Categories
Aesthetics

Art And Fear

Virillio’s back and he’s got the caps lock key working again. He’s also got the benefit of a readable translation this time.
It’s strange to think that “Art and Fear” was written before September 11th. The Midlantic Tachyon Projectors are as nothing compared to the Chunnel ones…
“Art and Fear” is the closest I’ve read to any sort of signpost in art in a long time, and that alone would make it worth reading. There’s much more to it, though. The triumph of the aesthetics of Auschwitz in art and science and the removal of the right to silence (or rather not to be spoken for) are the twin threads of its two lectures/essays. They’re good reading, thought provoking, and have that unsettling, “Twilight Zone”-straw-donkey-with-drugs-in feel of Virilio at his most urgent. And despite the fact that it never mentions them, it’s yet another view on just why the Chapman Brothers suck so badly.
I don’t know why Stelarc scares Virilio, though. Stelarc hasn’t threatened to cryogenically freeze *Virilio’s* head…. 🙂