Virilio, Paul

Paul Virilio (b. 1932), the French self-styled “urbanist” and “critic of the art of technology,” was, until his retirementin 1998, professor of architecture at the École Spéciale d'Architecture in Paris. Virilio's importance for understanding contemporary culture arises from his constant engagement with many of the most significant theoretical questions within the field of cultural studies. In his writings Virilio has made a vital and wide-ranging contribution to the understanding of the cultural features of modern architecture as well as offering critical studies of urban planning, speed, and war, including several volumes of critique on cinema, technology, political organizations, social hierarchies, and aesthetic practices. Encompassing “military space” and “dromology” (the study of the compulsive logic of speed), Virilio's “war model” is a highly stylized methodological line ...