Vilém Flusser establishes in 1984 a theory of the image in the age of apparatus and gives a definition of what he calls the technical image. By such an expression, one understands both the images produced by automatic technical processes (those of photographic cameras, cinematographic and video cameras) and a relation of civilization to the image and to the reality that derives from the existence of these cameras. The question of the nature of the image is considered in its ontological, semantic and institutional aspects, as well as in the material and technical forms of its production, organization, diffusion and reception. Flusser’s philosophical project is that of an ontological theory of the image in its relation to the technique and objects of the world, as an analyser of civilization.
In his text, Flusser develops a vocabulary of terms that have proved to be influential and continue to be useful in thinking contemporary photography, digital image technologies and their online uses. The device: a tool that changes the meaning of the world in opposition to the mechanical tools that change the world itself. The functionary: the photographer, or the operator of the camera, who is constrained by its rules. He makes it work, within the limits of what it is possible to do with it. The program, that is, what the was buit to do. This is the simplest way to summarize the concept behind the term. The “technical image”: an image produced mechanically, and not directly by human hand (like painting). Vilém Flusser analyzed the emergence of photography as emblematic of a new age of civilization. This new age is determined by the use of cameras, that is to say, programmed functional devices producing technical images, thus putting an end to the predominance of linear writing. This new culture would result from a more direct vision of reality in the form of images (photographs, films, videos) resulting from the operation of devices. However, such technical images, far from being spontaneous, result from numerical calculations that make visualization devices exist and function, black boxes, as Flusser calls them. The programs of these devices would determine individual behavior and creative possibilities. Automated and combinatorial information processing would thus have become the underlying law of the new visuality.
According to Flusser, it is entirely possible to use the devices to go against functionality and restore some freedom to the human world, in other words, to subordinate randomness and necessity to human intention. According to Flusser, four steps can be taken to achieve this: “First, the apparatus can be fooled, no matter how obstinate it may be. Second, one can smuggle into one’s program human intentions that were not intended. Third, one can force the apparatus to produce the unexpected, the improbable, the informative. Fourth, one can despise the apparatus and its productions, and divert its interest from the general thing to concentrate on information.” Information is here the positive intentional meaning of experience as it turns away from the automaton’s treatment of the abstract thing.
Curated videos on Towards a Philosophy of Photography:
Here Flusser explains himself, just great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPwAHxzuznU
Complete text read by Ian James:
A visual interpretation https://vimeo.com/65713793
Curated papers about Towards a Philosophy of Photography:
FLUSSER Vilém, FAROCKI Harun, Programming the Visible
ALLAIN Monique, 2009, The codified World