Speed Technology And Perceptual Body

Virilio’s “Dromology” provides precious theoretical resources for the study of art in the “accelerated era”.The paper focuses on the part of Virilio’s philosophy related to art theory and criticism,including the specific meaning of “aesthetics of disappearance”,the criticism of “art of the motor” and “art of the light” in the perspective of “accident science”.The study of architectural aesthetics and the time turn of the study of “Dromology”.Finally,through the classical Marxism and “post phenomenology” and other theories,we will correct the deviation of Virilio’s art theory or aesthetic theory.The first chapter focuses on Virilio’s key aesthetic concept: “The Aesthetics of Disappearance”.This concept reveals the nature of human consciousness and illustrates that light generated by various speed machines is the key to understanding contemporary art.The inherent mechanism of its operation is the conquest of perception by the technological transcendence generated by speed prostheses,where the extreme speed of photoelectric propagation eventually turns the subject’s perception into a militarized logistics.Meanwhile,this part of the research involves Virilio’s “simulation” theory centered on “dromoscopy”,in which he believes that speed machines not only compensate for the lack of natural perception at high speed,but also completely subvert the directly perceivable reality with the violence of speed in "comfort",and finally achieve the global synchronization of "mass individualism".The second chapter explores Virilio’s critical thinking on art under the umbrella of “accidentology”.Virilio proposes the concept of the “accident of art” as a critique of contemporary avant-garde art practices,and sees the disrespect for the body and the destruction of humanism represented in 20 th century avant-garde art as a continuation of the violence of Auschwitz.The second section deals with Virilio’s critique of two forms of technical art,“art of the motor” and “art of the light”.The former one destroys the “duration” time traditionally represented in the plastic arts and replaces it with a “picnolepcy” dotted time.Motor art’s emphasis on speed and“rhythm” politically undermines the subject’s ability to remain silent.The emergence of “the art of the light” marked the beginning of an era of“paradoxical logic of images” in art history,when reality gave way to its own reproduction and even to the imitation of reality without any copy.The widespread use of various sensory machines marked the advent of “the automation of the perception”.Along with this,the “I can” in the sense of perceptual phenomenology has completely failed in the era of photoelectric transmission,and thus the phenomenology of perception has faced a serious crisis.The third chapter examines Virilio’s architectural aesthetics and urban theory,divided into two parts according to different themes of space and time.Early on,Virilio’s main concern was the importance of the “oblique function” of contemporary architectural space in order to free the subject from the alienation of instrumental rationality.After the Mai 68 movement,Virilio’s urban theory turned to a variety of issues derived from the new temporality: the interface created by real-time technology,the overexposed city,and the pollution of real space by virtual space.Chapter 4 deals with the critique of Virilio’s art theory.On the one hand,Virilio’s critical thought on technical art is trapped in a mechanical technological determinism that deviates from the scientific method of dialectical materialism.On the other hand,the theory of “technological embodiment” points out that Virilio fails to recognize the important potential of speed technology in enriching the aesthetic experience of contemporary subjects.