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-65%The Society of the Screen: Vilém Flusser's Radical Prescience—
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$13.84The Story
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 for 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 to 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, 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. Schwendener documents the importance of Flusser's correspondence and collaboration with artists like Mira Schendel, Fred Forest, Wen-Ying Tsai, Harun Farocki, Louis Bec, and Karl Gerstner for the evolution of his ideas.
Author: Martha Schwendener
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 03/17/2026
Pages: 400
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.80lbs
Size: 9.40h x 6.20w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9780262051224
About the Author
Martha Schwendener is an art historian and an art critic for The New York Times. She is a visiting associate professor at New York University and a researcher in residence at the Vilém Flusser Archive, Berlin. She is the editor of Vilém Fusser's Essays // Artforum, and her criticism and essays have been published in Artforum, Art in America, Critical Inquiry, The New Yorker, October, and many other publications.
Author: Martha Schwendener
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 03/17/2026
Pages: 400
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.80lbs
Size: 9.40h x 6.20w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9780262051224
About the Author
Martha Schwendener is an art historian and an art critic for The New York Times. She is a visiting associate professor at New York University and a researcher in residence at the Vilém Flusser Archive, Berlin. She is the editor of Vilém Fusser's Essays // Artforum, and her criticism and essays have been published in Artforum, Art in America, Critical Inquiry, The New Yorker, October, and many other publications.
Description
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 for 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 to 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, 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. Schwendener documents the importance of Flusser's correspondence and collaboration with artists like Mira Schendel, Fred Forest, Wen-Ying Tsai, Harun Farocki, Louis Bec, and Karl Gerstner for the evolution of his ideas.
Author: Martha Schwendener
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 03/17/2026
Pages: 400
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.80lbs
Size: 9.40h x 6.20w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9780262051224
About the Author
Martha Schwendener is an art historian and an art critic for The New York Times. She is a visiting associate professor at New York University and a researcher in residence at the Vilém Flusser Archive, Berlin. She is the editor of Vilém Fusser's Essays // Artforum, and her criticism and essays have been published in Artforum, Art in America, Critical Inquiry, The New Yorker, October, and many other publications.
Author: Martha Schwendener
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 03/17/2026
Pages: 400
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.80lbs
Size: 9.40h x 6.20w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9780262051224
About the Author
Martha Schwendener is an art historian and an art critic for The New York Times. She is a visiting associate professor at New York University and a researcher in residence at the Vilém Flusser Archive, Berlin. She is the editor of Vilém Fusser's Essays // Artforum, and her criticism and essays have been published in Artforum, Art in America, Critical Inquiry, The New Yorker, October, and many other publications.
