Virilio’s “Administration of fear” presented an interesting topic on how we can define an instant and how it is interpreted on a broad scale. Illustrating its efforts through futurist ideas, Virilio presents fear as something that can motivate our disconnection with reality. As scale and wonder dwindles from the human size, its relationship affects the relationship of other things. Man has transformed into the explorations of what is only in front of our faces. The space in which we inhabit is developing into something for the masses, so it is losing its value. Proportion and understanding is a lost act. This is something to agree with. He stated how the greeks used proportion and scale to measure the space in which they inhabit. However today we see a different type of inhabitation. The concern of creating an atmosphere through program instead of the relationships of space is troubling. It doesn’t offer a good effort in integration in the daily world.

“The Lost Dimension” was an interesting read in that it presented a similar idea to what the boundaries of a city are and how architecture is influences by a very specific set of instances. He claims that a city can be overexposed and become a dense populous which would in turn lack a horizon. Its an interesting point that architecture functions on an intimate level with human scale but as a collection it becomes an entity that has a sturdy relationship to time. The collection can offer new space but the boundaries that exist can never really be defined into a city. There must be an integration of how space and time influence design.

The last reading on “Speed and Politics” portrays and interesting point to how society is influenced by the media and how war can create a composition of our cities. Much like in the other readings time is a factor in the creation of space however, it seemed to me through this reading, that the exploitation of space is only influenced by the masses. So a connection between the administration of fear can be presented. We allow the media to influence our perception of society, which in turn can shape how we integrate our cities. Living in fear is not an answer but developing space on a human scale would make things a lot more understandable.

Paul Virilio in his text, ‘The Administration of Fear’ explains that how the notion of fear and terror as something propagated by proximity and the speed at which things (like communication, technological advancement) occur. Fear has become an environment in the process of developing our world and synthesizing security (video surveillance, movement control, etc.) and health; Virilio found it is extremely problematic and as in such situations our power to act dominates by our power to feel and imagine the real (present) world. Virilio calls it a ‘Promethean gap’. Author also refers this administrative fear to managed and organized fear by States and politics. It is a product of the State, evolved during post-modern, modern era; something the State contributes to, sustains and extends through its activities and often especially through the activities it pursues to counter fear’s by-product.

In Speed & Politics – unable bodies, Virilio reinterpret ‘war model’ as a model of the growth of the modern city and the development of human society. He states that how the speed and influence of politics over society (economic war – a slow down version of war machine of declared war) attempts to modulate the circulation and the momentum of the movements of the urban masses.

In text ‘The Lost Dimension’, Paul Virilio considers the displacement of the concept of dimensional space to that of Einsteinian concept of relative theory to suggest that modern vision and the contemporary city are both the products of military power and time-based cinematic technologies of disappearance. Virilio renders postmodern city and contemporary economy a world of collaborative, interactive and technological advancement offering the world of four walls. He states that the aesthetics of urban fabric gets disappeared in over overexposed city – overexposed in terms of culture, texture, population, technology, economy etc. He argues that ‘the representation of the modern city can no longer depend on the ceremonial opening of gates… From here on, urban architecture has to work with the opening of a new technological space-time’. The notion of a city that is constantly evolving by the use of technology which takes architecture and urban design/planning to next level – from physical movement to electronic and technological movement. The city which is no longer generated by only architecture but through a conscious series of visuals and images.

In ‘Speed and Politics’ , Virilo’s war model of the modern city and human technological society is elucidated in his works wherein speed and politics forms the foundation of his rather rational approach. He rightly uses the word ‘dromocratic’ to illustrate structuring of society with respect to warfare and modern media. He attributes this structuring to science of speed and politics. The culture dominated by war defines the city in terms of its creation and spatial politics. The battlefield develops a logistics of perception and images creating conflicts because of the media. The concept of speed shaping the city in my opinion holds true as it asserts the idea of human motives are shaped the way one functions today and functioning clearly is relative to time and space.

