Flusser Studies is an international e-journal for academic research dedicated to the thought of Vilém Flusser (1920-1991). In addition to publishing articles about Flusser’s work, the journal seeks to promote scholarship on different aspects of specifically interdisciplinary and multilingual approaches Flusser himself developed in the course of his career as a writer and philosopher. These approaches range from Communication Theory to Translation Studies, Cultural Anthropology to the New Media. I founded the journal in 2005 and am Editor-in-Chief. So far, the journal has published 36 issues (including the current issue) with about 400 authors. The site disposes of a search function, which accesses all the titles and the keywords.
The current special issue Angenommen. Suppose that. Suponhamos (Flusser Studies 36) focuses on the collection of satirical philosophical fables Angenommen. Eine Szenenfolge that was first published in 1989. The book consists of “22 scenarios in search of images” from family life, political life, and politics. It has been recently translated into English and published by the University of Minnesota Press under the title What if? We (the editors: Rainer Guldin, William Hanff and Rodrigo Martini) deemed this an excellent occasion for a more detailed discussion of a book that has unfortunately not received the theoretical attention it deserves, probably also because it was obscured by the success of Towards a Philosophy of Photography, Into the Universe of Technical Images, and Does Writing have a Future?
My contribution, A Modest Proposal for the Saponification of Fats: On the Role of Satire in Vilém Flusser’s Work, deals among other things with Flusser’s satirical use of animal characters (ants, unicorns, the taenia solium, and the imaginary hybrid creature Bibliophagus convictus) in his philosophical fables and their relationship to the Vampyroteuthis infernalis.
The last issue (Flusser Studies 35, edited by Rainer Guldin) was dedicated to an exploration of uncharted territory: the notion of colour in Flusser’s work and the project of the Casa da Cor in São Paulo (1987-1989) to which I have contributed two essays: “Coloured technical images: On the Role of Colour in Vilém Flusser’s Work” and “Colorarium: The Exchange of Letters between Vilém Flusser, Karl Gerstner, Philippe Henry and Gottfried Jäger“.
Call for papers
Flusser Studies 38 (November 2024): Special Issue: Nihilism in Vilém Flusser’s Thinking
In June 2023, the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Porto (Portugal) hosted the International Congress “Philosophy and Literature: Nihilism across boundaries”. Some of the papers presented there explicitly focused on Flusser’s view of nihilism. This special issue offers an opportunity for further debate on the question of nihilism in Flusser’s writings.
What is Flusser’s take on nihilism? Does he distinguish different types of nihilism? If so, with what sort of nihilism is Flusser mainly concerned? Who are the main thinkers influencing Flusser’s view of nihilism? What role does, for instance, Nietzsche play in Flusser’s view of nihilism? Is Flusser’s discussion of nihilism any different from that of other philosophers? What is the link between existentialism and nihilism in Flusser’s work? How does the notion of nihilism evolve from the early works to the works of the late 1980s? What other notions are related to nihilism?
We invite contributions that deal with Flusser’s critique of the course of European civilization, the connection between nihilism and the problem of rationalism and the instrumentalization of thought, and the link between nihilism and the formalization of philosophical discourse.
Please submit your contribution before August 1st 2024 to eva.batlickova@phil.muni.cz and dasilva.wanderley.dias@gmail.com
Flusser Studies 39 (May 2025): Special Issue: Vilém Flusser and Politics
Because of his remarkable life Vilém Flusser (1920-1991) is a key witness of the 20th century. Just as he was against National Socialism and nationalism in general, Flusser was also anti-communist. He justifies his turning away from communism, which he had briefly embraced as a young man during his time in Prague, with the Hitler-Stalin pact, that is, the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact which in his eyes placed both totalitarianisms on the same level. In Brazil, his anti-communism put him at a distance from the communist resistance against the military dictatorship, whose fascism he also rejected. This led to his return to Europe in the early 70s. Brazil. After the collapse of the communist regime, Flusser reacted energetically against the newly emerging nationalisms. He also commented on the viability of the newly created Ukraine, because of its incompatible Catholic and Orthodox components. He considered the Vietnam War an inevitable defence of the free West and thought that the rise of China was unstoppable. In the 80s he travelled to Israel towards which he had mixed feelings.
We invite contributions that deal with the role politics played in Flusser’s life and work, his critique of totalitarian regimes, and the political dimension of his communicology and media theory.
Please submit your contribution before May 1st, 2025, to guldin.rainer@bluewin.ch and michaelhankebeaga@yahoo.com.br
Flusser Studies 40 (November 2025): Special Twentieth Anniversary Issue
Flusser Studies was founded in 2005. At that time, nobody would have imagined that it would survive for twenty years within the constantly evolving global landscape of the internet. The journal with its 39 issues, well over 300 authors and nearly 500 contributions (texts, pictures and videos) is an archive of twenty years of international research into the thinking and writing of Vilém Flusser: a tribute to remembrance and the importance of history in a world obsessively bent on renewing itself while rapidly forgetting its own past.
Here are some of the possible questions the contributors might want to address: Is Flusser’s thinking, nearly thirty-five years after his tragic and sudden death in November 1991, still relevant to us? Which parts of his work are dated and which parts point to the future? Are there any areas of his thinking that have been ignored so far or not dealt with sufficiently? How has Flusser been reinterpreted in the work of contemporary thinkers, for instance by the German Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han? What role did and does Flusser Studies play in the academic debate and beyond, for instance in the work of visual artists? And finally, which are the most inspiring and influential contributions published in Flusser Studies so far?
Both essays (up to 8500 words) and short statements (up to 3000 words) as well as pictures and videos are welcome.
Please submit your contribution before August 1st, 2025, to guldin.rainer@bluewin.ch
