# paul virilio born: 4 january 1932 paris third french republic died: 10 september 2018 (aged 86) paris france alma mater: university of paris era: contemporary philosophy region: western philosophy school: continental philosophy christian anarchism phenomenology (early) main interests: aesthetics urbanism technology philosophy of war notable ideas: the "war model" of the modern city / the integral accident / dromology / aesthetics of disappearance / logistics of perception / war of movement paul virilio (french: ; 4 january 1932 - 10 september 2018) was a french cultural theorist urbanist architect and aesthetic philosopher. ey is best known for ir writings about technology as it has developed in relation to speed and power with diverse references to architecture the arts the city and the military. virilio was a prolific creator of neologisms most notably ir concept of "dromology" the all-around pervasive inscription of speed in every aspect of life according to two biographers virilio was a "historian of warfare technology and photography a philosopher of architecture military strategy and cinema and a politically engaged provocative commentator on history terrorism mass media and human-machine relations" # biography paul virilio was born in paris in 1932 to an italian communist father and a catholic breton mother. ey grew up in the northern coastal french region of brittany. the second world war made a big impression on ir as the city of nantes fell victim to the german blitzkrieg became a port for the german navy and was bombarded by british and american planes. the "war was ir university." after training at the ecole des metiers d'art virilio specialised in stained-glass artwork and worked alongside henri matisse in churches in paris. in 1950 ey converted to christianity after being conscripted into the army during the algerian war virilio attended lectures in phenomenology by maurice merleau-ponty at the sorbonne in 1958 virilio conducted a phenomenological inquiry into military space and the organisation of territory particularly concerning the atlantic wall the 15-000 nazi bunkers built during the second world war along the french coastline that were designed to repel any allied assault. in 1963 ey began to collaborate with the architect claude parent and formed the architecture principe group (among the small group of interns were the architects francois seigneur and jean nouvel.) after participating in the may 1968 uprising in paris virilio was nominated professor by the students at the ecole speciale d'architecture. in 1973 ey became the director of studies. the same year virilio became director of the magazine l'espace critique in 1975 ey was one of the organizers of the bunker archeologie exhibition at the musee des arts decoratifs paris which was a collection of texts and images relating to the atlantic wall. ey has since been widely published translated and anthologised in 1998 virilio began to teach intensive seminars at the european graduate school. ir final projects involved working with homeless groups in paris and building the first museum of the accident # ideas # # the war model virilio developed what ey called the "war model" of the modern city and of human society in general and is the inventor of the term 'dromology' meaning the logic of speed that is the foundation of technological society. ir major works include war and cinema speed and politics and the information bomb in which ey argues among many other things that military projects and technologies drive history. like some other cultural theorists ey rejects labels - including 'cultural theorist' - yet ey has been linked by others with post-structuralism and postmodernism. some people describe virilio's work as being positioned in the realm of the 'hypermodern'. ey has repeatedly affirmed ir links with phenomenology for example and offers humanist critiques of modernist art movements such as futurism. throughout ir books the political and theological themes of anarchism pacifism and catholicism reappear as central influences to ir self-proclaimed 'marginal' approach to the question of technology. ir work has been compared to that of marshall mcluhan jean baudrillard gilles deleuze and felix guattari jean-françois lyotard jacques ellul and others. virilio was also an urbanist. after having been a longtime resident of the city of paris ey moved to la rochelle virilio's predictions about 'logistics of perception' - the use of images and information in war - (in war and cinema 1989) were so accurate that during the gulf war ey was invited to discuss ir ideas with french military officers. virilio argued that it was a 'world war in miniature' # # war and cinema (1989) war and cinema: the logistics of perception a 1989 book by paul virilio discusses the relationship between image and war technology. drawing on a number of films and film directors including sergei eisenstein francis ford coppola d.w. griffith and stanley kubrick virilio presents an post-modem analysis of how the representational methods of photography and cinema have impacted modern and historical warfare # # the integral accident virilio believed that technology cannot exist without the potential for accidents. for example virilio argued that the invention of the locomotive also contained the invention of derailment. ey saw the accident as a rather negative growth of social positivism and scientific progress. ey believed the growth of technology namely television separates us directly from the events of real space and real time. in it ey suggested we lose wisdom and sight of our immediate horizon and resort to the indirect horizon of our dissimulated environment. from this angle the accident can be mentally pictured as a sort of "fractal meteorite" whose impact is prepared in the