Virilio and Visual Culture

This is the first genuine appraisal of Virilio's contributions to contemporary art, photography, film, television and more. Paul Virilio is one of the leading and most challenging critics of art and technology working today. Re-conceptualising the most enduring philosophical conventions on everything from technology and photography to literature, anthropology and cultural and media studies through his own original theories and arguments, Virilio's work has produced substantial debate, compelling readers to ask if his criticism is out of touch or out in front of traditional perspectives. This collection of 13 original writings, including a newly translated piece written by Virilio himself, is indispensable reading for all students and researchers into contemporary visual culture. It is a wide-ranging treatment of Virilio's key theoretical concepts and themes from across his work on visual culture so far. It surveys Virilio's aesthetics and socio-cultural ideas and how they function within his highly politicised approach to visual culture. It examines Virilio's thinking from his first works on war and cinema to his latest theoretical conjectures on art, perception and seeing. Contributors include Caren Kaplan, University of California at Davis; Ian James, University of Cambridge; Benjamin H. Bratton, University of California, San Diego and Tania Roy, National University of Singapore.