Marshall McLuhan

The True, Modern "Global Village" Of Information: Right At Your Fingertips

by Howard Marks

Call For Papers: FIQ, Vol. 4, Issue 3

Herbert Marshall McLuhan taught at the University of Toronto for nearly 35 years and published extensively. He... more
Herbert Marshall McLuhan taught at the University of Toronto for nearly 35 years and published extensively. He is widely known for coining phrases such as “the medium is the message” and “the global village”, along with his breakthrough theories on hot and cool media. His ideas on the impact of media technology on shaping culture and transforming humanity are as relevant today as they were 50 years ago.

One can certainly argue that society has always been influenced more by the type of media used than by the content of its communication. As the McLuhan Centenary Conference was recently held, what will the next 100 years bring to communications and media? Of course, nobody really knows – or do we?

Dominant Vertebrates or The Bound Book which Binds Into Bondage: McLuhan’s Constellations and Nebulae in Resonant Acoustic Space

by Beau Wuthrich

Michel Foucault has said that power is “constructed and functions on the basis of particular powers, myriad of issues... more Michel Foucault has said that power is “constructed and functions on the basis of particular powers, myriad of issues and myriad of effects of power" (1980, 188). In other words, power is divined from multifarious institutions, practices and categories. To speak briefly, “Forms”. Macluhan states that "The Gutenberg Galaxy is intended to trace the ways in which the forms of experience and of mental outlook and expression have been modified, first by the phonetic alphabet and then by typographic printing." (1) The mosaic approach becomes the only relevant one, for in order to attain an auditory field beyond the phonetic alphabet and print, McLuhan must fragment the looking glass of print media, which values and enforces a theoretical, linear, individual approach. To do otherwise would be to sabotage his own project. The form of McLuhan’s book is, in a sense, its essence. Following this device, this essay will take a critical applicative approach rather than a reflective one, entering the auditory field and resonating with McLuhan’s text, as opposed to observing it from a unitary point of view.

Imagens da indústria automotiva para consumo: o mundo do trabalho na ótica da comunicação publicitária

by Vander Casaqui

Este artigo analisa as estratégias da comunicação publicitária da indústria de automóveis no início do século XXI,... more Este artigo analisa as estratégias da comunicação publicitária da indústria de automóveis no início do século XXI, tendo como eixos principais as representações de seus processos produtivos e os significados do consumo. O quadro teórico discute as teorias de McLuhan sobre os aspectos culturais do automóvel, as tendências da produção e os novos papéis a serem assumidos pelo consumidor, nas transformações promovidas pelo marketing moderno. A abordagem teórico-metodológica da
Análise do Discurso de linha francesa foi adotada na reflexão sobre o corpus.

For-consumption images of the automotive industry: the world of work through the lens of advertising communication

by Vander Casaqui

This paper analyzes advertising communication strategies of the automotive industry in the early 21st century, mainly... more This paper analyzes advertising communication strategies of the automotive industry in the early 21st century, mainly from the standpoint of the representations of its productive processes and meanings of consumption. The theoretical framework discusses McLuhan’s theory on cultural aspects of automobiles, production trends and new roles to be assumed by consumers, in the transformations promoted by modern marketing. The theoretical-methodological approach of the French line of Discourse Analysis was adopted in the reflection on the corpus.

McLuhan, Burawoy, McLuhan: A Extensão das Comunicações Antrópicas

by Gregory Sandstrom

Sobre a Equação Humana, o Método do Caso Estendido e a Extensão Humana

Revista da Associação Nacional dos Programas de Pós-Graduação em Comunicação | E-compós, Brasília, v.14, n.3, set./dez. 2011.

Uma das principais contribuições de Marshall McLuhan aos campos da cultura, tecnologia e comunicação foi a ideia de... more Uma das principais contribuições de Marshall McLuhan aos campos da cultura, tecnologia e comunicação foi a ideia de “extensões do homem”, subtítulo de sua obra-prima Understanding media (1964). Aqui a ideia de “extensão humana” é explorada para aplicá-la às ciências humanosociais, juntamente com a noção de “método do caso estendido” promovida por Michael Burawoy, atual Presidente da Associação Internacional de Sociologia (International Sociological Association), com suas origens na Escola de
Antropologia Social de Manchester.

