In 1968, Virilio abandoned his work
in oblique architecture, believing that time had replaced
space as the most important point of reflection because of
the dominance of speed.
We were basically on the verge of converting
space time into space speed…Speed facilitates the
decoding of the human genome, and the possibility of another
humanity: a humanity which is no longer extra-territorial,
but extra-human.
Crespuscular Dawn expands Virilio’s vision
of the implosion of physical time and space, onto the micro-level
of bioengineering and biotechnology. In this cat and mouse
dialogue between Sylvère Lotringer and Paul Virilio,
Lotringer pushes Virilio to uncover the historical foundations
of his biotech theories. Citing various medical experiments
conducted during World War II, Lotringer asks whether biotechnology
isn’t the heir to eugenics and the “science for
racial improvement” that the Nazis enthusiastically
embraced. Will the endocolonizataion of the body come to
replace the colonization of one’s own population by
the military?
Both biographical and thematic, the book explores the development
of Virilio’s investigation of space (architecture,
urbanism) and time (speed and simultanaeity) that would ultimately
lay the foundation for his theories on biotechnology and
his startling declaration that after the colonization of
space begins the colonization of the body.
