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Subject: 6.42 Kafala on Virilio
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=2E. .: .'.. ,. . ... F I L M - P H I L O S O P H Y
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=2E .. . : ... .'.. ..,.. ISSN 1466-4615
=2E ., . . :... . . '.. Journal : Salon : Portal
=2E .'. , : ..... . PO Box 26161, London SW8 4WD
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=2E...:,. '. vol. 6 no. 42, November 2002
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Ted Kafala
Cinematic Media in the Age of the Quantum Particle
Paul Virilio
_Polar Inertia_
London: Sage Publications, 2000
ISBN 0-7619-5802-9 (hb) 0-7619-5803-7 (pbk)
103 pp.
Paul Virilio's recent book, _Polar Inertia_, presents an elegant and=
sometimes artful analysis of two emerging technoscientific realities: 1,=
the cultural shift toward 'sightless', 'lensless' digital imaging and=
representation, with some focus on its effects on the cinematic sense of=
time and the remote transmission of online media; and 2, the effects of
the=
emission as photonic light and other quantum phenomena of our 'bodies' (in=
remote *telepresence*) and our 'minds' (as virtual data and information),=
as the existential, live manifestations of the 'new physics'. With the=
recent release of Jennifer Leigh and Alan Cumming's _The Anniversary=
Party_, one of the the first full length, mainstream feature films to be=
shot and edited entirely with digital equipment (the transfer to 35mm=
celluloid appears as an unnecessary after-effect, or moot point in the=
film's production), and the sudden emergence of completely unreal, virtual=
leading actors in 3D animated films, such as _Final Fantasy_, the recent=
technocultural shifts to digital 'vision' are still eventful and topical.
Simulation in an era of post-photographic technologies involves the=
reproduction and consumption of multiple visual surfaces and images that=
are oftentimes photorealistic but also somehow 'unreal'. Virilio's ideas=
seem to raise the question: How do the capabilities behind digital imaging=
challenge the assumptions about real-time interaction and notions of time=
and space embodied in conventional film theory? This is too concrete a=
question for Virilio to answer directly in this book, but he does make=
inferences that lead his readers to conclude that computer imaging
provides=
new horizons and thresholds for cinematic theory, particularly in=
deliberations over the nature of pure simulation.
The 'New Physics' of Digital Vision
Virilio heralds a major cultural shift in cinematic form, from conventional=
Renaissance perspective and depth of field, to sightless, digital,=
synthetic vision. The basis of this emerging *teletopological* cinematic=
representation are the rapid processes surrounding the *disintegration of=
indirect light*, or more precisely, the optics of photonic light. Virilio=
explains that the turn in favor of 'tele-videography' and the
proliferation=
of small digital cameras, including Webcams, (of course) involves the=
compression of ordinary objects into scattered Cartesian arrays of 3D=
pixels, but also the rather new, instantaneous transmission of perceptible=
appearances over optic fiber networks in a way unrelated to 'ordinary'=
analog mass media communication (2). The resulting synthetic perspective
is=
not unlike some kind of paraoptic perception, but deviates from all=
antecedents by its (trans)mutation of both appearances and distances into=
light energy.
Consequently, even the somewhat contemporary video signal is transformed
and=
digitally rendered from electromagnetic wave to photonic energy, a process=
that Virilio marks as the possible union between wave optics and
relativist=
cinema. However, I am convinced that Virilio often merges and fails to=
discern the distinctions between the electromagnetic and quantum light=
technologies around which he weaves tangled discursive threads throughout=
the book. Until Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose, physics has rarely been=
accessible to the nonspecialist, and more seldom the stuff of trope and=
metaphor as it is here. Nevertheless, _Polar Inertia_ is an important book=
for beginning to assess the revolutionary cultural impact of digital=
*visionics* in media studies, for affirming the crisis of representation=
and ambiguity surrounding the factual in the visual domain, and for=
anticipating the age of paradoxical logic and *telepresence* (as the=
possibility of the 'actual' end of modernity).
