ern perception. In an unusual and engaging turn,
however, Virilio not only compellingly conjures Eti-
enne Jules Marey’s nineteenth century experiments:
‘‘The whiteness of birds or that of horses, the brilliant
strips pasted on the clothes of experimental subjects,
make the body disappear in favor of an instanta-
neous blend of givens under the indirect light of
motors and other propagators of the real,’’ but also
spends much time discussing the reclusive twentieth
century billionaire Howard Hughes: ‘‘Suppressing all
uncertainty, Hughes could believe himself every-
where and nowhere, yesterday and tomorrow, since
all points of reference to astronomical space and time
were eliminated.’’
Although his ideas have made influential and
intriguing reading for many artists, in recent years
Virilio has been increasingly critical of contempor-
ary art. This becomes apparent in the stark polemic
Art and Fear(2000/2003). It contains two short but
intricately tangled essays lamenting the decline of
art in the last decades as conformist, nihilistic, and
profane in its character. Perhaps Virilio is also
indulging his nostalgia for the possibilities he once
envisioned for modern art, but his more recent
thoughts are colored by his writings on the horrors
of wars and the ethical questions raised by contem-
porary technology such as genetic research.
Virilio’s particular mixture of fascination with the
current state of things and apprehension for the
future was recorded in the exhibition entitledUn-
known Quantity(2003), which he curated for the
Fondation Cartier in Paris. In the catalogue to
accompany the exhibition, which featured a lavish
assortment of photographs of disastrous accidents:
plane crashes, bombings, earthquakes, and floods,
Virilio characterizes differing varieties of accident,
and states that ‘‘Daily life is becoming a kaleido-
scope of incidents and accidents, catastrophes and
cataclysms, in which we are endlessly running up
against the unexpected.’’ His interest (and ours) lies
then in examining and learning from these accidents
to better understand our present moment.
MartinPatrick
Seealso:Ethics and Photography; PostmodernismBiography
Born in Paris, France, 1932. Currently Professor Emeritus at
the E ́cole Spe ́ciale d’Architecture, Paris, of which he was
Director, 1968–1998. Trained at the Ecole des Metiers d’
Art, Paris. Conscripted into the Colonial army during
Algerian war of independence. Founding member of
Architecture principegroup, 1963–1968. Editor ofEspace
Critique, Editions Galile ́e, 1973. Awarded National Grand
Prize for Architectural Criticism, 1987. Program Director,
College International de Philosophie, 1990. Has served as
a member of the High Committee for the Housing of the
Disadvantaged in France since 1992. He has written for
the journalsEsprit,Cause commune,Critique,Traverses,
andUrbanisme. Lives in La Rochelle, France.Selected Works
Bunker Archeology, 1975/1994
Speed and Politics, 1977/1986
Aesthetics of Disappearance, 1980/1991
The Vision Machine, 1988/1994
War and Cinema: The Logistics of Perception, 1989/1992
Desert Screen: War at the Speed of Light, 1991/2002
The Art of the Motor, 1993/1995
Strategy of Deception, 1999/2000
Art and Fear, 2000/2003
Unknown Quantity, 2003Further Reading
Armitage, John, ed. Paul Virilio: From Modernism to
Hypermodernism and Beyond. London: SAGE, 2000.
Armitage, John, ed.Virilio Live: Selected Interviews. Lon-
don: SAGE, 2001.
Der Derian, James, ed.The Virilio Reader. Oxford: Black-
well, 1998.
Lotringer, Sylvere, and Paul Virilio.Crepuscular Dawn.
New York: Semiotext(e), 2002.VIRILIO, PAUL