O conceito de “extensão humana” é apresentado como abordagem alternativa à “evolução” de artefatos e é ligado ao trabalho em comunicação de Marshall e seu filho Eric, chegando até a ideia recente de uma “equação humana” geral.

McLuhan, Burawoy, McLuhan: Extending Anthropic Communications

by Gregory Sandstrom

Subtitle: On the Human Equation, the Extended Case Method and Human Extension

Published in: Revista da Associação Nacional dos Programas de Pós-Graduação em Comunicação | E-compós, Brasília, v.14, n.3, set./dez. 2011.

One of the main contributions that Marshall McLuhan made to the fields of culture, technology and communication was... more One of the main contributions that Marshall McLuhan made to the fields of culture, technology and communication was the idea of ‘the extensions of man,’ the subtitle of his masterpiece “Understanding Media” (1964). Here the idea of ‘human extension’ is explored for application in human-social sciences, along with the notion of ‘the extended case method’ promoted by current President of the International Sociological
Association, Michael Burawoy with its origins in the Manchester School of Social Anthropology.

‘Human extension’ is offered as an alternative approach to the ‘evolution’ of artefacts and is connected to the communications works of Marshall and his son Eric, reaching to the recent idea of a general ‘human equation.’

Literacy, culture and history in the work of Thienemann and Hajnal

by Andras Kisery

in: Comparative Hungarian Cultural Studies. Ed. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek and Louise O. Vasvári. West Lafayette: Purdue UP, 2011, pp. 34-46.

Handholding, Remixing and the Instant Replay: New Narratives in a Postnarrative World

by Carolyn Guertin

Régénérer la tradition ou Traditions are very hot potatoes

by Jacques Coulardeau

Travailler dans le domaine des arts de la scène à travers les périodes historiques est une tâche complexe. Prendre en plus en compte le public ou les publics de ces périodes anciennes et remonter ces formes artistiques dans le monde moderne et donc prendre en compte les publics modernes rend la tâche encore plus difficile. C’est là que l’approche de Marshall MacLuhan intervient. Les artistes de chaque époque visent à atteindre un média complet qui dépasse les limites des médias courants de leur époque et provoque le double sentiment du plaisir intense du dépassement des limites et de l’auto-amputation par perte d’un plaisir connu. L’artiste recherche ce dépassement qui lui ouvre des voies nouvelles vers des réalités rêvées jusque là, car il trouve dans ces nouveaux médias le moyen de dépasser ses limites ou les limites de son temps qui informent les arts ambiants et de réaliser ses désirs les plus profonds.

Les trois règles du théâtre classique français sont la production et le dépassement de toute une évolution artistique... more Les trois règles du théâtre classique français sont la production et le dépassement de toute une évolution artistique typiquement française et qui fut le résultat d’une longue bataille d’homogénéisation et de régularisation. Le Cid ne peut pas tenir en une journée car on se demande comment la bataille contre les Maures aurait été possible. La célèbre bataille d’Hernani n’est, entre autres, que le résultat de la remise en cause de ces trois règles. Le monde moderne n’a pas inventé la dialectique tradition-innovation. Mais la communication moderne et les médias modernes lui donnent une dimension universelle dans le monde et dans chaque société, engageant des millions de gens dans ce mouvement, et non plus une élite étroite. On n’a pas changé de problématique. On a simplement changé d‘échelle d’application.

IN THE MIDDLES OF URBAN SPACE. The case of Critical City Upload

by Federica Timeto

Paper delivered at the ECREA temporary working group "Media & The city" workshop, Feb. 2012, unpublished. Please do not quote without permission.

Digital Skin

by Avi Rosen

Presented at  presentation  International Conference McLuhan Galaxy. Understanding Media, Today. Barcelona, May 23rd-25th, 2011.  Conference proceedings. pp, 614-625

This work discusses McLuhan's ideas of electrical media as the extension of human central nervous system,... more This work discusses McLuhan's ideas of electrical media as the extension of human central nervous system, consciousness, and wearing all mankind as our skin. In cyberspace the traditional essence of art and the original concept of art history have disappeared; all now is part of a real-time holistic data sphere inseparable from its models of perfection and simulation. For McLuhan, the artist is the sole person able to cope with technological reality with impunity, because of his awareness of the changes in sense perception. Examples of fuzzy boundary art are explored, with a focus on new media art by Ephemeral8, MTAA, Eduardo Kac, Nam June Paik and Ezra Orion. Such artworks challenge traditional artistic conventions such as “aura”, "author", and "art object", while transforming us all to an actors in a digital mosaic of a holistic theater.

