An outline and application of Paul Virilio's The Administration of Fear to the Arts & Cultural Management sector including up-to-date examples of news articles
1. The Administration
of Fear
in Arts Administration
Nathan Flint
Semiotext(e) & Humber College
Intervention and Cultural Management
2.
3. The Publisher
Semiotext(e) is co-edited by Sylvère Lotringer, Chris Kraus & Hedi El Kholti.
It has been one of America’s most influential independent presses since its
inception more than three decades ago.
Publishing works of theory, fiction, madness, economics, satire, sexuality, science
fiction, activism and confession, Semiotext(e’)s highly curated list has famously
melded high and low forms of cultural expression into a nuanced and polemical
vision of the present.
4. The Author
Paul Virilio (born 1932)
● French Cultural Theorist
● Urbanist (former Architect)
● Aesthetic philosopher.
He is best known for his writings about technology as it has developed in relation
to speed and power.
5. The Book
From the Publisher:
A new interview with the philosopher of speed, addressing the ways in which
technology is utilized in synchronizing mass emotions.
Book Back:
We are facing the emergence of a real, collective madness reinforced by the
synchronization of emotions: the sudden globalization of affects in real time that
hits all of humanity at the same time, and in the name of Progress.
Emergency Exit: we have entered a time of general panic
6. Milestones
1922: Einstein & Bergson, the failure to merge the philosophy and science of time
1929: Worldwide Standard Time, all major countries have synchronized time
1940: Blitzkrieg, the technique of instantaneous military occupation
(introduces environmental fear)
1945: Hiroshima & Nagasaki, the dropping of the atomic bombs
(introduces absolute, cosmic fear)
1980s: Program Trading, global stock exchanges connected in real time
7. Milestones
1987: Stock Market Crash
(introduces our inability to manage speed)
2001: 9/11, Terrorism
(shifts environmental fear to the cause of an individual)
2005: Hurricane Katrina, global warming
(return to the fear of ecology)
2008: Stock Market Crash, partially caused by flash trading
(introduces fear of progress)
2010: Telecom France Mass Suicide, give me progress or give me death
(suicide becomes a workplace accident)
give me progress or give me death
8. Milestones
20th Century’s Democracy of Opinion
Mass Media: (standardizing of thought through products & propaganda)
Information Age’s Democracy of Emotion
Live Feed: (synchronizing of emotion through products & propaganda
localized phenomena are now global)
24/7: Death of the Seasons, the liturgical calendar & the Sabbath
Ecosystem Ruin: Further claustrophobia and escapism
Progress: Masquerades as “destiny”
9. Milestones
● Beginning Worshipped Light Revealed Science
● Early Worshipped Science Revealed Speed of Reality
● Late Worshipped Speed of Reality Revealed Progress
● End Worshipped Progress Revealed… NOTHING!
10. Milestones
● Early Biblical Exodus Promised Land
● Recent Anthropostatis Nomads to Sedentaries
(Travel Revolution)
● Now Urban Exodus The City is always with You
(Take-along Revolution)
● Next Anthro-dynamism Closed-Circuit Repeated Exodus
“Perfect synchronization is the same as immobility”
11. Collapse of Space
● Inertia of the instant Inertia of place
(Simultaneous communication) (Sedentariness)
● Real Time Real Space
(Privilege Immediacy (Emotion)) (Stigmatize Reflection (Logic))
● Claustrophobia Agoraphobia
● Anticipation Lateralization
(Looking ahead) (Looking around)
12. Collapse of Space
● The Simulation The Body
(Virtual Space) (Organic Space)
● Technology Nature
(Nano-sized) (Life-sized)
● Quantitative Qualitative
(Statistic Perspective) (Value Perspective)
● Science of Time Philosophy of Time
(Einstein) (Bergson)
13. The Fears
● Atomic Bomb
○ Balance of Terror
● Information Bomb
○ Imbalance of Terror
● Ecological bomb
○ Climate Change /
Global Warming
○ Overpopulation
● Genetic bomb
○ Mutating human species from
producing life
○ Genetically modified race
○ Bioengineering
○ Hyper-Racism
○ Post-humanism & Trans-humanism
○ Ex-Humanism & Extra-Humanism
14. Management of Fear
● Pharmaceuticals
○ Drug Treatments that affect the
amygdala's glucocorticoids receptors
● Psychology
○ Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
○ Exposure Therapy
○ Self-Esteem as Buffer
● Culture (Manipulation)
○ Explanations
(eg. Blame the Other)
○ Censorship
○ False-Flagging
○ Fear Mongering
& Terrorism
○ Mythologize
○ Privatization of
Communism
15. Management of Fear
● Architecture
○ Bunkers
○ Walls
○ Ghettos
● Fractalization
○ Globalization
○ Self-organizing
(cliques, family & community)
○ Cracks
○ Fractures in the subject too
○ Mass Individualism
● Uchronia
○ New Relationship with Time
○ Collective Reflection &
Study on Limits and Speed
○ Personal and Collective
“unity of mankind means:
no escape for anyone
anywhere”
16. Role of the Arts
● Baroque
○ Seduction & Awe
○ Dance was an extension of the
King
● Impressionism
○ Movement & Light
● Expressionism
○ Production of Emotions
(Stuck in this Movement)
○ Created autonomous anxiety in
music, theatre and architecture
(Culture of Repulsion)
● Viennese Actionists
○ Violent Extreme of
Expressionism
● Raves
○ Manifestation of the
Uneasiness of being together
(Mass Individualism)
○ Danse Macabre
● Takamatsu’s Architecture
○ Anxiety Inducing
○ Dangerous
17. Role of the Arts
● Cultural Production Ideologies
○ Obscuring
○ Enlightening
● Arts and Culture add Value
& Value is Dangerous
○ Rhythm
○ Gentrification
○ Ecological Impact
○ Attention Economics
○ Security from or Exposure to Events
“Gentrification of barbarism and the
barbarism of the gentry”
“The power of an ideology is not only
measured by the answers it can provide
but by the questions that it is able to
suppress”
“We are consciously working to build an
uninhabitable world”
22. Citations
Virilio, Paul, and Bertrand Richard. The Administration of Fear. Semiotext(e), 2012.
“Fear.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Mar. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear.
“Terror Management Theory.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Feb. 2018,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terror_management_theory.
Editor's Notes
The very sad and tragic reality of the contemporary “kamikaze” mentality that is presently pervading American highschools
Why is being under surveillance a sign of “progress”? Why are we always behind “progress”? Technology approachs the singularity which is the limits of capitalism since it undermines human competition.
Migrants escaping their country for fear are the virtualists escaping their bodies in collapsed space. Migrants escaping for pleasure because they acknowledge the collapsing.
Contemporary hedonism is a response to the administration of fear
Greater than means: penetrates, dominates, is priveleged… Speed decreased field of vision
Technology happens in nanoseconds and humans can’t fit in nanoseconds Quantitative seeks statistics. Qualitative seeks history
Self-consciousness triggered by fear has a diminishing return and leads to death cognition and negative outlook. Self-esteem enforces behaviours, lowers consciousness and rejects death cognition leading to positive outlook.
Utopia is place If we can understand the existential experience of fear and how it is used to promote or inhibit social conducts, we can become critical towards those who are using fear to affect our personal and collective choices.
We live in an arrhythmic time, were we only know progress, but there are other rhythms. What rhythms are you using? Musicology What are the consequences of your values and what values are you sacrificing for them? Where are you adding value? Barbarians are hacking our computers while we are shooting each other at home Are you using fear based marketing? Are you creating fear through omission? Are you providing safety or harm
