Open Sky

“One day the day will come when the day will not come.” Bleak, but passionately political in its analysis of the social destruction wrought by modern technologies of communication anc surveillance Open Sky is Paul Virilio's most far-reaching and radical book. Deepening and extending his earlier work, 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 in the contex of global electronic media.

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.

“One of the most original thinkers of our time.” — Libération

Paul Virilio, writer and urbanist, was born in 1932. After the war he first trained as an artist in stained glass, working with Braque and Matisse, as well as studying philosophy at the Sorbonne. At the age of 18, inspired by the Abbé Pierre and the movement of worker-priests, he became a Christian and a militant. In 1975 he was made Director of the Ecole Speciale d'Architecture in Paris. With Georges Perec he created the “Espace critique” series at the publisher Galilée, and he has worked on a number of journals, including Esprit and Cause Commune. His political activities have included campaigns against homelessness and participation in the free radio movement. He has written 15 books, from Bunker archéologie in 1975 to the forthcoming Un paysage d'événements. Those translated into English include Speed and Politics, The Art of the Motor, The Vision Machine and, from Verso, War and Cinema. His The Information Bomband Ground Zero are also published by Verso.