Groundless:
An Introduction to Vilém Flusser

Instructor: Romulo Moraes Date & Time: January 14, 21, 28, February 04 Saturdays, 14:00-16:30 ET

DESCRIPTION: The Czech-Brazilian philosopher Vilém Flusser is now mostly known as a media theorist and techno-futurologist, due to a disproportionate academic interest by media theorists in his later works. However, these later works, originally written in German, in the 1980s, seldom capture essential aspects of Flusser’s thought, his ulterior motives such as his deep connection with Jewish mysticism and eschatology, and programmatic developments such as his culture shock after migrating from a war-ridden Europe to an effervescent São Paulo. Adding to this complexity, a sizable part of his earlier work, originally written in Portuguese throughout a 30-year period, is either still untranslated or was translated by Flusser himself and altered into alternative texts in the process.

This Seminar will provide a critical introduction to Vilém Flusser, with a focus on under-acknowledged works first published in Brazil and in dialogue with avant-garde intellectuals and cultural formations at the periphery of global discourses. We will approach Flusser as an interdisciplinary thinker with broader conflicting interests surrounding radical revisions and playful experimentations with art and philosophy, particularly with two seemingly opposing figures that shaped the 20th century: Heidegger and Wittgenstein. Above all, we will try to grasp Flusser as a non-systematic visionary who always put enthusiasm and vitality at the center of his thought, and who inadvertently pioneered contemporary frameworks such as speculative realism, theory-fiction, and synthetic philosophy.

Session 1: Flusser, the Uprooted Phenomenologist: We will introduce the Seminar sessions and recount Flusser’s biography, as well as discuss his essayistic style of writing and intuitionist method of philosophy in the context of his religious existentialist and phenomenological background. We will also address Flusser’s idea of “groundlessness” vis-a-vis his relation to Brazilian culture, especially concrete poetry.

Session 2: Flusser, the Philosopher of Language: We will discuss Flusser’s radically constructivist theory of languages as worlds in themselves, his typology of gestures and the role of translation in his personal adventures with thought. The research, context and arguments of his first book will serve as a basis for us to understand all subsequent products of his reflections.

Session 3: Flusser, the Philosopher of Nature: We will discuss Flusser’s radically immanent theory of nature as a diabolical game of permutations whereby history unfolds through incessant abortions of possibilities. We will address Flusser’s critique of the scientific model, his exploratory ontology of animal life, and his para-fantastical notions of reality.

Session 4: Flusser, the Media Theorist, Revisited: We will revisit Flusser’s popular trilogy of later works and the most common debates around his thought and character, positing those as later developments of his earlier works. We will reevaluate his most famous concepts such as apparatus, program, information, conversation, entropy, play, etc., in light of their origins on his general cosmovision.

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