GTNM: Marshall McLuhan

Mirko Tobias Schäfer

Marshall McLuhan

Title
GTNM: Marshall McLuhan

Structuur

- M. McLuhan
- Cultuurpessimisme
- Technologie en cultuur
- Hoofdthesen van McLuhan
- Kritiek op McLuhan

Introduction
GTNM: Marshall McLuhan

Pop Theory, Theory Pop

GTNM: Marshall McLuhan

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
GTNM: Marshall McLuhan

„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
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„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
GTNM: Marshall McLuhan

„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
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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

GTNM: Marshall McLuhan

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."

Crime does not pay

GTNM: Marshall McLuhan

Love-Goddess Assembly Line

- interfusion of sex and technology
- mensen worden ononderscheidbaar
- vervangbaarheid; machinemetafoor
- Hollywood als verbeeldingsmachine
van de ‘ideale vrouw’.
- McLuhan eist mediacompetentie

What makes a gal a good number

GTNM: Marshall McLuhan

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
GTNM: Marshall McLuhan

The Gutenberg Galaxy (1.6.2, .75-76)

- oral culture; literate culture; printing

culture, electronic culture

The Gutenberg Galaxy

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Typografisch tijdperk

De typografische mens:

– Wetenschap
– Rationalisme
– Reproduceerbaarheid
– Lineairiteit
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These

– reorganisatie van de sociale

wereld
– schrift is een “extension of the eye”
– het medium in tekst is taal
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Understanding Media

– Reflectie op de impact van media op de

cultuur

– “Suspended Judgement”
GTNM: Marshall McLuhan

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
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Understanding Media

- Media: language, word, paper, printing

press, books, streets, railroads, gun

powder, clothing, light, stone, wheel,
money, games…

Understanding Media
GTNM: Marshall McLuhan

The Extensions of Men

– media zijn uitbreidingen (extensions) van het

menselijk lichaam en de psyche.
GTNM: Marshall McLuhan

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

GTNM: Marshall McLuhan

The Medium is the Message

"the medium is the message because it is

the medium that shapes and controls the
scale and form of human association and
action.”

-> voorbeeld spoorwegen, auto, elektriciteit.

GTNM: Marshall McLuhan

The Medium is the Message: 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.

Light
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Cultuur is het effect van techniek

Effect I
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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”
GTNM: Marshall McLuhan

Cultuur is het effect van techniek

“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
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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
GTNM: Marshall McLuhan

Cultuur is het effect van techniek

„It gave us the darkest suburbia and its lasting

symbol: the lawnmower.“

Suburbia
GTNM: Marshall McLuhan

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."

Horseless Carriage Syndrom

GTNM: Marshall McLuhan

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
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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
GTNM: Marshall McLuhan

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

GTNM: Marshall McLuhan

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

GTNM: Marshall McLuhan

De betekenis van McLuhan (p. 90-91)

- Williams / McLuhan debat over het effect van

technologie

- gebruik van technologie

- techniek en leefmilieu (technologies are nature)

Conclusions
GTNM: Marshall McLuhan

Thank you for your attention !

Mirko Tobias Schäfer ( mirko.schaefer@let.uu.nl )

http://www.mtschaefer.net

Thank You!