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Vilém Flusser Post-History Translated by Rodrigo Maltez Novaes Flusser Archive Collection Edited by Siegfried Zielinski Univocal POST-HISTORY VILÉ M FLUSSER translated by Rodrigo Maltez Novaes Flusser Archive Collection edited by Siegfried Zielinski UNIVOCAL Pós-História - Vinte instantâneos e um modo de usar - published by Duas Cidades, 1983 - Translated from Portuguese by Rodrigo Maltez Novaes as Post-History Edited by Siegfried Zielinski and Norval Baitello Junior First Edition Minneapolis © 2013, Univocal Publishing Published by Univocal 123 North 3rd Street, #202 Minneapolis, MN 55401 www.univocalpublishing.com This book has been published with support from the Brazilian Ministry of Culture / National Library Foundation. Obra publicada com o apoio do Ministério da Cultura do Brasil / Fundação Biblioteca Nacional. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any other information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Thanks to the Vilém Flusser Archive at the Universität der Künste Berlin, Dinah Flusser, Miguel Flusser, Edith Flusser, Claudia Becker, Norval Baitello Junior, Michael Boudreaux, Kenton Card, Meredith Forbes, Tim Syth, and John Ebert. Designed & Printed by Jason Wagner Distributed by the University of Minnesota Press ISBN 978-1-937561-54-3 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress Table of Contents Copyright Flusser Archive Collection Translator’s Introduction...............................................IX User’s Manual.................................................................1 The Ground We Tread....................................................3 Our Sky........................................................................11 Our Program................................................................19 Our Work....................................................................27 Our Knowledge............................................................35 Our Health...................................................................43 Our Communication....................................................51 Our Rhythm.................................................................59 Our Dwelling................................................................67 Our Shrinking..............................................................75 Our Clothes..................................................................83 Our Images...................................................................91 Our Game....................................................................99 Our Diversion.............................................................107 Our Wait...................................................................115 Our Dread..................................................................123 Our Inebriation..........................................................131 Our School.................................................................141 Our Relations.............................................................151 Return.......................................................................159 FLUSSER ARCHIVE COLLECTION Vilém Flusser is one of the most influential thinkers of me- dia and cultural theory as well as the philosophy of com- munication in the second half of the 20th century. But unlike certain thinkers of media culture such as Marshall McLu- han or Jean Baudrillard, most of his work has yet to attain the proper attention of the reading public inside and out- side the walls of the academy. One of the reasons for this is due to the singular process by which Flusser constructed his thinking and writing. He is a rare polyglot who would write his texts in various languages until he was satisfied with the outcome. Fluent in Czech, German, French, English, and Portuguese, he has left an archive full of thousands of manu- scripts in various languages. The Flusser Archive Collection will be a monumental step forward in finally providing an Anglophone readership with a collection of some of Flusser’s most important works. Translator’s Introduction I do not have free will; I am not free. I am a functionary of programs that are alien to me; I am an instrument. Not being free I do not surprise. I am predictable. History (as a flux of surprising and unpredictable hap- penings) has been overcome. I function within a post-historical situation, a messianic situation, I am in paradise. The lack of surprise, the lack of an unprogrammed future is unbear- able. Paradise is unbearable. It bores and nauseates me. I must rebel. Can I rebel? I believe I can. The sensation of boredom and nausea that the programs cause in me are experiential proof that I am not completely programmed. -Vilém Flusser 1966, On Program in O Diário newspaper, São Paulo. Post-History, by Vilém Flusser, focuses on a critique of contemporary values; where they originate and how they are stored and transmitted across generations and throughout the different cultures of the so-called Western world. For this, Flusser explores primarily the concept of “models,” because models not only stand for applied values, but also because they are principally of a visual nature – this being the significant aspect that he wants us to note, that values are now inherent in all visual aspects IX of our culture and therefore embedded in the way that we imagine the world. That values are now of an aesthetic nature should not be underestimated. Politics are now visual (aesthetic), so that one of the principal questions that Flusser raises is, How and when do models change? As well as: Why do they change? The answers are neither simple nor straightforward. But in the opening essay of the book, “The Ground We Tread,” he starts by stating that our current situation has become empty of values, in the sense that our progress has become aimless. We no longer know what we are progressing toward and thus have lost our faith in progress. He draws his primary comparison with the Baroque, when the Counter-Reformation sought to revive Catholic models. And by stating that we are as counter-reformist today as the Baroque, the author suggests that we are also desperately trying to revive old models, since we no longer have a clear view of where our models, and therefore our values, come from today. A sure indicator of the importance of “The Ground We Tread” is that it exists in twelve different versions in four different languages. Flusser constantly reworked his essays through translation, using it as a method to improve the text by being forced to take on the different ontological positions imposed by different languages. The researcher or translator of Flusser’s work is immediately presented with a Borgesian maze of different versions, both published and unpublished, making the pursuit of a true or final version of a work an impossible task. Flusser reworked many of his important titles in different languages. However, he did not do this with X
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