Full Description
Poised between hope and despair for a humanity facing an urgent communication crisis, this work by Vilém Flusser forecasts either the first truly human, infinitely creative society in history or a society of unbearable, oppressive sameness, locked in a pattern it cannot change. First published in German in 1985 and now available in English for the first time, Into the Universe of Technical Images outlines the history of communication technology as a process of increasing abstraction.
Flusser charts how communication evolved from direct interaction with the world to mediation through various technologies. The invention of writing marked one significant shift; the invention of photography marked another, heralding the current age of the technical image. The automation of the processing of technical images carries both promise and threat: the promise of freeing humans to play and invent and the threat for networks of automation to proceed independently of humans.
Contents
An Introduction to Vilém Flusser's Into the Universe of Technical Images and Does Writing Have a Future?
Mark Poster
Into the Universe of Technical Images
Warning
To Abstract
To Depict
To Make Concrete
To Touch
To Envision
To Signify
To Interact
To Scatter
To Instruct
To Discuss
To Play
To Create
To Prepare
To Decide
To Govern
To Shrink
To Suffer
To Celebrate
Chamber Music
Summary
Translator's Afterword and Acknowledgments
Nancy Roth
Translator's Notes
Index
