Virilio, the ‘Infra’ Urban and the Logic of Big Data

Abstract

Drawing on the connection between Paul Virilio and Georges Perec, this essay argues that there is an historical transition in Virilio’s thought, in which his desire to recuperate the urban everyday using a combination of observational methods including photography and writing is overtaken by the growing role of the ‘vision machine’ in submitting urban space to new forms of surveillance and control. These conditions, which have further intensified as cities and urban social life have been remade by the growth of digital infrastructure, pose new questions concerning the role of everyday life as a possible site of ‘resistance’, and highlight the urgent need for a critical stance to the growing operational role of data in social life.