (wave troughs) and subjects as instable, momentary concentrations of waves (electromagnetic).

Duchamp puts into question. Wave is a metaphor, it is a mask for non retinal actions.

Realometer: Dancing creates a community. Blogging not.

Jabès: Order and disorder? This cannot be. Joining is a form of creating order. Therefore it is destinct from that which is ordered.
Magnes: Separating the force which forms from the object, is already the problem.

Dance floor: Where opposites meet and join in harmonia.

Meeting in harmonia is equivalent to “make Aphrodite” (Kittler).

We can turn it. A frame is a form of closure, but also a form of opening. It allows concentration. We may argue that reality is a Grenzidee (an idea of limit (limes)). We may approach reality only by setting up limits, in between which we may perceive.

Instruments for measurement set limits.

A measurement measures measuring means,  John Cage thinks (Quote found in: Youngblood, Gene: Expanded Cinema, New York: Dutton, 1970,  p. 136).

But what are measuring means? Mankind is conceivable as a means of measuring. It measures the universe as well as mankind itself.  In order to function appropriately mankind has to become a measuring means for its own ends.  These ends can be achieved by emptying human subjects. How this emptying happens in an aethetic process Marguerite Duras works show (see: Marcus Steinweg and Rosemarie Trockel: Duras. Berlin: Merve, 2008).

* J. adds: Metaphysics are a battlefield. A battefield which Kant conceives as female. He calls metaphysics a battlefield in one phrase. In the following phrase he compares metaphysics with a matron that is left alone.

** Is a hole a form that opens, or a form that closes? It excludes from integrity, or it opens towards an integrity which is open to the other. But a hole cannot be thought as a totally open. Without the framework the hole could not exist.

Today we live in the time of the world picture (according to Heidegger). We live in a time in which the world is reduced to a picture. This is a reduction because a picture has a frame. Time of the world picture is time of framing. Framing is making a border between something in and something out of the frame. Framing is a form of cutting, in which the function of the knife is not discussed.

Framing relates to problems of measurement. For example in the case of continents. It is problematic to measure their coast lines. They change with every wave that reaches the coast. They change also according to the measurement tools.

Cf.: Mark Tansey

* J. asks how we may measure reason. Is our measurement already biased by questions of gender? In German reason is femine, in French, too.

Mallarme wrote this.

(more…)

There is nothing in the data to suggest that the phenomenon we speak of as intuitive thought may not be just such cosmic transmissions … Intuitions could be thoughts from unbelievably long ago and from unbelievably far away. (Buckminster Fuller: “Introduction”. In: Gene Youngblood: Expanded Cinema. New York: Dutton, 1970, p. 30.)

Nichts aus den uns vorliegenden Daten spricht dagegen, dass das Phänomen, das wir als intuitive Gedanken kennen, aus genau solchen kosmischen Übertragungen über weite Entfernungen besteht … Intuitionen könnten Gedanken sein, die vor unglaublich langer Zeit aus unglaublich grosser Entfernung losgeschickt wurden. (Buckminster Fuller;  “Einleitung [zu Gene Youngblood: The Expanded Cinema]”. In: Bice Curiger (Hg.): The Expanded Eye: Sehen – entgrenzt und verflüssigt. Kunsthaus Zürich 16. Juni bis 3. September 2006, Zürich: Hatje Cantz, 2006, S. 154.)

Ingrid Wiener: Dr. Müllers Kabelfrühling, Series of gobelins 2010

(more…)