Virilio and the Media

John Armitage is professor of media at Northumbria University.

• Acknowledgments viiiIntroduction 11 The Aesthetics of Disappearance 242 Cinema, War, and the Logistics of Perception 473 New Media: Vision, Inertia, and the Mobile Phone 714 City of Panic: The Instrumental Image Loop of Television and Media Events 955 The Work of the Critic of the Art of Technology: The Museum of Accidents 117Conclusion 140Guide to Further Reading 150Glossary 158References 164Index 172

'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