GTNM 2008 HC4

GTNM: Marshall McLuhan

Title

Mirko Tobias Schäfer

Marshall McLuhan


Introduction

Structuur

- M. McLuhan

- Cultuurpessimisme

- Technologie en cultuur

- Hoofdthesen van McLuhan

- Kritiek op McLuhan


Pop Theory, Theory Pop


Marshall McLuhan (1911 – 1980)

- studeerde Engels (Manitoba Univ., US; Cambridge,

UK); haalde een PhD aan Cambridge Univ.

- katholiek (docent aan katholieke universiteiten)

- doet onderzoek naar populaire cultuur:

The Mechanical Bride, 1951

McLuhan, Bio


„I am resolutely opposed to all innovation, all

change, but I am determined to understand

what’s happening. Because I don’t choose just

to sit and let the juggernaut roll over me.“

McLuhan, 1966; cit. naar Beneditti; de Hart, 1997

Anti-Technology 1


„Many people seem to think that if you talk about something recent, you’re in favor of it. The exact opposite is true in my case. Anything I talk about is almost certainly something I’m resolutely against. And it seems to me the best way to oppose it is to understand it. And then you know where to turn off the buttons.“

McLuhan, 1966; cit. naar Beneditti; de Hart, 1997

Anti-Technology 1


„Do you really want to know what I think of that

thing? If you want to save one shred of Hebrao-

Greco-Roman-Medieval-Renaissance-

Enlightenment-Modern-Western civilization,

you’d better get an ax and smash all the sets.“

McLuhan; cit. J.C. Morrison: Marshall McLuhan. No Prophet

without Honor.

Anti-Technology 2


Marshall McLuhan, de moralist

- The Mechanical Bride. The Folklore of Industrial Man

- onderzoek naar reclame

- analyse en kritiek op de waarden die in reclame

gerepresenteerd worden

- vgl. Kulturindustrie (Adorno; Horkheimer, 1944/69) en

de Bewustseinsindustrie (Enzensberger, 1970)

The Mechanical Bride


Crime does not pay

Crime does not pay

"To put the matter simply, we no longer

have a rational basis for defining virtue or

vice. And the slogan "Crime Does Not Pay" is

the expression of moral bankruptcy in more

senses than one. It implies that if crime could pay,

then the dividing line between virtue and vice

would disappear."


What makes a gal a good number

Love-Goddess Assembly Line

- interfusion of sex and technology

- mensen worden ononderscheidbaar

- vervangbaarheid; machinemetafoor

- Hollywood als verbeeldingsmachine

van de ‘ideale vrouw’.

- McLuhan eist mediacompetentie


Harold Innis (1894 – 1952)

- Professor economie, Univ. Toronto

- doet onderzoek naar de spoorwegen,

kabeljauw en pelshandel

- these: de materialiteit van media determineert

de cultuur

-> voorbeeld schrijftechniek in het oude Egypte.

Harold Innis


The Gutenberg Galaxy (1.6.2, .75-76)

- oral culture; literate culture; printing

culture, electronic culture

The Gutenberg Galaxy


Typografisch tijdperk

De typografische mens:

– Wetenschap– Rationalisme– Reproduceerbaarheid– Lineairiteit


These

– reorganisatie van de sociale wereld

– schrift is een “extension of the eye”

– het medium in tekst is taal


Understanding Media

– Reflectie op de impact van media op de cultuur

– “Suspended Judgement”


Suspended Judgement

“The technique of starting with the thing to be discovered and working back, step by step, as on an assembly line, to the point at which it is necessary to start in order to reach the desired object.” (McLuhan 1964, 62)

- Methode en effect


Understanding Media

- Media: language, word, paper, printing

press, books, streets, railroads, gun

powder, clothing, light, stone, wheel,

money, games…

Understanding Media


The Extensions of Men

– media zijn uitbreidingen (extensions) van het menselijk lichaam en de psyche.


The Medium is the Message (p. 77-80)

(in Understanding Media, 1964)

“For the ‘message’ of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs.” (p. 24)

The Medium is the Message


The Medium is the Message

"the medium is the message because it isthe medium that shapes and controls thescale and form of human association andaction.”

-> voorbeeld spoorwegen, auto, elektriciteit.


The Medium is the Message: Light

Light

The message of the electric light

is like the message of electric

power in industry. Totally radical,

pervasive, and decentralized.

-> het medium verandert de

sociale wereld, de omgeving en

de sociale relaties.


Cultuur is het effect van techniek

Effect I


The Medium is the Massage (1967)

“All media work us completely over.

[…] Any understanding of social and

cultural change is impossible without

a knowledge of the way media work

as environment”



“The railway radically altered the personal outlooks

and patterns of social interdependence. […] It

created totally new urban, social and family worlds.

New ways of work. New ways of management. New

legislation.” (The Medium is the Massage, p. 72)

-> voorbeeld interview; (filing cabinet)

Effect II


Het effect van het spoor

"The technology of the railway created the

myth of a green pasture world of innocence.

It satisfied man's desire to withdraw from

society, symbolized by the city, to a rural

setting where he could recover his animal

and natural self. ...“

Effect III


Suburbia


„It gave us the darkest suburbia and its lasting

symbol: the lawnmower.“


Horseless Carriage Syndrom

Rear-view Mirror

„We look at the present through a rear-view mirror.

We march backwards into the future. Suburbia lives

imaginatively in Bonanza-land."


McLuhans stellingen (p. 80; 1.6.4, p. 84-85)

- technologie structureert en construeert samenleving

en cultuur. (anti-content thesis, p. 89-90)

- techniek is een uitbreiding van het lichaam en de

zintuigen. (extension thesis, p. 85-88)

- natuur is kunstmatig (environmental thesis, p. 88-89)

McLuhan, stellingen


Wat is technologie?

(extension thesis)

- Aristotle, Marx, Kapp, Bergson

- techniek is een uitbreiding van het

lichaam en de zintuigen. (extension thesis,

p. 85-88)

Defining Technology


Wat is natuur? (environmental thesis)

- self-augmentation of technology, (J. Ellul, p.88)

- qualitative shift; tools -> systems ->

technological nature

- media effects are new environments, (McLuhan)

Agency van mensen en dingen


Wat is cultuur? (anti-content thesis)

- The Medium is the Massage

- de “constant sensory assault” van media op de

perceptie is belangrijker dan narrativiteit,

representatie, ideologie etc... (p.89)

- de content van een medium is een ander medium

Agency van mensen en dingen


Conclusions

De betekenis van McLuhan (p. 90-91)

- Williams / McLuhan debat over het effect van technologie

- gebruik van technologie - techniek en leefmilieu (technologies are nature)


Thank You!

Thank you for your attention !

Mirko Tobias Schäfer ( [email protected] )

http://www.mtschaefer.net

GTNM 2008 HC4

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