Introduction : Paris, invisible city: The plasma

Everything in the city remains invisible, everything and, over and above everything, the city taken as a whole. One might say that we now have satellite maps enabling us to zoom in on every level, so conveniently that in a few clicks we can switch from the entire Ile-de-France to the roof of our building. We do therefore have the right, for once, with regard to Google Earth or the National Geo- graphic Institute’s site, to talk of a panopticon, since we ‘‘embrace the entire city’’ and are able, at the same time, to keep delving down into its minutest detail (...).