As part of the exhibition »Without Ground – Vilém Flusser and the Arts« we invite the public to an open dialog rather than to a series of monologs. In short, for Flusser, the subject of instability is closely linked to the hard-won freedom of responsibility in dialog.

 

“Science is a dialog in which people lose themselves in the subect-matter.”¹

 

This creative engagement in question and answer emerged from participants’ various knowledge interests: a spectrum of ideas ranging from the meaning and loss of concrete and abstract orientation aids arising in the tension between enforced territories and self- knotted ties, via the dialectic of rootedness and uprootedness toward nomadic thought; to the question of groundless meaninglessness and that which is specifically human in conscious creativity.

The discussions will be opened by an illustrious round of committed and renowned Flusser researchers, those who have been inspired by the latter, and experts on his work:

• Rainer Guldin (among other things Philosophieren zwischen den Sprachen: Vilém Flussers Werk, co- author Vilém Flusser, chief-editor Flusser Studies)
• Nils Röller (among other things co-editor absolute Vilém Flusser)
• Florian Rötzer (among other things editor of Digitaler Schein, ed. Dinge und Undinge, chief-editor Telepolis) and
• Andreas Ströhl (among other things Vilém Flusser: Phänomenologie der Kommunikation, ed. Vilém Flusser: Writings).

 

Art and artists formed an integral aspect in the development of Vilém Flusser‘s communicology. Hence, the second round of discussions presents two artists who personally worked in close collaboration with Flusser: Louis Bec and Fred Forest, as well as a contemporary artist who belonged to the generation of speculative anatomists, Pinar Yoldas – an artist strongly influenced by Flusser’s work, above all by his collaboration with Louis Bec on the work »Vampyroteuthis infernalis«. Participating in the discussion group are:

• Marcel René Marburger (among other things, author of »Flusser und die Kunst«)
• Louis Bec (co-author of »Vampyroteuthis infernalis«)
• Fred Forest
• Pinar Yoldas

 

Program

2 pm–4 pm	Bodenlos – Without Firm Ground Moderation: Steffi Winkler Participants: Rainer Guldin, Nils Röller, Florian Rötzer and Andreas Ströhl
4 pm–4:30 pm	Pause
4:30 pm–6 pm	Flusser und die Künstler [Flusser and the Artists] Moderation: Baruch Gottlieb, Respondent: Marcel René Marburger Participants: Louis Bec, Fred Forest, Pinar Yoldas

¹Vilém Flusser, »Robion«. 1991. In: Vilém Flusser, Zwiegespräche. Interviews 1967-1991, Göttingen 1996 (European Photography, Hrsg. Klaus Sander, Edition Flusser. Band 9. Hrsg. Von Andreas Müller-Pohle), S. 198-213, S. 203

Credits

• Sarah Maske (Project management)
• Baruch Gottlieb (Moderation)
• Steffi Winkler (Moderation)

Organization / Institution

ZKM | Karlsruhe