Paul Virilio

Paul Virilio has been a sceptic voice in the debate about new technologies. Being not a conservative, in the sense of not accepting progress, what he pretends is the analysis of the price, the 'accident' that technical advances bring, in the illusion of a technocrat and positiviste society.

'Velocity' is the key word of his thinking, the post-modernity treasure, and the modern society capital. Reality is no longer defined by time and space, but in a virtual world, in which technology allows the existence of the paradox of being everywhere at the same time and being nowhere at all. The loss of the site/city/nation in favour of globalisation implies also the loss of rights and of democracy that is contrary to the immediate and instantaneous nature of information. McLuhan's global village is nothing but a 'World Ghetto'.

Paul Virilio was born in Paris in 1932. He studied architecture in Paris, and in 1963 he became the president and the editor of the Architecture Principe group's magazine. He was teacher at the École Speciale de Architecture until 1968, becoming Director of Studies in 1973. At that same year, he became the director of the magazine L'Espace Critique, published by Galilee, from Paris. In 1975 he was the General Director of the ÉSA and in 1989 Chairman of the Board. In 1975 he co-organised the Bunker Archeologie exhibition at the Decorative Arts Museum of Paris. 1987: Grand National Prize for Architecture Critique. 1989: director of the program of studies at the College International de Philosophie de Paris, under the direction of jacques Derrida. In 1992, he became a member of the High Committee for the Housing of the Disadvantaged. Among other projects, he is presently working on metropolitan techniques of time organisation and the building of the first Museum of the Accident.

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