The Society of the Screen: Vilém Flusser's Radical Prescience (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780262051224)

How a lifelong engagement with experimental art informed the brilliant Czech-Brazilian philosopher Vilém Flusser's early vision of a world dominated by glowing screens.

Predicting the importance of technology and images in the twenty-first century as early as the 1970s, Vilém Flusser warned, "the basic structure of our thinking is about to experience a mutation." The bewitching images and screens that surround us could lead toward a centrally programmed, totalitarian society--or another, better one characterized by dialogue and collaboration among humans and new forms of intelligence.

In this book on the idiosyncratic and prescient Czech-Brazilian philosopher, art historian and critic Martha Schwendener explores the profound effect of art on Flusser's thought. The Society of the Screen reveals how Flusser's lifelong engagement with experimental practices--from abstract painting and concrete poetry in Brazil to video, cybernetics, and photography in Europe and the United States--as well as his extensive involvement with the São Paulo Biennial informed his belief that we were moving from "history"--a civilization informed by linear writing--into "post-history," dominated by technical images.

The book delves deeply into how Flusser's ideas evolved, particularly in correspondence and collaboration with artists like Mira Schendel, Fred Forest, Wen-Ying Tsai, Harun Farocki, Louis Bec, and Karl Gerstner.

Author: Martha Schwendener
ISBN-10: 0262051222
ISBN-13: 9780262051224
Publisher: MIT Press
Language: English
Published: 03/17/2026
Pages: 406
Format: Paperback