In the essay ‘The Lost Dimension’ the idea of contemporary economy in relation to the transparent boundaries of the modern contemporary city and its effects on the advancement in architecture is described. This is done through the comparison of Einstenian Space/time to the actual fourth dimension space and time. Virilo provocatively talks about the overexposed city which is devoid of horizon. I agree to the point where continuity is disrupted in time and just the physical space remains but the idea of remaining in a progressive zone and constantly matching pace with time is only that would make a difference. He then states that the representation of modern city, wherein the urban architecture has to work with the opening of new technological space and time. Beyond the boundaries, making cities porous and reachable let the interactivity persists.

Vrilio’s thought provocation about culture theories moves from warfare to intellectual battlefield where he in ‘The administration of fear’ talks about how fear can overtake our present day situation to futurist idea. In realm of fear we start leaving in the world of derealizaion and get disconnected to reality. Our lives gets synchronized with psychological emotions and perceptions due to which the relation of space and time disrupts.

Theory of accelerated culture taking over the making of city with development and use of technology in relation to time and space is amplified in all the three texts and allows us to comprehend whether speed actually affects globalization and arise the instantaneous nature of information passage.

Unable bodies

Beginning with the influence of the cruel wars, it raises title words of this article: unable bodies. Paul Virilio ventures the viewpoint that speed is the primary force to shape civilization and is the essence of war. So futurism comes from war and speed. Further he explains that the evolution of history is as the speed of its weapon systems. “Stasis is death”. It shows that all of the important parts like the State-fortress, the power and its laws need to be in an intense circulation for survival.

What he wants to express is a tendency of our world. This tendency is composed of dromology. He uses technology to analyze this issue. Moreover, the technological advances made possible through the militarization of society. At that point, war is considered as a negative factor and technology-a positive one.

The Administration of Fear

Paul Virilio says that the essence of the ecological fear is imprisonment in a world that is too small. Also, the world is too small interindividual activity for the sake of interactivity, instantaneity and simultaneity. He criticizes that is a lack of understanding of authentic human ecology.

The societies have become arrhythmic. An arrhythmic society is a chaotic society and does not allow to share. One of the main reasons is the acceleration. The Surrealists just wanted to highlight the acceleration of reality, the movement beyond common reality through speed. However, people reckon the Surrealist’s model as an ideal way. He counters this admiration of the accelerated speed. He concerns that the hybridization of political regimes would confuse politics and foundations.

From my perspective, the development of technology indeed brings faster speed and higher efficiency. However, the breakthrough of pursuing limited speed reflects the limitation of people. The pursuit of speed brings the surface of the superficial liberation. We could not rely heavily on this.

The Lost Dimension

From past to present, the concept of boundary has changes numerous times. With each change, the boundary-surface has recorded innumerable perceptible and imperceptible transformation. The screen is used as an interface which relies on a visibility devoid of spatial dimensions. And with the interfacing of computer terminals and video monitors, distinctions of here and there no longer mean anything. If the metropolis is still a place, a geographic site, it no longer has anything to do with the classical opposition of city. The suburbs contribute to this dissolution.

Now people are always chasing the latest electronic products. But the man who is pursuing is not in the relationship between the stability of the harmony and the stability of the products. People have explored its various features in the tension. However, the real speed is too fast to fully familiar with the various functions of a new product. Then, some of the existing products have been discard, never to use. This is called “lost”.

The definition of progress seems as a theory in technological fields. So this progress is just a single one. At the same time, it becomes a kind of single progress. The agricultural society causes the backwardness and the industrialization is the progress. People are increasingly being monitored and isolated which means progress.