In this context, one also has to wonder whether Virilio's acknowledgment of=
*speed* as the engine of the acceleration, breakdown, and parabolic=
distortion of images (and imaging) redeems an anti-ocularcentric turn in=
Western thought (particularly French poststructuralist thought); or does
it=
forewarn of an active *hyperCartesianism* and extension of classical=
optical communication by 'electro-optical' communication. Species of=
anti-ocularcentric discourse resist the static taxonomies of a rigid
space-=
time in modernist vision, whereby *knowing* was no longer an imitation of=
the world based on similitude, but a self-contained universal science
whose=
function was to represent forms, magnitudes, quantities, and relations of=
objects in a homogenous, mechanical space. Virilio pays homage to Foucault=
and Merleau-Ponty in this regard for shaking up the order of things in the=
Western eye, disturbing the primacy of perception, and questioning the=
'electronic apartheid' of the media world (although he perhaps
deliberately=
neglects Gilles Deleuze and Luce Irigaray when they criticize Western=
thought for its reverence of mimetic representations, for its rejection of=
phantasms, its consumption of women for *specularization*, and its framed,=
visual reduplication of male-dominated ideas).
The reader of _Polar Inertia_, then, is led to believe that the shift
toward=
sightless, digital vision is a movement away from the modernist perception=
that emphasizes the movement of visual information in a mechanical,
linear,=
segmented time, and toward a new perceptual revolution deriving from past=
and present breakthroughs in quantum theory. Virilio, however, is highly=
critical of the effects of the 'lensless', synthetic, point to point
digita=
lization/manipulation of appearances, and the accelerated 'photonic'=
transmission of those appearances. He suggests that the effects of the new=
'active' optics are a deepening of some of the negative aspects of=
Cartesian objectivism and conventional camera cinematography, particularly=
regarding the emergence of paradoxical forms of duration and space-time
reg=
imes.
Digital Technologies and Regimes of Cinematic Space-Time
Virilio explains that the origins of the paradoxical logic and erasure of=
images in the digital realm lies in photography and cinematography:=
photography created a chronoscopic system of underexposed, exposed, and=
overexposed instant snapshots, leading to the consideration of the time of=
succession as a series of instants with little or no duration. Similarly,=
in cinematography, the reduction of the through-time of one frame of film=
(to 30 frames per second) over many years, offset by the spatial
elongation=
of the graphic film itself (to 35mm, 70mm in Omnimax), has resulted in=
substantial temporal foreshortening (60). The progressive speeding up of=
space-time in this media both approaches and is dependent on the almost=
absolute zero interval of *light-time*, the speed and frequency of the=
photon-bearing wave, or time no longer stopped! Therefore, Virilio
suggests=
a close relationship between camera photography (an epitome of modernist=
technology) and digital high-resolution perception based on binary=
information and photon particle transmission.
The 'direct lighting' associated with the camera obscura of Renaissance=
perspectivists conveyed a 'new representation of the world' that led to
the=
'passive' classical optics of the lens and, much more recently, to=
interactive computer-videography (31). However, the strength of this=
historical trajectory, and the role of conventional optics, if any, in=
digital *visionics*, remains to be debated. It is more difficult to
dispute=
the obvious recent alterations in representation and display from wall=
surface to screen, multiple window, and various other forms of computer=
interface. The reliance on the rapid movement of light in digital=
technologies, beyond Virilio's fondness for the fusion of optics and=
kinematics, does necessitate the revision of the status of those
space-time=
regimes and classical intervals of extension and duration known before=
modern photography. Virilio suggests as outcomes: 1, a relativist concept=
of temporality; and 2, a more immediate, intuitive 'real-time telereality'=
that supplants the real-space reality of objects and places.
With the 'new physics' and the crisis in temporal and spatial absolutism,=
the constant speed of quantum light (photons as 'active' quantum of light)=
becomes the yardstick that delimits the parameters of the perceived world,=
permitting multiple points of view and a relativist concept of time as=
successive moments. Virilio clarifies how Kant's premise (that time cannot=
be directly observed) collapses when we consider how Einstein's=
point-of-view theory corresponds to a realm of photonic, subatomic
physical=
particles (39). In this dimension, quantum theories of representation lead=
to the infinite deepening of the temporal sense of the 'instant': the=
measure of duration is no longer 'duration', but minute measures of=
relativist space-speeds.