Object as vortex: Marshall McLuhan and material culture as media of communication

by Roman Onufrijchuk

Die Einführung als Medium - Sven Grampp liest McLuhan in seiner Einführung vierfach

by Florian Sprenger

From Psychedelics to Cybernetics – Wie Timothy Leary und Marshall McLuhan sich den Umgang mit Medien beibrachten

by Florian Sprenger

A Theory of Media as a History of Electricity How McLuhans thoughts about mediation are thwarted by their negation

by Florian Sprenger

By describing electricity as instantaneous, McLuhan imported a notion of immediacy into his work that contradicts his concept of the medium as the message. These aporias influence all of his central concepts.

Technology and the Fleshly Interface in Forster’s “The Machine Stops”: An Ecocritical Appraisal of a One-Hundred Year Old Future

by Alf Seegert

Published in 'Journal of Ecocriticism,' 2 (1), January 2010.

As a prescient critique of telepresence technologies like the Internet, “The Machine Stops” satirizes hypermediated... more As a prescient critique of telepresence technologies like the Internet, “The Machine Stops” satirizes hypermediated contact and in its place valorizes contact made with the fleshly body-—so much so, that it fantasizes the removal of all technological mediations between that body and the “real.” This move carries strong ecocritical implications in its suggestion that all authentic connection—whether between people themselves or between people and the earth—must be corporeal. The narrator’s apology on behalf of “beautiful naked man” (122) and his nostalgia for the robust, technology-­free body are, however, both problematic. Forster appears to conflate nakedness and fleshly connection with unmediated contact or “full presence,” a view that raises many potential criticisms and questions. If the body proves to be but one kind of mediating interface itself, then on what grounds should the mode of fleshly connection be privileged over interactions mediated by motors, buttons, and video screens? If all contact must be mediated somehow, does it even make sense to consider one type of interface as “more authentic” than another? Is it right to equate nakedness with freedom from technology? In this paper I use an ecocritical perspective to explore such questions in the text, focusing in particular on Forster’s depiction of technology as devastating to both the human body and to the experience of space and place. The timeliness of such concerns suggests that “The Machine Stops” might prove even more significant in the hypermediated world of today than it was a hundred years ago for questioning the relationship between corporeality, representation, and nature.

Ewe Robot -- from 'Philip K. Dick and Philosophy'

by Alf Seegert

Published in the 2011 anthology 'Philip K. Dick and Philosophy'.

What's the Matter with Books?

by David Gunkel

Published in "Configurations" 11, 2003.

One of the great ironies of our culture's obsession with digital technology and cyberspace is the proliferation of... more One of the great ironies of our culture's obsession with digital technology and cyberspace is the proliferation of publications that announce the end of the book, the obsolescence of print, or the death of literature.  In book after book we read about how the computer, the Internet, and other technologies will eventually replace the "civilization of the book" with the wired and now wireless civilization of computer-mediated communication.  Such books, however, are involved in a curious and potentially contradictory form of self-effacement.  What these publications state about their subject matter appears to question and even invalidate the material in which the statements have been made.  In announcing the apocalypse of print technology and culture, these print publications attempt to erase the material of their own technological production.  What's the matter with books is that the subject matter of so many print publications in this, the so-called "late age of print," effectively negates the material in which it necessarily appears.  "What's the Matter with Books?" examines this matter that effects writing on technology and the narratives of technological change.  The essay traces the history and mechanisms of this "paradox of the book," investigates how it has been explained or negotiated, and suggests some alternative ways to understand the relationship of the computer and the book.

Finnegans Wake’s Intergalaxy

by Marcelo Santos

Ribeiro, Maria & Santos, Marcelo

Keeping it Cool: Magic, McLuhan, and the Biopolitics of Cool Media

by Stuart Murray

Les Cahiers européens de l’imaginaire (2011), http://www.lescahiers.eu

This essay examines the subversive political potential of the censored cartoons by the Guantánamo prisoner, Sami... more This essay examines the subversive political potential of the censored cartoons by the Guantánamo prisoner, Sami al-Hajj. In McLuhan’s terms, these cartoons constitute cool media, which I read as a rhetorical response to biopolitical (Foucault) forms of governmental power. I conclude by reflecting on the ethical demand of such media.