propitious darkness a landscape of events concealing future collisions. aristotle claimed that "there is no science of the accident" but virilio disagreed pointing to the growing credibility of simulators designed to escape the accident - which ey argued is an industry that is born from the unholy marriage of post-ww2 science and the military-industrial complex the first deterrence nuclear deterrence is presently being superseded by the second deterrence: a type of deterrence based on what i call 'the information bomb' associated with the new weaponry of information and communications technologies. thus in the very near future and i stress this important point it will no longer be war that is the continuation of politics by other means it will be what i have dubbed 'the integral accident' that is the continuation of politics by other means # # dromology virilio coined the term "dromology" (based on dromos an ancient greek noun for race or racetrack) to signify the "logic and impact of speed." dromology is important when considering the structuring of society in relation to warfare and modern media as the speed at which something happens may change its essential nature and that which moves with speed quickly comes to dominate that which is slower. hence the study of dromology "necessarily implies the study of the organisation of territory controls the territory possesses it. possession of territory is not primarily about laws and contracts but first and foremost a matter of movement and circulation" # # logistics of perception in contemporary warfare logistics does not just imply the movement of personnel tanks fuel and so on but also the movement of images both to and from the battlefield. virilio talked a lot about the creation of cnn and the concept of the newshound. the newshound will capture images which will then be sent to cnn which may then be broadcast to the public. this movement of images can start a conflict (virilio uses the example of the events following the broadcasting of the rodney king footage.) the logistics of perception relates also to the televising of military maneuvers and the images of conflict that are watched not only by people at home but also by the military personnel involved in the conflict. the 'field of battle' also exists as a 'field of perception' # # war of movement for virilio the transition from feudalism to capitalism was driven not primarily by the politics of wealth and production techniques but by the mechanics of war. virilio argued that the traditional feudal fortified city disappeared because of the increasing sophistication of weapons and possibilities for warfare. for virilio the concept of siege warfare became rather a war of movement. in speed and politics ey argues that 'history progresses at the speed of its weapons systems' # # the administration of fear ![[180px-gazellathomsoniiinflight.jpg|300]] virilio uses the image of a gazelle running to escape a predator to emphasize the physical aspect of fear in an interview conducted by bertrand richard virilio articulated ir concept of an administration of fear which governs contemporary life together with a summary of ir other philosophical views. the interview was later printed as a short book (2010) and translated into english (2012.) virilio chose the phrase in reference to the title of graham greene's novel the ministry of fear a fictional account of the blitz in london; virilio himself had lived through the blitzkrieg in france as a boy a formative event which informed ir philosophy based upon ir experience as an urbanist virilio stresses that fear has not only a psychological aspect but also a physical one which is closely related to speed. to underline the point ey cites hannah arendt's claim in the origins of totalitarianism that "terror is the realisation of the law of movement" explaining that arendt's use of the term "law of movement" refers to "the fact that there is no relationship to terror without a relationship to life and speed. terror cuts to the quick: it is connected to life and quickness through technology." one can see this ey notes in the image of a gazelle running to escape a lion. for contemporary humanity fear is also related to speed which can be seen in scenarios such as a nuclear a-calypso or a stock market crash. hypotheticals like these are governed by computers which act at speeds that are not tractable for humans. virilio also contends that perpetual instantaneous communication via computers and the internet are disruptive to biological rhythms and historical seasonal patterns of life in human culture producing both fear and misery. as an example ey cites an increase of suicides which occurred among france telecom employees from 2009 to 2010. virilio attributed the suicides to the organisation's restructuring which required frequent relocation of employees and expectations of constant communication # # reception jean baudrillard while drawing on virilio's works in 1985 eventually stated in 1988 that virilio's analyses were out of date as "speed is out!" stating that immobility has set in because "all trips have already taken place" a book-length criticism of virilio's work to 2004 was written by steve redhead. ey observed ir scattergun writing style is not always easy to follow often provoking disorientation and dislocation at the very least. insights personal memories detailed histories major theoretical leaps and banalities sit side by side.: 137 ey also notes that virilio does not pass the grade in academic studies reading virilio thoroughly does leave the reader with the feeling of many dislocated undeveloped ideas swirling around often at the level of great generality. the content is often not particularly logical if viewed from a conventional academic perspective in the human or social