John Armitage 
Paul Virilio 
From Modernism to Hypermodernism and Beyond

Paul Virilio is one of the most significant and stimulating French cultural theorists writing today. Increasingly hailed as the ′archaeologist of the future′, Virilio is noted for his proclamation that the logic of ever increasing acceleration lies at the heart of the organization and transformation of the contemporary world.

The first book to afford a properly critical evaluation of Virilio′s cultural theory, it includes an interview with Virilio; a recently translated example of his work; and a select bibliography of his writings. The commissioned contributions by leading cultural and social theorists examine Virilio′s work from his early speculations on military and urban space to his current writings on dromology, politics, new communications technologies, disappearance, and the fallout from `the information bomb′.

Table of Content

Introduction – John Armitage

From Modernism to Hypermodernism and Beyond – John Armitage

An Interview with Paul Virilio

′Indirect Light′ Extracted from Polar Inertia – Paul Virilio

Virilio and Architecture – Neil Leach

Paul Virilio′s Bunker Theorizing – Mike Gane

Virilio, War and Technology – Douglas Kellner

Some Critical Reflections

Virilio and New Media – Sean Cubitt

Blinded by the (Speed of) Light – Scott Mc Quire

The Tendency, the Accident and the Untimely – Patrick Crogan

Paul Virilio′s Engagement with the Future

Virilio, Stelarc and ′Terminal′ Technoculture – Nicholas Zurbrugg

The Passenger – Verena Andermatt Conley

Paul Virilio and Feminism

The Conceptual Cosmology of Paul Virilio – James Der Derian

Paul Virilio – John Armitage

A Select Bibliography

About the author

John Armitage is Principal Lecturer in politics and media studies at the University of Northumbria, Newcastle upon Tyne.