Flusser in Kubrick Space
On the Application of Vilém’s Flusser’s Media Theory to the Films of Stanley Kubrick, with Numerous Film Excerpts
Wed, December 17, 2014 6 pm CET, Lecture

The Film Exploratorium is dedicated to the connection between media philosopher Vilém Flusser and film-maker Stanley Kubrick. While Flusser’s theories aid the understanding Kubrick’s films, conversely, Kubrik’s filmic universe can also be an aid to exemplifying Flusser’s vision of a universe of techno-images.
 
While communication was a central aspect of the thought of media philosopher Vilém Flusser, communication is a central motif in many of Stanley Kubrick’s films. Flusser understood his »communicology« as a basic science for a telematic society, attempted to decode techno-images, and through media saw cultures in their contingency, through which the dialog and discourses of our language games are determined. Here, he insisted on the enlightenment project, also in post-history. In film-aesthetic reference works such as Paths of Glory, Dr. Strangelove, Lolita, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Shining, Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick depicts people in occasionally extreme situations, and proceeds to analyze their communicative behavior, their cognitions and their emotions in his films much like on a chessboard.

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ZAK | Centre for Cultural and General Studies
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  • ZAK | Centre for Cultural and General Studies
  • Schauburg Karlsruhe

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