New media, the information bomb, and the overexposed city:: Paul Virilio contra Bernard Stiegler on technology, space, and time

New media, defined by the internet and other postindustrial forms of telecommunication, is one of the best-known and most wide-ranging contemporary cultural and critical concepts. This article provides an accessible introduction to the French critic of the art of technology Paul Virilio’s writings on the new media of what Virilio calls ‘the information bomb’ and ‘the overexposed city’. Steering the reader through this crucial thinker’s often challenging work, the article considers Virilio’s ongoing impact on present-day critical new media theory by contrasting it with that of the French philosopher Bernard Stiegler. With extensive discussion of Virilio’s and Stiegler’s very different technological and spatial viewpoints and careful appreciation for questions concerning contemporary temporality, the article guides the reader through part of the electronic labyrinth that is new media