The Surprising Phenomenon of Human Communication PDF
Preview The Surprising Phenomenon of Human Communication
METAFLUX // VILÉM FLUSSER § The philosopher Vilém Flusser was born in Prague in 1920 but emigrated to Brazil, fleeing from Nazi persecution, at the outbreak of war in 1939, arriving in Rio de Janeiro at the end of 1940, with his wife and parents-in-law, after a short stay in London. The Flussers settled in São Paulo during the 1940s, where they lived for thirty two years. In the early years of the 1970s they moved back to Europe, settling first in Italy, and subsequently in Robion, France, where they lived until Vilém Flusser’s untimely death in 1991 after a car crash, as he left Prague at the end of a symposium. § During the years he lived in Brazil, Flusser wrote for several Brazilian periodicals and taught at different academic institutions, among them, the University of São Paulo, the Brazilian Institute of Philosophy, and the Institute of Technology and Aeronautics. His first two books, Lingua e Realidade and A História do Diabo, were published in Brazil during the 1960s. In the late 1970s, and throughout the 1980s, Flusser travelled most of Europe lecturing and participating in conferences and symposia, during which time he published his most well-known titles. He came to prominence in the field of Media Philosophy after publishing his seminal book Towards a Philosophy of Photography in 1984, shortly followed by Ins Universum der Technischen Bilder in 1985, and Die Schrift. Hat Schreiben Zukunft? in 1987. § As a polyglot, Flusser wrote in four different languages, German, Portuguese, English, and French. The Metaflux // Vilém Flusser collection aims to present to an international readership, high quality translations of Flusser’s Brazilian writings, including courses, monographs, essays, and letters, as well as works originally written in English by the author. § The Metaflux // Vilém Flusser collection is possible due to the generous support of Miguel Gustavo Flusser. Metaflux 2016 METAFLUX // VILÉM FLUSSER The Surprising Phenomenon of Human Communication ©1975 Vilém Flusser ©2016 Miguel Flusser Edited from Vilém Flusser’s original English typescript. The essays Alienation and Stereotype and Conclusions were translated from Vilém Flusser’s French originals with the help of Danielle Naves. 1. Communication Theory; 2. Philosophy; 3. Design First edition ©2016 Metaflux Publishing Series Editor Rodrigo Maltez Novaes Art and Design by Chagrin Published by Metaflux Publishing www.metafluxpublishing.com ISBN 978 0 9933272 5 4 9 EDITOR’S NOTE 21 THE SURPRISING PHENOMENON OF HUMAN COMMUNICATION 33 FROM INFORMATION TO DECISION 45 COMMUNICATION MEDIA 57 SYMBOLS AND THEIR MEANING 69 FROM SCIENTIFIC DISCOURSE TO DEMAGOGY 81 FROM FAMILY DIALOGUE TO THE TELEPHONE 93 LEARNING TO UNDERSTAND 105 FASHION // FROM THE BIBLE TO BARDOT 117 ART // THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE NICE 129 THE AVANT-GARDE AND CLOSED CIRCUIT COMMUNICATION 141 ALIENATION AND STEREOTYPE 153 CONCLUSIONS Like in so many different ways, I am full of doubts, and short of formed opinions. V. Flusser, 1975 EDITOR’S NOTE § The twelve essays of this book were all written during the second semester of 1975 as Vilém Flusser prepared for a course on the phenomenon of human communication, which was to take place at the Theatre du Cen- tre in Aix-en-Provence, France. The course ran from November 6, 1975 to February 2, 1976 and was sponsored by the French Ministry of Culture. At that point, in the mid 1970s, the theory of communication was already a central theme of Flusser’s research and writing, and this book falls right in the middle of a series of titles where Flusser started to explore, from a phenome- nological perspective, the wider concepts of human communication. However, of all the essay series he produced from this period, The Surprising Phenomenon of Human Communi- cation never materialized as a book, despite the individual essays having been printed and distributed in France as part of the deal with the Ministry of Culture. This edition is, therefore, the first ever publication of this title in book format. The lectures were
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