Category Archives: Footnotes

In his essay “The Vision Machine”, Paul Virilio addresses the role of technology in shaping the perceptions of man. He continues where Walter Benjamin left off, arguing that spatial distance has been erased by telecommunication. Physical locations meet inside of the screen, where every point on Earth is instantaneously accessible from every other point (Doesn’t that sound like the properties of a Hologram?). The philosopher also argues that the instantaneous nature of the screen destroys human memory. In this work, Virilio prophesies that computer technologies will progress to the point where they will perform the seeing for humankind.