Journal of Mass Communication & Journalism

Dromoscopy and Philosophy

Abstract

Tomas Hauer

Dromology originates from the Greek word dromos. Hence, dromology is the science of the ride, the journey, the drive, the way. This means that speed and riches are totally linked concepts. And that the history of the world is not only about the political economy of riches, that is, wealth, money, capital, but also about the political economy of speed. Virilio’s texts deal with the impact of speed, disaster and accident on the contemporary world. Vehicles of speed create new dromospheric chronology, new tracks and nodal points (ports, roads, airports, telecommunications etc.) through which things, goods, money, weapons, people or information will start flowing within a different structure. The result is a victory of the new logistics of perception, new dromoscopy. Indirect inner light of screens is our second sun. The text analyses Virilio’s proposition that technical apparatus came into play employing active wave optics and the speed of indirect light, which contributed to the emergence dromoscopic order of vision, which completely transformed the existing logistics of perception of reality.