Lecture One: Media

In January 1996, as we approached the edge of a new millennium, Wired published an exclusive interview with Marshall McLuhan in which he discussed at great length the effects that the new digital technologies were having upon our most basic perceptions. He emphasized the importance of promoting inefficiency among the business communities of the twenty-first century, argued that ‘the product promotes the consumer’ and dismissed cyberpunks as mere ‘sentimentalists’. In fact, the author of Understanding Media seemed remarkably alert and well informed for someone who had actually been dead for more than fifteen years. As citizens of the digital regime, we have long since grown accustomed to such intrusions.

Understanding media in the digital regime is increasingly to approach them as a set of information-rich environments that influence today’s communication strategies and practice – using the writings of McLuhan, Baudrillard and Virilio, we will analyse this approach to media in terms of the narrowing gap between existing data streams and emerging platforms – where does your practice as a communication designer currently exist and where will it be tomorrow?

Context themes to be covered: time/space, language, politics, narrative

For suggested reading, viewing and other ideas, see also:
‘The Future is Back’ Resources
The Future is Back: A Lecture on Marshall McLuhan
The Future is What Happens After You’re Dead

You Tube clip embedded above: Marshall McLuhan’s theories on TV as a TV movie. We are all going to hell together.