Description
Book Synopsis* One of the first volumes in Polity s new Theory and Media series. * Introduces cult hypermodern philosopher, Paul Virilio, specifically to students of media and cultural studies. * Presents an introduction to Virilio s important media related ideas, theories and concepts.
Trade Review'Armitage has captured the essence of Virilio’s intellectual media related ideas in a user-friendly fashion.'
M/C Reviews 'If Paul Virilio is the essential guide to understanding the digital future that is the 21st century, then John Amitage's brilliant account of
Virilio and the Media explores the essence of Virilio's intellectual vision: its aesthetics, new media critique, political theory, cinematic analysis, and creative technological disturbance. Here, the writing of Paul Virilio becomes a vivid, haunting reminder of that which has been lost and gained with the disappearance of culture, society and politics into the language of new media.'
Arthur Kroker, Canada Research Chair in Technology, Culture and Theory, University of Victoria, Canada 'Paul Virilio is a canary in the mine of contemporaneity. For him, new communications media have remade the world as speed, accident, ubiquitous militarisation and the loss of the dimension of the real. Armitage is uniquely positioned to articulate the richness and urgency of Virilio's media critique.'
Sean Cubitt, University of Southampton
'John Armitage proves himself the leading English-language interpreter of Virilio's unique body of work. Focusing on Virilio's pioneering understanding of the transformative impact of media technologies, Armitage establishes a cogent and clear-sighted trajectory, and makes a powerful argument for both the strategic and ethical value of Virilio's thought.'
Scott McQuire, University of Melbourne
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments viii
Introduction 1
1 The Aesthetics of Disappearance 24
2 Cinema, War, and the Logistics of Perception 47
3 New Media: Vision, Inertia, and the Mobile Phone 71
4 City of Panic: The Instrumental Image Loop of Television and Media Events 95
5 The Work of the Critic of the Art of Technology: The Museum of Accidents 117
Conclusion 140
Guide to Further Reading 150
Glossary 158
References 164
Index 172
