What is the danger of globalization? There is no perspective

 

Which artworks Paul Virilio did have in mind when giving the below answer to Sylvére Lotringer (The accident of art, 2005) we don’t know. However, we believe Piero della Francesca’s “Madonna di Senigallia” to be extremely appropriate to illustrate this passage of the French philosopher.

 

What is the danger of globalization? There is no perspective. There is an optical correctness being set up, and there is a generalized tele-surveillance that comes from the military with its drones, etc., but there is no perspective in the cultural senses, as we had with a Brunelleschi, an Alberti, a Piero, an Uccello. And we have to have one, we have to do it. And it will have to be “artists”, in the general sense of the world, who do it. Now that doesn’t mean they will not work with machines, of course. They will have to penetrate the software. If I were to organize protests right now, I would protest against the anonymity of programmers. Who are these guys writing the programs? They tell us. Bill Gates. C’mon! Maybe Gates fiddled with a few programs in the beginning, but now it’s the people in his company who write them. These people are protected: they have bodyguards. It’s the programmers that interest me. Who are they?

 

The Accident of Art. Sylvère Lotringer/Paul Virilio

September 7, 2014