Paul Virilio facts for kids

Paul Virilio (born January 4, 1932 – died September 10, 2018) was a French thinker who studied culture, cities, architecture, and art. He was famous for his ideas about how technology, speed, and power are connected. He often looked at how these ideas related to architecture, art, cities, and the military.

Virilio created many new words, like "Dromology". This word describes how speed is everywhere and affects every part of our lives. He was seen as a historian of war, technology, and photography. He also thought deeply about architecture, military plans, and movies. Virilio was a strong voice on topics like history, terrorism, mass media, and how humans interact with machines.

Biography

Paul Virilio was born in Paris, France, in 1932. His father was Italian and a communist, and his mother was Catholic from Brittany. He grew up in Brittany, a coastal region in northern France.

World War II had a big impact on him. The city of Nantes was attacked by German forces and later bombed by British and American planes. Virilio often said that "war was his university" because of these experiences.

After studying at the École des métiers d'art, Virilio became skilled in making stained-glass art. He even worked with the famous artist Henri Matisse on churches in Paris. In 1950, he became a Christian.

Later, Virilio joined the army during the Algerian War. After his service, he attended lectures on phenomenology at the University of Paris. Phenomenology is a way of studying how we experience things.

In 1958, Virilio began to study military spaces and how land was organized. He was especially interested in the Atlantic Wall. This was a line of 15,000 Nazi bunkers built along the French coast during World War II. They were meant to stop any attack from the Allies.

In 1963, he started working with architect Claude Parent. They formed a group called Architecture Principe. After taking part in the May 1968 student protests in Paris, Virilio became a professor at the École Spéciale d'Architecture. He became the director of studies there in 1973. That same year, he also became the director of a magazine called L'Espace Critique.

In 1975, Virilio helped organize the Bunker Archéologie exhibition in Paris. This show featured texts and images about the Atlantic Wall. Since then, his writings have been widely published and translated.

In 1998, Virilio started teaching special classes at the European Graduate School. Towards the end of his life, he worked with homeless groups in Paris. He also worked on creating the first Museum of the Accident.

Key Ideas

The War Model and Speed

Paul Virilio created the idea of the "war model" to describe modern cities and human society. He also invented the term 'Dromology'. This word means the study of how speed affects everything in our technological world.

In his books like War and Cinema and Speed and Politics, he argued that military projects and technologies often drive history forward. He believed that speed is a main force in how societies are built and how wars are fought.

Virilio's ideas about how images and information are used in war, which he called 'logistics of perception', were very accurate. During the Gulf War in 1991, he was even asked to discuss his ideas with French military officers. He called that war a 'world war in miniature'.

War and Cinema (1989)

In his 1989 book, War and Cinema: The Logistics of Perception, Paul Virilio explored how images and war technology are connected. He looked at many films and directors, like Sergei Eisenstein and Stanley Kubrick. Virilio showed how photography and cinema have changed modern and historical warfare. He argued that seeing things from a distance, through cameras, changes how we experience conflict.

The Integral Accident

Virilio believed that every new technology also creates the possibility of a new kind of accident. For example, when the train was invented, the idea of a train derailment was also born. He saw accidents as a negative side effect of scientific progress.

He thought that technologies like television separate us from real events in real time and space. We lose our direct view of the world around us. Instead, we see a "fake" world through screens. Virilio imagined the Accident as a "fractal meteorite" that is always coming. Its impact is prepared in the hidden parts of our world, where future problems are waiting.

The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle said there was "no science of the accident." But Virilio disagreed. He pointed to how much we rely on simulators today to try and avoid accidents. He believed this industry grew from the connection between science after World War II and the military-industrial complex.

Virilio said: "The first way to stop war, nuclear deterrence, is now being replaced by a second way. This is based on what I call 'the information bomb'. It's linked to new information and communication technologies. So, very soon, war will no longer be a way to continue politics. Instead, what I call 'the integral accident' will be the way to continue politics."

Dromology: The Logic of Speed

Virilio created the word "dromology" from the Greek word Dromos, meaning "race" or "racetrack". It means "the logic and impact of speed."

Dromology is important for understanding how society is built, especially when it comes to war and modern media. The speed at which something happens can change its basic nature. Things that move fast often control things that are slower.

So, studying dromology means studying how land is organized. Virilio believed that whoever controls the movement and flow of things in a territory truly owns it. This is more important than laws or contracts.

Logistics of Perception

In modern warfare, "logistics" isn't just about moving soldiers, tanks, or fuel. It also means moving images to and from the battlefield. Virilio talked a lot about the creation of CNN and the idea of the "newshound."

A newshound is someone who captures images that are then sent to news channels like CNN. These images can then be shown to the public. This flow of images can even start a conflict. Virilio used the example of the events after the Rodney King video was broadcast.

The "logistics of perception" also includes showing military actions on TV. These images are watched not only by people at home but also by the soldiers involved in the conflict. The "field of battle" also becomes a "field of perception."

War of Movement

Virilio believed that the change from the old feudal system to capitalism was not mainly caused by wealth or how things were made. Instead, it was driven by how war changed.

He argued that the old, fortified cities of the feudal era disappeared because weapons became more advanced. This made siege warfare less effective. For Virilio, war became more about movement. In Speed and Politics, he stated that "history progresses at the speed of its weapons systems."

The Administration of Fear

Virilio used the image of a gazelle running from a predator to show the physical side of fear.

In a book called The Administration of Fear (2012), Virilio explained his idea that fear controls modern life. He chose this title because of Graham Greene's novel The Ministry of Fear, which was about the Blitzkrieg in London. Virilio himself lived through the Blitzkrieg in France as a boy, and this experience shaped his ideas.

As someone who studied cities, Virilio stressed that fear is not just a feeling. It also has a physical side, which is closely linked to speed. He quoted Hannah Arendt, who said, "Terror is the realization of the law of movement." Virilio explained that this means terror is connected to life and speed through technology.

He gave the example of a gazelle running to escape a lion. For people today, fear is also linked to speed. Think about a nuclear apocalypse or a stock market crash. These scary ideas are controlled by computers, which act at speeds too fast for humans to understand. Virilio also argued that constant, instant communication through computers and the internet messes with our natural body rhythms. It also disrupts the historical patterns of human culture, causing both fear and unhappiness.

See also

In Spanish: Paul Virilio para niños