In this episode, we tackle the final chapter of Paul Virilio's War and Cinema, which we're calling: "The Seeing Weapon: From Spy Balloons to Automated War's Dromoscopic Gaze."

Join us as we trace the evolution of military perception from 1904, the "first year of the ‘war of light’" and the inaugural use of searchlights in warfare, which illuminated a future where "observation and destruction would develop at the same pace".

We'll explore the "deadly harmony that always establishes itself between the functions of eye and weapon", from early aerial reconnaissance using camera-balloons and aircraft, to the urgent need for "ever more accurate sighting, ever greater magnification" as the enemy became invisible in long-range engagements.

Discover how this led to the "total visibility" of electronic vision, where the "fusion of eye and weapon is complete" and "nothing now distinguishes the functions of the weapon and the eye".

We'll examine the rise of automation and simulation, like the "equivalence between simulator time and real flight time", and how war became "the greatest mystification of all: an apparatus of deception, the lure of deterrence strategy".

This is a journey through a "dromoscopic gaze" that transformed the battlefield into a continuous, technologically mediated spectacle.

Episode ID: 1000722470387

GUID: b09c777a-2ac3-4027-a5c0-13d11e1726cc

Release Date: 18/08/2025, 13:30:00