The Aesthetics of Disappearance by Paul Virilio

The Aesthetics of Disappearance by Paul Virilio

Virilio introduces his understanding of picnolepsy--the epileptic state of consciousness produced by speed.

Virilio himself referred to his 1980 work The Aesthetics of Disappearance as a juncture in his thinking, one at which he brought his focus onto the logistics of perception--a logistics he would soon come to refer to as the vision machine. If Speed and Politics established Virilio as the inaugural--and still consummate--theorist of dromology (the theory of speed and the society it defines), The Aesthetics of Disappearance introduced his understanding of picnolepsy--the epileptic state of consciousness produced by speed, or rather, the consciousness invented by the subject through its very absence: the gaps, glitches, and speed bumps lacing through and defining it. Speed and Politics defined the society of speed; The Aesthetics of Disappearance defines what it feels like to live in the society of speed. I always write with images, Virilio has claimed, and this statement is nowhere better illustrated than with The Aesthetics of Disappearance. Moving from the movie theater to the freeway, and from Craig Breedlove's attainment of terrifying speed in a rocket-power car to the immobility of Howard Hughes in his dark room atop the Desert Inn, Virilio himself jump cuts from such disparate reference points as Fred Astaire, Franz Liszt, and Adolf Loos to Dostoyevsky, Paul Morand, and Aldous Huxley. In its extension of the aesthetics of disappearance to war, film, and politics, this book paved the way to Virilio's follow-up: the celebrated study, War and Cinema.This edition features a new introduction by Jonathan Crary, one of the leading theorists of modern visual culture. Foreign Agents seriesDistributed for Semiotext(e)

Paul Virilio trained as an artist in stained glass, working with Braque and Matisse, as well as studying philosophy at the Sorbonne. In 1975 he was made director of the Ecole speciale d'architecture in Paris. He retired from teaching in 1998 and now works with private organizations on projects to house the homeless in Paris. He has written many books, including War and Cinema, Open Sky, and Ground Zero.
A translator from Romanian, Spanish, German, French, and Italian, Patrick Camiller has translated many works, including Dumitru Tsepeneag's Vain Art of the Fugue, The Necessary Marriage, and Hotel Europa.

SKU	Nicht verfügbar
ISBN 13	9781584350743
ISBN 10	1584350741
Titel	The Aesthetics of Disappearance
Autor	Paul Virilio
Buchzustand	Nicht verfügbar
Bindungsart	Paperback
Verlag	MIT Press Ltd
Erscheinungsjahr	2009-04-10
Seitenanzahl	128
Hinweis auf dem Einband	Die Abbildung des Buches dient nur Illustrationszwecken, die tatsächliche Bindung, das Cover und die Auflage können sich davon unterscheiden.
Hinweis	Nicht verfügbar