In a close reading of the text, “Unable Bodies” in the publication Speed and Politics, Paul Virilio speaks to the idea of convergence of machine and man through rapid catalytics of political actions. Beginning with the first intervention of man and machine in World War 1 and the need for a quick solution to combat injuries, the study of orthopedics which eventually morphed into prosthetic design came to the forefront. There was a sudden need for a immediate response for machines to fix the damaged caused by man’s political actions and armatures of war. Furthermore, the idea that machines can compensate for mans inabilities becomes a conversation with futurists and future of warfare is the understanding and grasping the exponentially increasing speed of battle. This speed in politically motivated actions Can manifest in two means accounting to Virilio, through infrastructural war, creating land for future battlefields (expanding roads, telephone lines) and utilizing countryside for farm land for human food resources or economic ware fare. An example of economic political war ads embargoes, economic sanctions, and market infiltrations. An example he uses is North Vietnam with the infrastructural war of burning forests then after winning the war cementing control through making the North Vietnam economy dependent on the US economy and imports. The understanding and harnessing of speed becomes a political advantage and an extension of man that was unattainable previous.

As speed increases as seen in the study of Virilio’s notion of Dromology, the second text “The Overexposed City” looks at speed and the boundaries it inhabits and encompasses. To understand this he ventures into architecture and the division of cities. These architectural and socio-economic boundaries act at a screening system that interprets different populations or environments. For instance while using the airport security example, Virilio explains that physical gates become transformed in the architecture to electronic screening systems. This uses of technology as the boundary instead more tangible barriers disrupts and judges culture and society through time rather the space or perception. Looking at a global scale, the boundaries of the metropolis have dissolved and become permeable. This “urban mass” suggests the removal of neighborhoods in to a new urban contamination. This osmetic membrane of the city blends into its context as also technology mimics this becoming so integrated into culture and physical interactions that it boundaries become indistinguishable. These space time interfaces rather than facades with limited functionality focus on connection, movement, and kinetic energies.

The final chapter of text, “the Administration of Fear” Virilio examines telecommunication more in depth and how it affects our perception of ourselves and our view of others. Immobile speed of telecommunication has replaced mobile face to face conversation which while allows for communication across the global to happen almost instantly, there is a loss of nuances and materialism. Similar to the underpinnings of the first text, Virilio explains that proximity and speed of the Cold War era lead to computer communication first seen in coding of weapons then into more mainstream applications of teleconferencing and messaging. However, with this technology there was a loss in “Life-sized” or in person engagements. This disappeared due to interactivity, television, and screens provided by new technologies that originated in military uses. The problem with this is small spaces and objects imprison us to not have a more open perspective and understanding of our environment and lacks authentic human ecology due to distortion. In his final thoughts he suggests through space making and architecture we can create hybrid environments that balance the realm of miniaturized technological areas and the “life sized” realities of our environment.

Through out his texts, Paul Virilio emphasizes on how our world has been connecting with one another through various means. He discusses this through war in his text, “Unable Bodies”. He doesn’t necessarily portray it in a gruesome way, but more on how we as a society are constantly at war over power. Everybody wants to be more powerful than than the next guy. Different countries would approach it differently. My favorite one would definitely how Germany handled it. As Virilio states, “the German army had few or no exemptions. for it had decided to make physical handicaps functional by using ah man according to his specific disability: the deaf will serve in heavy artillery…”.  Given the military as an example, it is constantly progressing and improving. The better our military, logically, the stronger we are and the more power we would have over the other countries, right? Depending on the importance of the task, governments would handle them either faster or slower.

In his text, “The Overexposed City”, he discusses about how our cities are necessarily considered the focal point anymore. “To go into town” isn’t made up of the same definition as it used to anymore, it is  now “to go to town”. The reason being that our cities are moving as a faster pace  now, we are given the internet and transportation systems. These systems have slowly decreased distances between the town and the village, the physical boundary between the two have slowly drifted due to the new systems. “Today, people are divided according to the aspects of time.” All the new interactions that the city has been exposed to has played a huge role in the transformation. Taking the airport as an example. it brings in and ships out people of all sorts of backgrounds. But woven into the airport’s interactions with other airports is a network that’s connecting smaller hubs with other hubs in the airport. Cities are made up of a network of networks, soon enough, it all blends together blurring the lines of the cities’ “boundaries”.