Virilio's return to Bergson's concept of multiple durations pushes him=
closer to Deleuze's study of the cinematic time-image in _Cinema 2_, and=
Deleuze's interpretation of Bergson's thought itself in _Bergsonism_. In=
his previous book, _Vision Machine_, Virilio draws on the Bergson of=
_Matter and Memory_ to delineate the virtual, phatic image, the image-time=
freeze, as the basis of Proustian multidimensional memories and thoughts.=
Now Virilio captures the Bergson of _Duration and Simultaneity_, and the=
intuitive time without duration in quantum events that implodes=
subject-object distinctions. Bergson, the futurist prophet of relative=
intensive moments of time, is turned on his head. Deleuze's notion of the=
time-image in contemporary cinematic approaches does not seem incongruent=
here as a break with direct representation that shatters the linear,=
empirical continuation of time, the empty and unfolded form of time, or
the=
separation of the *before* and *after*. Neither does Virilio make a great=
leap to discuss the implications of an ethics based on perspectivism and a=
diversity of point-of-view as a consequence of new theories of=
representation; rather, he is disparaging of any ontological realities
that=
may emerge in digital endo-space, implying that they could only result in=
distortion, hallucination, quantum dazing, or vertigo (40).
=46rom the Abyss of Inertia
The book concludes with its final chapter, 'Polar Inertia', the state of
the=
optical body in remote telepresence, in 'ersatz time' (Husserl), or at a=
point of absolute zero consumption and dissipation of kinaesthetic energy.=
How is such an absolute bodily inertia possible? Does Virilio believe that=
we are approaching ultimate 'couch potato' stasis through our remote=
control lifestyles and virtual reality environments? What are the=
ramifications of such a state of stasis for cinematic representation in=
online cyberspace realms, or 'sense surround' all encompassing home=
entertainment systems? Virilio attempts to sell this critical point by=
making references to Hawking's theory (in _A Brief History of Time_) of
the=
possibilities of a pure dimension of imaginary time and virtual speed in=
quantum physical spaces, but there are no proofs of the existence of such=
'quantum voids', black holes, or absolute infinities without animate=
organisms. The absence of movement in the non-place of 'interactive'=
cyberspace may therefore be considered a pure trope.
In _Polar Inertia_'s extremist conclusions, therefore, Virilio may join the=
group of ultra-pessimistic critics of simplistic portrayals of=
technoculture (his interesting analysis of the shifts in cinematic=
representation withstanding). The reader may be reminded of the
Baudrillard=
of _The Illusion of the End_: the radical illusion of the material world=
that creates media simulations as both the producing and erasing of signs,=
which render each event as waste and residue in the dustbin of history.=
Some readers may also be reminded of Kevin Robin's contribution to this=
debate, _Into the Image_, which fails in its attempt to rupture virtual=
worlds by overestimating the intoxicating effects of alternative realities=
rather than firmly uprooting the progressivist technoscientific argument=
that surrounds virtual reality at its foundations. It all sounds very=
familiar: as a direct application of the closed Cartesian logic of=
disembodied and 'transcendental' vision, the new postmodern *scopic*
regime=
disconnects image and experience, isolating images that find their basis
in=
real cultural experience from those that are only *perceived* as real. We=
exist as phantom particles in a virtual void that encapsulates us like a=
sensory deprivation box. _Polar Inertia_ is an an interesting and valuable=
book by an esteemed scholar, but by denying that social ethics and values=
lie behind the production and consumption of synthetic, simulated=
environments, interpreting them only as pure appearance, or content-devoid=
aesthetic form, Virilio (like some who came before him) may be ignoring
the=
importance of everyday language and experience in the understanding of
imag=
es.
College of Applied Science
University of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Copyright =A9 _Film-Philosophy_ 2002
Ted Kafala, 'Cinematic Media in the Age of the Quantum Particle',=
_Film-Philosophy_, vol. 6 no. 42, November 2002
<http://www.film-philosophy=
=2Ecom/vol6-2002/n42kafala>.
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