Call for Papers
Contributions in English, German, French, Portuguese, Czech, Spanish and Italian should be submitted to guldinr.rainer@bluewin.ch
All papers are thoroughly double-blind peer-reviewed for originality, soundness, significance and relevance. Authors will be notified of the status of their papers within three months of submission. The journal publishes papers up to 8500 words, as well as shorter texts up to 3000 (event reports, reviews of books, comments on papers etc.).
Flusser Studies is aimed at a reading audience already familiar with the general outline of Flusser’s philosophy as well as with the essentials of his biography. General introductory references to the life and work of Vilém Flusser should, therefore, be avoided.
Flusser Studies is published twice a year (May and November).
Flusser Studies 40 (November 2025) Special Twentieth Anniversary Issue: Changing Perspectives
Flusser Studies was founded in 2005. At that time, nobody would have imagined that it would survive for twenty years within the constantly evolving global landscape of the internet. The journal with its 39 issues, well over 300 authors and nearly 500 contributions (texts, pictures and videos) is an archive of twenty years of international research into the thinking and writing of Vilém Flusser: a tribute to remembrance and the importance of history in a world obsessively bent on renewing itself while rapidly forgetting its own past.
But well beyond having survived, Flusser Studies has flourished! Hundreds of readers and listeners have found his work resonating with their own concerns, capacities, limitations, hopes, fears and doubts to the point of responding -- in writing, drawing, photographs and videos. That is, they have formed active relationships with him, participated in the ongoing project of constructing and reconstructing a historical figure.
To mark the occasion of the journal's 20th birthday, we invite contributors to reflect on their own engagement with Flusser's life and work (or, in a few cases, with Flusser in person), whether that extends over the full twenty years or not. What first attracted you? Has that changed? If so, how? Does Flusser look and sound different to you now? How has he affected you over the years, and does he continue to affect you?
By way of encouragement, here are a few questions that could serve as prompts:
- What do you consider the idea or position of Flusser's that is most critical for us now? Would you always have given it this priority?
- How do you usually characterise Flusser (if it has to be brief!): media theorist, philosopher, historian, writer, other? Is that a stable designation, or has your perspective changed? Is it still changing?
- Many readers particularly admire the "accuracy," or acuity of at least some of Flusser's predictions regarding human communication. Would you give him a high score? Is it important to you?
Both essays (up to 8500 words) and short statements (up to 3000 words) as well as pictures and videos are welcome.
Please submit your contribution before August 1st, 2025, to guldin.rainer@bluewin.ch
Flusser Studies 41 (May 2026) Special Issue: Vilém Flusser and Artificial Intelligence
Vilém Flusser was an avid transdisciplinary reader of scientific theory, information theory and cybernetics. He irreverently borrowed terms from his research and applied these to his observations on the social implications of technological transformation. Flusser actually used the term “artificial intelligence” himself on several occasions during his lifetime, to refer to various technologies, cameras and even books.
This special issue wishes to explore to what degree the concepts that Flusser developed with respect to technological development can be useful today to understand the phenomena called “AI,” what it is today and what it may presage for the future. We invite the Flusserian community to apply Flusser’s intellectual toolbox to the questions aroused by the increasing pervasiveness of the apparatus commonly referred to as “artificial intelligence”.
Some proposed themes could be:
- Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (ML) as apparatus or black box.
- Technical images versus AI images, meta-photography.
- Promptology and the revenge of text over images, the “crisis of linearity”.
- “Post-historical” perspective on AI/ML.
- Critical vision of AI, based upon Flusser’s critique of photography.
- ”homelessness” and nomadism, public and private in the AI world.
- AI models as censorship.
- Hallucinations (i.e. glitches, errors) in text or images generated by AI, especially the hallucinations provoked by the users.
In addition to these essays, we welcome contributions by artists whose work has a critical dimension with respect to AI/ML, what Flusser called experimental photographers, playing against the program, against the apparatus.
Please submit your contribution following the guidelines (https://www.flusserstudies.net/notes-contributors) before February 1st, 2026 to baruch@trick.ca (Baruch Gottlieb) and lenot.marc@gmail.com (Marc Lenot).
Flusser Studies 42 (November 2026) is not a special issue. Any contribution on Vilém Flusser and his work is therefore welcome.
Please submit your contribution before August 1st, 2026 to guldin.rainer@bluewin.ch