Acknowledgments

In 2002, Kenneth Kronenberg and I embarked on our first Flusser collaboration, Ken translating The Freedom of the Migrant: Objections to Nationalism (published in 2003) while I researched the text and composed the introduction. It was a rich and rewarding experience that launched a lot more writing on Flusser on my part and a lasting friendship for both of us. I want to express my deep respect for an amazing translator and great friend with this second collaboration, another Flusser book, another inspired grappling with Flusser’s sometimes tricky, sometimes frustrating language. It is a pleasure to have been able to work on this text together.

Even further back goes my indebtedness to Kenneth Goldsmith’s oeuvre which, starting with his Ubuweb project, contributed to my enthusiasm for the experimental and avant-garde as a graduate student. His creativity not only nourished my continued fascination with modernism, but also encouraged bursting tired molds when necessary. I want to thank him for the tremendous ease and curiosity he brought to this project, and for an afterword that is in some ways quite Flusserian.

I would much like to thank the team at the University of Connecticut’s Greenhouse Studios, whose work imagining, designing, and digitizing some of Flusser’s scenarios was a most rewarding and humbling collaborative experience. Haphazardly, Covid-19 brought our work on Flusser to greater meaning than anticipated. My deep appreciation of everyone’s expertise, thoughtfulness, and ideas goes to Jonathan Ampiaw, Clarissa Ceglio, Natalie Granados, Tom Lee, Wenchao Lou, Catherine Masud, Garrett McComas, Tom Scheinfeldt, Sara Sikes, Cameron Slocum, and Carly Wanner-Hyde.

My gratitude also includes the Humanities Institute at the University of Connecticut. Their generous support, especially from the Future of Truth and the Digital Humanities and Media Studies (DHMS) initiatives, facilitated a two-day symposium in March 2021 on “Radical Futures—Imagining the Media of Tomorrow,” where this book project was first presented.

Importantly, a boatload of thanks is due to Doug Armato at the University of Minnesota Press. His bold vision has made possible a most suitable home for Flusser’s oeuvre in English translation.

Anke Finger

Niantic, Connecticut, September 2021