Paul Virilio

Interview

• "Absolute velocity" (Parigi - European IT Forum, 05/09/95)

Biography

Paul Virilio was born in Paris in 1932. After studying architecture in Paris, in 1963 he became founding President of the "Architecture Principe" group and editor of the group's review. He has been Professor of architecture at the Ecole Speciale d'Architecture in Paris since 1968, and became its Director of Studies in 1973. The same year he was nominated director of the"L'Espace Critique" series by the publishers Galilee of Paris.

In 1975 he became Director General of the Ecole Speciale d'Architecture and in 1989 Chairman of the Board. In 1975 he co-ordinated the "Bunker Archeologie" exhibition at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. In 1987 he was awarded the Grand Prix Nazionale de la Critique Architettonique. In 1989 he was nominated director of a teaching programme at the College International de Philosophie in Paris, under the presidency of Jacques Derrida. He became a member of the High Commitee for the Housing of the Disadvantaged in 1992.

Bibliography

Among his works published in English:

• The Art of the Motor 1995 - University of Minnesota Press.
• Bunker Archeology October 1994 - Princeton Architectural Press.
• The Vision Machine British Film Institute and Indiana University Press, 1994.
• Aesthetics of disappearance 1989 Ed. Autonomedia.
• Popular Defense and Ecological Struggles 1978 Semiotext(e).
• Lost Dimension Ed. Autonomedia.
• Speed and Politics Ed. Autonomedia.
• War and cinema Ed. Autonomedia.
• Pure War Paul Virilio & Sylvere Lotringer AK Press.

Other works include:

• L'insecurite du territoire, Stock, Paris, 1976.
• L'espace critique, Christian Bourgeois, Paris, 1984.
• Logistique de la perception, Cahiers du Cinema, Paris, 1984.
• L'horizon negatif, Galilee, Paris, 1985.
• L'inertie polaire, Christian Bourgeois, Paris, 1990.
• L'ecran du desert, Galilee, Paris, 1991.
• La vitesse de liberation, Galilee, Paris, 1995.

Thought

Urbanist and essayist, Paul Virilio is known as a theorist of speed and specialist on new technologies. He is currently working on metropolitan techniques of organising time. Cybermonde: La politique du pire, a conversation for Textuel was due to be published in 1996. During 1997 Editions de l'Imprimeur will publish a collective work, La ville et la guerre. Virilio is also author of the first project of the Museo dell'Incidente, which will be opened in Japan in 2000.