PAUL VIRILIO, War and Cinema (Verso, London 1989)

PAUL VIRILIO, The Aesthetics of Disappearance (Semiotext(e), New York 1991)

PAUL VIRILIO, The Art of the Motor (University of Minnesota Press, 1995)

PAUL VIRILIO, Lost Dimension (Semiotext(e), New York 1991)

Virilio, self-proclaimed 'dromologist', has been one of the trendy French intellectuals of the 80s and 90s. Combining the history of science and technology with cultural criticism, he draws attention to 'the logistics of perception'. 'War and Cinema' analyses the development of guns and cameras as 'sight machines'. The theme of a visual regime dominated by speed and information is continued in 'The Art of the Motor', which also looks at such recent developments as nano-technology and virtual reality. Virilio is particularly useful for succinct, and slightly mystifying, quotations. Unfortunately, the two Semiotext(e) editions are poorly translated, which sometimes leads to an impenetrable, pretentious-sounding prose, and are badly designed as well.