{"id":21,"date":"2023-06-10T13:00:48","date_gmt":"2023-06-10T13:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rainer-guldin.ch\/?page_id=21"},"modified":"2026-01-24T17:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T17:03:10","slug":"vilem-flusser","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/rainer-guldin.ch\/?page_id=21","title":{"rendered":"Vil\u00e9m Flusser"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201ePerhaps everything I am working towards is a theory of translation.\u201c Vil\u00e9m Flusser<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first meeting with the work of Vil\u00e9m Flusser dates back to the late 1990s. In 1999, I attended the symposium \u201cAnthropologische Ans\u00e4tze bei Vil\u00e9m Flusser\u201d in Puchheim (southern Germany) (March 5\u2013 7) and in 2001 I organized the international symposium “Plurilingualism and translation. Vil\u00e9m Flusser, philosopher of multiplicity” on the Monte Verit\u00e0 in Ascona (Switzerland) where I held a speech on “Translation, Self-Translation, Retranslation: exploring Vil\u00e9m Flusser\u2019s multilingual writing practice”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Monte Verit\u00e0, Ascona (Switzerland), October 28, 2001<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This picture was taken at the very end of the symposium. We were all very much younger then: Wolfgang Martin, Gustavo Bernardo (on the left), Nils R\u00f6ller, Silvia Wagnermaier and myself (in the middle, at the back). Sadly enough, three of the people on the picture, Edith Flusser, Irmgard Zepf and Louis Bec (on the right) have already died in the meantine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the last fifteen years, I cowrote three books with Gustavo Bernardo: a trilingual introduction to Vil\u00e9m Flusser\u2019s work – Vil\u00e9m Flusser. Uma Introdu\u00e7\u00e3o<\/em> (2008), Vil\u00e9m Flusser <\/em>(2009), Vil\u00e9m Flusser. An Introduction <\/em>(2011) -, a bilingual biography of Vil\u00e9m Flusser – Vil\u00e9m Flusser (1920-1991). Ein Leben in der Bodenlosigkeit. Biographie<\/em> and O homem sem ch\u00e3o: a biografia de Vil\u00e9m Flusser<\/em> (2017) – and the trilingual selection of  texts (2018) Best of Flusser Studies<\/em> (2005-2017).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gustavo Bernardo and Rainer Guldin (2008, S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started working on Vil\u00e9m Flusser using his Towards a Philosophy of Photography<\/em> to interpret Hubert Fichte\u2019s collaboration with the photographer Leonore Mau. Mau and Fichte<\/a> closely worked together combining text and image in new innovative ways. My main initial interest, for Flusser, however, was the literariness of his essayistic texts and his systematic practice of multiple consecutive self-translation<\/a>. At that time, I intended to write about multilingualism and translation in the work of the bilingual writer Vladimir Nabokov. This unfinished project carried over into the fascinating multilingual universe of Vil\u00e9m Flusser\u2019s life and work and led to the Ascona symposium, the publication of its proceedings (Das Spiel mit der \u00dcbersetzung. Figuren der Mehrsprachigkeit im Werk Vil\u00e9m Flussers<\/em> 2004) and my first book on Flusser (Philosophieren zwischen den Sprachen <\/a><\/em>2005). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2005, I founded the multilingual open-access online journal Flusser Studies<\/a>, of which I am Editor-in-Chief. So far, 40 issues have been published.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the following years, I added several new interpretative points of view: an investigation into the genealogy of some of his central concepts (technical-image<\/a>, apparatus<\/a>, art, border, language<\/a>), a reconstruction of the role played in his work by some of the more influential writers and thinkers (Marshall McLuhan<\/a>, Haroldo de Campos<\/a>, Jean Baudrillard<\/a>, Anatol Rapoport<\/a>, Jacques Derrida<\/a>, Jean Gebser<\/a>); the role of translation in the development of his philosophy<\/a>; the importance of the Baroque<\/a>, the diabolical<\/a> and the satirical<\/a>; the notions of kitsch<\/a>, iconoclasm<\/a>, nomadism <\/a>and the landscape<\/a> of exile, as well as Brazilian anthropophagy<\/a>, the project of the Casa da Cor<\/a> in S\u00e3o Paulo (1987-1989), the notion of colour<\/a>. See also the interview “Flusser e a filosofia da pluralidade, do encontro e do di\u00e1logo<\/a>” (2012).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Edith and Vil\u00e9m Flusser<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, I have published widely on Vil\u00e9m Flusser, both books<\/a> and articles<\/a> and taken part in numerous conferences. For long stretches of time, his philosophy was at the very center of my interests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presently, I am working on a new book project with the working title Faith and Philosophy. McLuhan, Ellul, Flusser and Serres On Theology and Technology<\/em><\/a> in which I try to unravel the presence and significance of faith and religion in Marshall McLuhan\u2019s, Jacques Ellul\u2019s, Vil\u00e9m Flusser\u2019s and Michel Serres<\/a>\u2019 work. This aspect of their philosophy and communication theory has not received yet the attention it deserves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flusser\u2019s point of view has also influenced my other research: my vision of landscape, translation, multilingualism and also my work on winds and clouds. In an way, Flusser (besides Michel Serres and some others) is one of the philosophers I owe most. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rainer Guldin<\/a><\/h1><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201ePerhaps everything I am working towards is a theory of translation.\u201c Vil\u00e9m Flusser My first meeting with the work of Vil\u00e9m Flusser dates back to the late 1990s. In 1999, I attended the symposium \u201cAnthropologische Ans\u00e4tze bei Vil\u00e9m Flusser\u201d in Puchheim (southern Germany) (March 5\u2013 7) and in 2001 I organized the international symposium “Plurilingualism […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-21","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rainer-guldin.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rainer-guldin.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rainer-guldin.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rainer-guldin.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rainer-guldin.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":104,"href":"https:\/\/rainer-guldin.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1378,"href":"https:\/\/rainer-guldin.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21\/revisions\/1378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rainer-guldin.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}