sciences.: 138 however for law and popular culture redhead concedes virilio as a factor paul virilio's writing have long had a major role in the theoretical socio-legal studies subdiscipline of law and popular culture which has operated at the intersection of critical legal studies and cultural studies for over two decades.: 149 in 2014 mark lacy an analyst of security technology and global politics noted virilio is unlikely to be read in the 'mainstream' of academia (although one might find ir works on the reading lists of a military academy).: 10 lacy credits virilio with balancing the propaganda of progress against the management of fear at some cost virilio draws on and develops points that are made by many critical thinkers from (predominantly) the twentieth century (most notably walter benjamin) assembling ideas in new contexts creating a vision of the world through concepts and language that is often unsettling a (re)description that makes the world feel strange and unfamiliar. virilio's often alien-sounding concepts attempt to enable us to see the world anew to view a world that is presented to us in terms of fear and progress as something alien (and alienating) to give a form to feelings and suspicions that remain vague unclear uncertain out of place.: 17 # # sokal and bricmont virilio was one of the many cultural theorists (and other postmodernists) criticised by physicists alan sokal and jean bricmont in 1997 for what they characterize as misunderstanding and misuse of science and mathematics. virilio's works are the subject of chapter 10 of fashionable nonsense. ir criticism consists of a series of quotes (often long) from virilio's works and then explanations of how virilio confuses basic physics concepts and abuses scientific terminology to the point of absurdity. in the authors' words the writings of paul virilio revolve principally around the themes of technology communication and speed. they contain a plethora of references to physics particularly the theory of relativity. though virilio's sentences are slightly more meaningful than those of deleuze-guattari what is presented as "science" is a mixture of monumental confusions and wild fantasies. furthermore ir analogies between physics and social questions are the most arbitrary imaginable when ey does not simply become intoxicated with ir own words. we confess our sympathy with many of virilio's political and social views; but the cause is not alas helped by ir pseudo-physics.: 169 a criticism of a passage often reads something like this here virilio mixes up velocity (vitesse) and acceleration the two basic concepts of kinematics (the description of motion) which are introduced and carefully distinguished at the beginning of every introductory physics course. perhaps this confusion isn't worth stressing; but for a purported specialist in the philosophy of speed it is nonetheless a bit surprising.: 170 they end ir chapter with a long quote followed by this comment this paragraph - which in the french original is a single 193-word sentence whose "poetry" is unfortunately not fully captured by the translation - is the most perfect example of diarrhea of the pen that we have ever encountered. and as far as we can see it means precisely nothing.: 175 # bibliography **+** speed and politics: an essay on dromology. new york: semiotext(e) 1977 **+** war and cinema: the logistics of perception. london: verso 1989 **+** popular defense and ecological struggles. new york: semiotext(e) 1990 **+** the aesthetics of disappearance. new york: semiotext(e) 1991 **+** lost dimension. new york: semiotext(e) 1991 **+** atom egoyan. paris: dis voir 1994 **+** the vision machine. bloomington: indiana university press 1994 **+** bunker archaeology. new york: princeton university press 1994 **+** the art of the motor. minneapolis: university of minnesota press 1995 **+** open sky. london: verso 1997 **+** pure war. new york: semiotext(e) 1997 **+** politics of the very worst. new york: semiotext(e) 1999 **+** polar inertia. london: sage 1999 **+** a landscape of events. cambridge: mit press 2000 **+** the information bomb. london: verso 2000 **+** strategy of deception. london: verso 2000 **+** virilio live: selected interviews. edited by john armitage. london: sage 2001 **+** ground zero. london: verso 2002 **+** desert screen: war at the speed of light. london: continuum 2002 **+** crepuscular dawn. new york: semiotext(e) 2002 **+** art and fear. london: continuum 2003. ( originally published in 2000 by editions galilee under the title la procedure silence meaning "the silence trial." ) **+** unknown quantity. new york: thames & hudson 2003 **+** city of panic. oxford: berg 2005 **+** the accident of art. (w/ sylvère lotringer) new york: semiotext(e) 2005 **+** negative horizon: an essay in dromoscopy. london: continuum 2005 **+** art as far as the eye can see. oxford: berg publishers 2007 **+** the original accident. cambridge: polity 2007 **+** grey ecology. new york/dresden: atropos press 2009 **+** the university of disaster. cambridge: polity 2010 **+** the futurism of the instant: stop-eject. cambridge: polity 2010 **+** a winter's journey : four conversations with marianne brausch. the french list. seagull books 2011 **+** the administration of fear. new york: semiotext(e) 2012 # references **+** "paul virilio spricht mit heinz-norbert jocks. universität des unglücks. von krieg raum und zeit und vom sterben am meer in la rochelle" lettre international berlin pages 24-31 2018 issn 0945-5167 **+** armitage john editor (2000) paul virilio: from modernism to hypermodernism and beyond. london: sage **+** derian james der editor (1998) the virilio reader malden (massachusetts): blackwell publishers **+** james ian (2007) paul virilio london: routledge // republic of bob