Marshall McLuhan LCC 2700: Intro to Computational Media

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 (and the aural) 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

Understanding Media (1964) The characteristics of a medium affect people; Not the content the medium delivers

Hot & Cold Media “Hot” media affect and enhance a single sense Cinema: vision “Cold” media affect and enhance multiple senses Comic books, Television More active participation

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

Good or Bad? Negative reaction toward the increasing number of books in the 17th century Negative reaction toward the “death of the book” in the 21st century Media are received relative to their cultural contexts

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

The Medium is the Massage New technology influence the way people think The way people think becomes culturally encoded, and changes the way they behave 1967 book with experimental style, including collage, mirror writing, juxtapositions Meant to “perform” its theoretical position

The Medium is the Massage Question about the title Printing mistake? Media change or “massage” Message / Massage / Mass Age

What counts as a medium?