In 1964 Marshall McLuhan published Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, in which he systematically describes how every tool that humans have created, in turn create humans.

1. MATERIALS & POWER!!!
 Control
 Resources
 Influence over
others
 Authority
 Critical mass
 Energy
 Strength
 Mastery
 Capacity
 Organization
 Coordination
 ….Mass Production

2. What is the first material that humans
chemically altered?
Clay
What is the medium that defines the current
age of human civilization?

3. The Medium is the Message
Understanding Media: The Extension’s of Man
Marshall McLuhan, 1964

4. ELECTRONIC LIGHT AS TIME MACHINE
• Our Tools have been extending us for a while
• We go places we couldn’t otherwise go
• We have extended our senses – hands, feet, language, ears.

5. So, what does Marshal McLuhan mean when he says
The medium is the message?
• We are as much created by our tools
as we create them
• Every tool we create in turn creates us
• We created the wheel –
and now the car creates our society
• We created the hammer –
and now industry creates our society
• We created the image –
now images create our society

6. Caravaggio’s – Narcissus, 1598
What is the story of Narcissus?
He doesn’t actually fall in love with
himself – he falls in love with a reflection.
It is the inability to attain this reflection
that kills him. He dies because he is so
engrossed in himself and forgets to eat.
Is the internet us, or is it a reflection of us?
Do we get what we think we need from the internet?
Does it satisfy our cravings?
Or does it merely create the cravings, like the reflection, the mirror,
that narcissus looks into?

7. What is a medium?
Something through which or on which
something else passes.
• Air
• Plaster
• Wood
• Water
• Paint
• Dirt
• Electrical wire
• Fibre optic cable

8. What is a message?
• An act of communication
• A transferal
• A statement
• A social act
How do we convey messages in art?
What is the language –
the actual grammar - of art?
What are the codes and conventions by
which we send messages
and understand art?

9. How we use and
act on these mediums
Determines the message.
• Fine Art
• Audiovisual Productions
• The Internet
List the Grammar
(characteristics) of three
different media/ums….

10. List the grammar of art
• Line
• Shape
• Space
• Form
• Colour
• Value
• Texture
• Balance
• Unity
• Rhythm
• Pattern
• Movement
• Contrast
• Emphasis

11. List the grammar of
audiovisual productions….
• Light
• Sound
• Camera angles
• Sequencing/Editing
• Time-based
• Linear
• Emotional
• Narrative
• Message-based
• Context
• Juxtaposition
• Montage

12. And what is the great medium of our age?

13. What is the grammar of the internet?
• Non-linear
• Un-biased
• User directed
• Open-ended
• No structure
• No beginning or end
• Built on social connections
• Driven by population
• Hybrid
• Difficult to monetize
• The ultimate mash-up artist

14. So, what does Marshal McLuhan mean when he says
The medium is the message?
• Every message actually has two meanings
• The content of the message is the first obvious meaning
• But, the medium in which that message is conveyed is
also part of the message
• We are moving away from a literate society
• Into an Audiovisual society
• Np
• ttyl
• nsfw
• gtg
• Visual mash-ups w
multiple meanings

15. So, what does Marshal McLuhan mean when he says
The medium is the message?

16. So, what does Marshal McLuhan mean when he says
The medium is the message?

17. So, what does Marshal McLuhan mean when he says
The medium is the message?
• We are as much created by our tools
as we create them
• Every tool we create in turn creates us
• We created the wheel –
and now the car creates our society
• We created the hammer –
and now industry creates our society
• We created the picture –
now the internet creates our society

18. What does it mean to be in a post-literate society?
• The printing press created a literate society
• Literate societies creates institutions that are
linear in structure.
• Bureaucracy
• Education
• Law
• Government
• Literature

19. And what does this mean for the geo-political times
in which we live?
• If a literate society creates institutions that
represent linear, property based values, then
• What kinds of institutions does a non-literate
but audiovisual-based society create?

20. So, what does Marshal McLuhan mean when he says
The medium is the message?
• Democratizing
• Creates a global metropolis
• Does away with the ancient rhythms of day and night
• We’ve put our nervous system on the outside
of our bodies
• Each time we log on we are explorers
• Crucial to the issues of our time
• Freedom of Speech
• Equality
• Copyright/Ownership
• Racism

21. So, if the internet is the most important medium of our
times, then what is its effect on geopolitical events?
Figure . Fransisco Goya's Third of May, 1808.
Discuss…..
•Where do you get most
of your news?
•What is currently trending
on your social media feed?
•Is there more on your
newsfeed about American
politics than there is about
the Truth & Reconciliation
Commission?

22. So, if the internet is the most important medium of our
times, then what is its effect on geopolitical events?
Although the internet loads way more cat videos than
terrorist videos…..
•Cat lovers don’t have a violent agenda
•But a small group of terrorists can have a large
effect on a large population.

23. How is the Internet changing society?
• For the Worse - Fox News & Fear Mongering
• Divisiveness
• Tribalism
• Extremism
• Environemntalism
• Terrorism

24. How is the Internet changing society?
• For the Better – Plyaing for Change.org – Gimme Shelter
• Inclusion
• Acceptance
• #BlackLivesMatter
• LGBTQA
• Environmentalism
• For the Better
• #BLM
• Enviro Issues
• Keeping families
in touch over far distances

25. So, what does Marshal McLuhan mean when he says
The medium is the message?
Discuss…..
•Internet is a Form – a location that stores information
•Internet is a Document – it curates our behaviour
•Internet as Process – it is developed through our use, never the
same for even a second.
•Internet as Vehicle – it is a highway with many on and off ramps
•Internet as Social Change – a tool for good or bad change
•Internet as Product – anyone can use this medium with a phone
now. It enforces a consumerist society; both young and old are
experiencing an inability to control their internet use.