Has there been a shift in our concept of immateriality? In Immaterialism, Vilem Flusser explores some of the signs that point towards a cultural shift in relation to what we regard as immaterial. A shift which he considers fundamental for the understanding of the wider cultural changes we experience today. First published in Portuguese, as an essay in 1987 in the Boletim da Sociedade Brasileira de Historia da Ciencia, it was subsequently translated by the author into German and English. This edition presents Flusser's own English version of the text set as a visual poem by the artist Chagrin. This book is the first title of the Metatext series by Metaflux, edited by Rodrigo Maltez Novaes."
Author Biography:
The philosopher Vilem 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 Sao 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 Vilem 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 Sao Paulo, the Brazilian Institute of Philosophy, and the Institute of Technology and Aeronautics. His first two books, "Lingua e Realidade" and "A Historia 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 // Vilem 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. Rodrigo Maltez Novaes is an artist, translator, editor and designer. He has translated and published several titles by the philosopher Vilem Flusser. With a BA from the University of Gloucestershire and and MA from the University of the Arts, London, Rodrigo is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Metaflux Publishing.
