Writing Matters
Thursday, 19 March 2026, 16:30-18:30
Senate House, Room 264
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Does writing have a future?
This simple and yet provocative question, posed in 1987 by renowned media theorist and philosopher Vilém Flusser, feels uncanny and prophetic today. In an age characterised by the ever-expanding technological capacities of GenAI, the future of writing has indeed become a pressing concern for many. Much of our attention, however, has been directed towards the “ends” of writing – the content that we produce, how this is affected by technological development in its various forms, and the various social, political and epistemic concerns that emerge from this.
What would it mean to attend to not only the ‘ends’ of writing, but the ‘means’? The desks on which we write, the inscriptions we etch in ink, the pens that extend from our hands – these materialities that are essential to any writing process in the literal sense, and yet so often sidelined from our discussions.
By thinking through what I call a phenomenology of writing paraphernalia, Flusser wonders what happens when these materialities become superfluous or displaced in the digital age. After all, how many of us still use pens to make notes on a page? And why would we even choose to write in a way that makes things difficult to erase and that is at times painful and disorganised, when we have automated devices that can perform these tasks with far greater ease and efficiency?
What, then, do such changes in technology mean for the means of writing? And if, as Flusser believes, we think that writing is somehow inseparable from thinking, then what do these changes mean for thinking itself?
In this presentation, I follow Flusser’s call to pay close attention to the matter of writing – that is, to the materialities through which our writing practices emerge. In doing so, I propose an ecological view of writing practices, premised on the idea that writing can only be understood within a complex, ever-changing socio-material world. Writing is not simply the essay or the journal article or the blog that we produce, but an entire constellation of minute, implicit and everyday practices that are so often rendered invisible in our thoughts about its future. By paying close attention to the matters of writing, perhaps then we can think anew about the impact – if any – of GenAI technologies on the future of writing, and of thinking itself.
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Following NHS guidance, all attendees are strongly encouraged to be vaccinated (including boosters) against Covid-19, unless medically exempt. Our group is diverse; please continue to be considerate of those who wear face coverings and those who don’t. Thank you.