Orthonature and Paranature
Orthonature Paranature is Flusser's third book in French, after La Force du Quotidien in 1973 and Le Monde codifié in 1974, and the last published in France during his lifetime. It was published in February 1978 by the Institut Scientifique de Recherche Paranaturaliste (ISRP; Scientific Institute for Paranaturalist Research), which was headquartered at the home of Louis Bec. The ten-page pamphlet for Orthonature Paranature reproduces the text of a lecture given by Flusser on October 9, 1976 on the occasion of Louis Bec’s exhibition Les Sulfanogrades, which were described as artificial organisms living in a hostile sulfur biome. Orthonature Paranature is framed by other Flusser texts and projects, including the cross-disciplinary roundtable Technologie et imaginaire (1975) – which presaged future French projects like Les Immatériaux (1985), the landmark exhibition at the Centre Pompidou organized by Jean-François Lyotard and Thierry Chaput – and Natural:Mind (1979). In Orthonature Paranature, Flusser argues that, rather than culture existing as the transformation of nature, the opposite is often true. Flusser defines “orthonature” as the commonly understood version of nature as universal and omnipresent, preexisting culture, and “paranature” as multiple: all the natures and cultures reduced to epistemological categories in order to make them understandable and manipulable. Orthonature Paranature clearly laid the ground for Flusser and Bec’s collaborative opus, Vampyroteuthis infernalis, which is often described as a work of “parabiology,” and Flusser’s “Curie’s Children” (1986-1992) column in Artforum. In this sense, Orthonature Paranature serves as a small but potent experiment around which Flusser’s ideas of nature, art, science, and philosophy hinged, and which would be elaborated upon in his writings until his death.