Abstract- Nils Röller

Flusser's Individual Academy: Thinking Instruments in Institutional and Personal Relations

Vilem Flusser refused the offer to become a minister of the brazilian government. He preferred to work as a magister. In this trajectory Flusser developed during the 1960`s in Brazil a plan for a “Studium Generale” at the University of Sao Paulo. The lecture will discuss the plan and distinguish two steps of its realisation. The first step is characterised by Flusser as the engagement of a functionary. The second step can be characterised as an individual engagement. Flussers publications in France will be interpreted as individual realisations of his plan for a Studium Generale. Essential for this realisations were contacts between artists and scientists. The specific function of instruments for establishing and regulating this contacts will be discussed. It will be asked how Flussers experiences will contribute to todays forms of thinking instruments.