Herbert Arlt (Vienna | www.arltherbert.at)
Jura Soyfer (1912-1939) died on 16 February 1936 in the Nazi Concentration Camp Buchenwald with 26 years. His works were first edited in Vienna 1947. 2012 – his 100 birthday – his works were published in 4 volumes. His works are translated by now in over 50 languages. (1)
Jura Soyfer is a symbol for resistance in Austria, but also in other countries worldwide. (2) Memory places you can find in Austria, New York, Kharkow | Charkiv, Germany. (3) Today especially in Europe and North Africa (4) his works plays an important role. There were 29 symposia of the Jura Soyfer Society in Vienna, Saarbrucken, Paris, University of California at Riverside, Prague, Florence, Bergen (Norway), Buchenwald/Weimar/Jena, Izmir, Novi Sad, Memmingen (Landestheater Schwaben), Tbilissi, Buenos Aires, Kharkiv | Kharkov and three virtual conferences until 2020 (and additional academic events in about 50 countries). (5)
So the works of Jura Soyfer mean not only memory, resistance, but they have also an importance for the presence. This importance is connected to new technologies. In his play “The end of the World” (1936) there are references to Einstein and the world communication. An example for Soyfers literally reflexing of the world communication is the “Telegraph song”, which could be today an Internet song. And this play “The Lechner Edi” shows a new approach to machines, to human beings. Human beings not as numbers, but they exists because of yes and no. Only when they use machines in a humanistic way, there will be future. And this is totally different to the “futurism” not only in its historical fascistic way. This is a counter position to all concepts to understand human beings as machines.
On the other hand Jura Soyfer Society started with digitization in the 1980ies. 1992 it published a concept about open search machines in opposite to a reproduction of the analogue world in internet. It came up with an own homepage in 1998. There were virtual exhibitions, virtual lectures all over the world, development of a new aesthetic which is another approach as just to film theatre performances etc. (6)
But this digitization has its boundaries. 0 and 1 that is not the world. There are new possibilities. (7) Quantum Technology is in this context not only a technology to fasten up numeric processes. Algorithms are important for machines, but not really for languages, the arts, artificial intelligence etc. Human being that means 0 and 1, yes and no, colors instead of black and white.
Quantum computers as numeric machines do not use the possibilities of Quantum processes. Quantum physics show that there are other possibilities. And these possibilities relate to languages, the arts, artificial intelligence.
The background for this suggestion is not only my research about Jura Soyfer since the 1970ies (I got for that the highest decoration of Austria for science and the arts (8)), but also my research about machine translation (beginning in the 1970ies), about open search machines (my suggestions were published years before google come up with its project), quantum computer (1995). And it is also combined with my poems (first edition 1973: About the big cities). One of the recent poems is about digitization. (9)
This is important not only for cultural studies, because it shows that machines with its numeric and algorithms cannot replace human beings. As Jura Soyfer showed us in his play “The Lechner Edi”: machines are only tools for human beings. When the machines rule us there will be destruction. And not only in the Nazi concentration camps were human beings degraded to numbers. Long before his resistance in the concentration camps with a poem like “Dachaulied”, with sketches he showed the destruction of the futuristic concepts in his poems, plays, prose.
So his work in over 50 languages is a source for a cultural change. The research platform is open. The next virtual symposion will be in November 2021 – about Virtuality (which is not the same as digitization). (10) The languages will be German and English and perhaps additional languages.
(1) Documentation see at the Virtual Jura Soyfer Archive: www.soyfer.at/archiv/login.php Free access for scholars, theatre groups, schools, none profit organizations. There you can find original manuscripts, the editions since 1947, translations, documents etc.
(2) See the bibliography of the discourse: www.soyfer.at/at/bibliografien/
(3) Street names in Vienna and Kharkow | Charkiv, grave in New York, names of theatre, event location etc.: www.soyfer.at/at/jura-soyfer-in-oesterreich-und-der-welt/ The Jura Soyfer Society [ www.soyfer.at ] was founded 1988 in Vienna. The founders were friends, artists who translated Soyfer since the 1930ies, performed his plays in exile in England, USA, Buenos Aires, Australia, scholars, scientists, the publisher “Thomas Sessler Verlag” etc.
(4) See: www.soyfer.at/at/soyfers-homepage-auf-arabisch-ein-virtuelles-mittel-zur-erzeugung-von-oeffentlichkeit-fuer-jura-soyfer-in-zeiten-der-pandemien/
(5) See: www.soyfer.at/at/symposien/
(6) About the history of the homepage see the publication and DVD: www.inst.at/at/documentation-homepages/ Further perspectives of the Jura Soyfer Society in this field: www.soyfer.at/at/2021-jura-soyfer-virtualitaet/
(7) For some of these activities which combine the research about Jura Soyfer and new technologies see: www.arltherbert.at/neu-aktualisierungen/ – These are suggestions in the context of the Quantum flagship of EU: Quantum Technology | The future is Quantum (qt.eu)
(8) Document: www.arltherbert.at/ehrenkreuz/
(9) Poem: www.arltherbert.at/digitaler-humanismus/