The importance of being Paul Virilio

James Der Derian, is probably the most expert person in Australia on the subject of the great contemporary French thinker Paul Virilio. He edited the first anthology of Virilio’s writing to appear in English translation. Recently he was appointed Director of the Centre of International Security Studies and Michael Hinze Chair at the University of Sydney.

The forthcoming exhibition at the Drill Hall Gallery, curated by gallery director Terence Maloon, is entitled “Velocity”. Artists in the exhibition all explore the implications of our increasingly sped-up lives and the effects that the revolution in information technology has wrought upon our world. The changes include alterations in our social transactions, in our ways of waging war and keeping peace, how we are disposed to regard “others”, our impact on the environment—these are all grand Virilian themes.