The field of vision is comparable, for me, to the terrain of an archaeological dig. To see is to be on guard, to wait for what emerges from the background, without any name, without any particular interest: what was silent will speak, what is closed will open and will take on a voice.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of observation and awareness in uncovering deeper truths.
Paul Virilio's quote draws a parallel between observing one's surroundings and the meticulous process of an archaeological dig, suggesting that true understanding requires patience and vigilance. By attentively watching the world, we can reveal hidden aspects of life and meaning that may initially go unnoticed, transforming silence into voice and obscurity into insight.
In practice
Using this quote in a lecture about the importance of careful observation in art and science.
When you invent the ship, you also invent the shipwreck; when you invent the plane you also invent the plane crash; and when you invent electricity, you invent electrocution...Every technology carries its own negativity, which is invented at the same time as technical progress.
Humans needed water or they would die, but dirty water killed as surely as thirst. You had to boil it before you drank it. This culture around tea was a way of tiptoeing along the knife edge between those two ways of dying.
I dream of a world where the truth is what shapes people's politics, rather than politics shaping what people think is true.
This is the reality of nuclear weapons: they may trigger a world war; a war which, unlike previous ones, destroys all of civilization.
Like most qualities, cuteness is delineated by what it isn't. Most people aren't cute at all, or if so they quickly outgrow their cuteness ... Elegance, grace, delicacy, beauty, and a lack of self-consciousness: a creature who knows he is cute soon isn't.
Consciousness permits us to develop the instruments of culture - morality and justice, religion, art, economics and politics, science and technology. Those instruments allow us some measure of freedom in the confrontation with nature.
I know ours is a world made by men for men, their dictatorship is so ancient it even extends to language.
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