Marshall McLuhan LCC 2700: Intro to Computational Media Spring 2006 Ian Bogost / David Jimison

Marshall McLuhan Gutenberg Galaxy (1962) printing changed culture Understanding Media (1964) “electric” media change culture Media shape our senses and perceptions A new medium means a new shape to human consciousness

McLuhan and Media Ecology Studying media environments Technology plays a role in human affairs Neil Postman, NYU ‘71 — How media communication affect human understanding Structure, content, effect

Communication technology’s cognitive effect on society The alphabet, printing press changes the way we think Print culture (15th c). began to privilege the visual over the oral Print encourages static, segmented attitudes that resist collaboration and encourage compartmentalization Gutenberg Galaxy

Mechanization of print reinforced orientation toward uniform objective truth introduced a segmented, cause /effect, rationalist world view prepared us for a mechanical, industrial, collectivist age suppressed mythic, multi-sensorial, “organic” experience Gutenberg Galaxy

Electronic media are poised (1960s!) to replace print New tribalism — multisensory awareness The Global Village and “surfing” as rapid, heterogenous movement

Understanding Media (1964) All media as extensions of ourselves serve to provide new transforming vision and awareness. Media themselves — not their content — should be the object of study The properties of the medium are far more important than the “content” they carry

McLuhan Aphorisms from Understanding Media (1964) The medium is the message: A new medium shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action. e.g. railroad, plane; telegraph, telephone, mobile phone The content of any medium is always another medium Print encapsulates writing Writing encapsulates speech

McLuhan’s sound barrier metaphor We feel the contours of a medium as we are moving beyond it Media are invisible when we are hypnotized by their ubiquity

“Electric media” are like Cubism: simultaneous viewpoints from multiple angles Pablo Picasso The Guitar Player (1910)