Paul Virilio (b. 1932) was born in Paris and is a Professor of Architecture, a philosopher of technology and a humanitarian worker. Working across the field of urban studies and with the agency of the visual in society, his work has developed new paradigms of phenomenological perspectives of import for the analysis of screen-based works, including the notion of the dromocratic condition. Virilio co-founded the experimental Architecture Principe Group (1963–68) with architect Claude Parent. The group investigated new forms of architecture and urban orders that focused on the human body in its communal capacities. From 1973 Virilio was Professor of Architecture and Director of Studies of the École Speciale d' Architecture in Paris, where he was nominated Emeritus Professor on his retirement in 1998. He is a founding member of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Peace Studies and Military Strategy (CIRPES).

The impact of Virilio's work was somewhat limited to a French-speaking audience until the early 1990s and 2000s, when English translations of major works and interviews broadened the knowledge of his work. A prolific author, Virilio develops his thesis on the relationships between activities of militarism, the visual (and in particular screen-based technologies) and human perception in a number of his books, including War and Cinema (1984; English trans. 1989), Negative Horizon (1984; English trans. 2005), Strategy of Deception (1999; English trans. 2000) and Desert Screen (1991; English trans. 2003). Virilio's thoughts and essays are also collected by James Der Derain in The Virilio Reader (1998), John Armitage in Virilio Live (2001) and in his discussions with Sylvère Lotringer in Crepuscular Dawn (2002).