“The Administration of Fear” addresses how society has been dealing with speed and fear. As great as it is to be fast paced and advanced, sometimes it can really get to people. “Despite its democratic regime, the feeling of chaos starts to reach people. We can observe how the Paris Subway and suburban rail strikes, unlike the TGV strikes were strikes that affected the city…”. Our constant crave for power and control, not only over the society but also our lives, has caused people to lose relationships with the material world due to electronics. This is mainly due to the fact that we now have the ability to talk to someone that is half way around the world without having to really leave the comfort of ones home. It is very unfortunate how deep we have submerged our society into the electromagnetic waves of technology. Thankfully, the material world is well within our reach, for now.

Paul Virilio’s writings provide an interesting contrast to those of the cybernetics, specifically Safford Beer. Two sides of the same coin, Beer sees speed as a societal savior while Virilio is reluctant to embrace a society whose culture is ever so influenced by the speed. One of Virilio’s notions I find particularly applicable to contemporary culture is a society based on rhythmology. In the world of the instantaneous. it’s often hard to step and remind oneself that every object, person, place or action has a temporal nature. Virilio is quick to point out that a society who embraces the contrasting and accenting differences in temporal relationships could use these interconnections for societal building blocks. This contrasts quite nicely with Beer’s information hunger, where speed creates excess, which in turn allows for more feedback and allows for greater degrees of productive change.

Byproducts, the (un)expected outcomes of progress, it is often hard to overlook Virilio’s pessimism towards technoculture, however I believe it important to note what exactly Virilio is criticizing. I would argue that Virilio is not necessarily against new technologies as they are merely a substance, rather he is against the representation of said technologies within the discourse of culture. A TV is not inherently detrimental to society, but when a twenty hour news cast transforms the living space into a kind of global broadcast studio for world events it enhances the anxiety created from the resulting globalization that forces one tragedy to be experienced by everyone, a hubris of emotion, thus contributing to the age of collective madness. A simpler analogy is when the plane was invented, so was the plane crash.

Unable Bodies

This excerpt from Paul Virilio brings to light the evolution of mankind. We need conflict to survive otherwise we would destroy ourselves. We crave power, power over others. There is no kindhearted goodness in the world that Virilio was describing. In fact he mentions the dominance of people over others multiple times throughout history. This focus point highlights the “Machine”. The war machine: bringing to light mankind’s need for conflict and the weapons of war that we use to achieve the next machine. The political machine: those in powers way of imposing their ideals on others. The social machine: the people and the power they have (perhaps and under utilized power) What stood out was his reference to the third on that list; the social machine. People in power want to stay in power and the only way to do that is to control those who put them in power; the people. Information (personal information) is the greatest resource as it allows you understand and mould the people. It is in our history that we want, better yet, need conflict. After all, “History progresses at the speed of its weapon systems”.

When reading this short piece there were a few times that I felt a cool chill running down my spine. My mind kept bringing up George Orwell’s 1984 and the overpowering government that occupies that world.  The idea of a machine that controls all and is in every aspect of life is a scary notion. “Stasis is Death”

The Overexposed City

Form follows function. The airport example that Virilio notes the interesting design of early airports. This description seems on par with that of ellis Island and its history with immigrants coming into this country. The airport is seen as a portal from city to city with a design that emphasized regulation. “Prisons in France used magnetized doorways that airports had used for years. Paradoxically, the equipment that ensured maximal freedom in travel formed the part of the core of penitentiary incarceration.” Virilio touches on the idea of boundaries and where the identity of the city exists. It seems to have changed as travel gets easier and as our interaction with the city changes as well. “The phrase ‘to go into town,’ which replaced the nineteenth century’s ‘to go to town,’ indicates the uncertainty of the encounter, as if we could no longer stand before the city but rather abide forever within.” Media and social interaction with the computer also have a hand in the transformation the city. The city has begun to lose its sense of difference and starts to blend together to form a machine of undercernable parts that are both, important and unimportant to the whole. Cities are data hubs. Places that information enters and leaves on a daily basis and where the data (us) cares little or none at all for the pieces of information that don’t deal with us.

It is interesting to look at cities as a hub of information and not just as a place of habitation. The form that the city (and airport) takes is one of change as the data parameters are constantly changing. We can never control everything, but the design of space can funnel us into a perceived freedom within the system.

The Administration of Fear

The human element, while always craving power and control, still knows the value and importance of life. However, fear is a powerful force. We fear that which we don’t understand and as a result we have become a culture with fear embedded in everyday life. “All we have to fear is fear itself.” — FDR “We are facing the emergence of a real, collective madness reinforced by the synchronization of emotions: the sudden globalization of effects in real time that his all of humanity at the same time, and in the name of Progress. Emergency exit: we have entered a time of general panic.” We are living in a pool of our own fear that stems from our ineptitude of understanding our world around us. Not only that but knowing or unknowing if something has been taken away is a dangerous notion considering that in his other papers, Virilio expresses the people as the power, although easy to manipulate.

An interesting read and one that shakes up thought on a more extruded view of culture, space,  and the city. Its sections on fear raise an interesting point on our daily fear and how that effects our culture and nation.

“Unable Bodies”

In the essay “Speed and Politics”, Virilio outlines the issues of Dromocratic societies, along with their motives and effectiveness. One thing that we think of today about governments and politics is that they are slow. Slow to the general public in the sense that a bill can take years to go through congress just to be vetoed or denied. Virilio argues that when a certain objective is important to a government, then the speed at which it is completed is faster than something that may be important to the general population. Virilio uses the example of militaries and war to prove this statement. He states that “dromocratic intelligence is exercised as a permanent assault on the world, and through it, human nature”. This means that when one form of control fails, another will take its place. In the context during which this article was written, Virilio uses the example of the “economic war”. He states that it is the “slow phase” of declared war that perpetuates military power as class power. If a particular political ideal is robbed of its extensive growth, such as the failure of the Vietnam War, then it could lead to adverse effects. In the case of the Vietnam War, the speed at which the United States abandoned its “technological material”, meant that it was supplying the enemy with weapons. Virilio also suggests that a system designed for one purpose is bound to fail. He uses Sparta as an example. Spartan government and politics relied on war. Its citizens only knew war and without it the state failed. The idea of a Dromocratic state is one of inefficiency. It often sacrifices one thing for another, and when it fails it tries to find a replacement.

“The Overexposed City”

Virilio uses the term “Overexposed City” to describe the idea of a city that is constantly changing by the use of technology. He states that “the representation of the modern city can no longer depend on the ceremonial opening of gates… From here on, urban architecture has to work with the opening of a new technological space-time”. He also states that “the urban wall has given way to an infinity of openings and ruptured enclosures, and the surface boundary becomes and osmotic membrane”. Virilio is suggesting that the city is no longer only a place of physical movement, but one of electronic movement as well. There is no longer a “plenum”, the use of information systems has created a system where spaces are no longer filled with matter. Ultimately Virilio suggests that the city is no longer generated by architecture but by a constant flow of images.

“The Administration of Fear”

In the essay “The Administration of Fear”, Virilio discusses how humans are losing their relationship with the material world by way of electronics. He describes this phenomenon by describing how two people can talk to each other on opposite sides of the world. The material world is replaced by the world of electromagnetic waves. He then goes on to discuss the potentially destructive implications this relationship could pose if it were applied to an automated military system. He describes how George Bush Sr. and Mikhail Gorbachev had discussions about instantaneous radar control that fired rockets without human intervention. If no intervention was present, then the system could launch a nuclear strike. Aside from this topic, Virilio discusses how we as a whole must work on chronodiversity and cultivate rhythmology in order to re-establish a “melodic line”. He also states that through this cultivation, we must save ourselves from arrhythmia.

I agree with Virilio’s initial study of the loss of the “material world”. As electronics become more and more present in our world, our lives become more digital. People live on Facebook, Twitter and other forms of social media. They develop relationships with others they have never physically met (whether those relationships are real or artificial). It is easy to let a system, or the reliance on a system, control your life without you even consciously thinking about it.