Open Sky"One day the day will come when the day will not come." Bleak in its analysis of the social destruction wrought by modern technologies of communication and surveillance, but passionately political, Open Sky is Paul Virilio's most far-reaching and radical book for many years. Deepening and extending his earlier work on speed perception and political control, and applying it now to the global 'real time' of the information superhighways, he explores the growing danger of what he calls a "generalized accident," provoked by the breakdown of our collective and individual relation to time, space and movement. But this is not merely a lucid and disturbing lament for the loss of real geographical spaces, distance, intimacy or democracy. Open Sky is also a call for revolt—against the insidious and accelerating manipulation of perception by the electronic media and repressive political power, against the tyranny of "real time," and against the infantilism of cyberhype. Paul Virillo makes a powerful case for a new ethics of perception, and a new ecology, one which will not only strive to protect the natural world from pollution and destruction, but will also combat the devastation of urban communities by proliferating technologies of control and virtuality. |
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Contents
Introduction | 1 |
The Law of Proximity | 49 |
Eye Lust | 89 |
From Sexual Perversion to Sexual Diversion | 103 |
Escape Velocity | 119 |
Notes | 146 |
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Common terms and phrases
acceleration accident action activity already appearances become body caused centre century comes communication depth dimension distance duration Earth effect electromagnetic electronic emergence enabling energy environment exist expanse experience extension face fact fall finally force future geographical gives global gradually gravity horizon human immediate importance industrial inertia instantaneous interactive interval kind less light limit lines living longer look lose loss machine mass matter means move movement nature networks notion object once optics organization perception perspective physical planet political pollution practices precisely present production proximity question real space real-time reality recent relative remote screen sexual sexual reproduction signals soon space speed substance sudden suddenly surface technologies telecommunications temporal term territorial thanks thing third transmission transport turn universal urban virtual vision visual waves whole
References to this book
Multiliteracies: Literacy Learning and the Design of Social Futures Bill Cope,Mary Kalantzis No preview available - 2000 |
Multimodal Discourse Gunther Kress,Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences Theo Van Leeuwen,Theo van Leeuwen No preview available - 2001 |
Bibliographic information
| Title | Open Sky Volume 35 of Radical thinkers |
| Author | Paul Virilio |
| Translated by | Julie Rose |
| Edition | reprint |
| Publisher | Verso, 1997 |
| ISBN | 1859841813, 9781859841815 |
| Length | 152 pages |
| Subjects | › Philosophy / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |