9 Quotes by Vilém Flusser

The task of a philosophy of photography is to reflect upon this possibility of freedom - and thus its significance - in a world dominated by apparatuses; to reflect upon the way in which, despite everything, it is possible for human beings to give significance to their lives in the face of the chance necessity of death. Such a philosophy is necessary because it is the only form of revolution left open to us.

Both those taking snaps and documentary photographers, however, have not understood 'information.' What they produce are camera memories, not information, and the better they do it, the more they prove the victory of the camera over the human being.

All incoming bits of information have, simultaneously, a tentacular, optic, and sexual dimension. Its world is not doubtful, but surprising; vampyroteuthic thinking is an unbroken stream of Aristotelian shock.

Custom is a shroud that conceals everything. Not without first encountering the uncustomary will we be able to recognize what is customary and, more importantly, to change it. Such is the impulse behind our conversation with the vampryoteuthis

Texts do not signify the world, they signify the images they tear up. Hence, to decode texts, means to discover the images dignified by them

Traditional images signify phenomena whereas technical (produced by an apparatus) images signify concepts.

This apparently non-symbolic, objective character of technical images lead whoever looks at them to see them not as images but as windows

This, I think, shows what being free means. Not cutting off one’s ties with other but making networks out of these connections in cooperation with them.

For there is a general desire to be endlessly remembered and endlessly repeatable.