RE: FLUXLIST: FLUXUS PODCAST UPDATE

[Allan Revich]

Two excerpts from http://www.afirstlook.com/docs/mediaecology.cfm About Marshall Mcluhan - The medium as message - and an approach to technology and innovation relevant to the current discussion about upgrades, obsolescence and Ludditedness.     "McLuhan is fond of quoting the mantra of anthropologists, "We don't know who discovered water, but we're pretty sure it wasn't the fish." In the same way, we have trouble recognizing our media environment—we're in it. Media environments are made up of complex relations. They are ecological.   The medium of television requires a particular use of technology, defined by society and culture. To partake of a medium is to accept the "groundrules, pervasive structure, and overall patterns" of its environment. This compliance to the environment is almost always unconscious. We do it without thinking. And yet without this compliance, the medium is not the medium, nor is it an environment.   For example, when you buy an iPod, you are implicitly agreeing to accept its particular environment. You are signing on to a particular mode of experience. If you decide to use your iPod as a hockey puck, then it's really no longer a digital medium. Yet most students of media would focus on the uses and gratifications of the particular content chosen by the iPod owner—a mistake McLuhan characterizes as "the numb stance of the technological idiot." You may, of course, listen to jazz instead of acid rock, or podcasts instead of broadcasts, but you are still using the iPod as an iPod. It is this latter experience that defines the medium and its environment.   A medium is an ecology that we absorb by using technology for the purpose for which it was created. As in all ecologies, a media environment is capable of being radically altered by a significant change within its system. (In weather systems, consider global warming.) So McLuhan tracks the major ecological shifts in human history to reveal how the dominant communication medium of any age conditions people to its environment."   AND: (also from http://www.afirstlook.com/docs/mediaecology.cfm)     "LAWS OF MEDIA: PREDICTING CHANGES IN THE ECOLOGY   Late in his life, McLuhan abandoned his punch line approach and expressed his intent to set forth general statements about media that others might verify—a seeming nod toward critics who accused him of being unscientific. Whether he was really ready to commit himself to objective predictions that could be tested, or alternatively, was taking a satirical poke at those who propose grand theories of media effects—we'll never know. In the middle of the project McLuhan suffered a debilitating stroke, and died two years later. Yet after his death, McLuhan's son Eric, who worked closely with his dad, published Laws of Media: The New Science under both of their names. The book claims there are four laws that apply to every type of media. The "laws," however, are presented as questions rather than declarative statements.   Just as Kenneth Burke labeled his dramatistic tools of act-scene-agent-agency-purpose a pentad (see Chapter 23), Marshall and Eric McLuhan call their four questions a tetrad. They believe the four questions call attention to the effect a given technology has on the environment—how it alters what we see (the figure) and what we don't (the ground).   ·         What does it enhance or intensify? McLuhan has long held that all media extend or amplify parts of the human body or mind. The answer to this question shows what organs or senses our technological tools make more prominent. For example the car greatly enhances how fast our feet will take us, and as any teenager knows, can increase our sense of independence. ·         What does it render obsolete or displace? "When one area of experience is heightened or intensified, another is diminished or numbed." The car rendered the horse and buggy obsolete. Thigh and calf muscles atrophied as long walks and bike rides declined. ·         What does it retrieve that was previously obsolesced? The McLuhans say that retrieval is the process by which something long obsolete is pressed back into service; the forgotten ground becomes figure through the new situation. The driver of a car becomes the modern knight in shining armor, an empowered king of the road when behind the wheel. ·         What does it produce or become when pressed to an extreme? "When pushed to the limits of its potential, the new form will tend to reverse what had been its original characteristic." In other words, what is the flip side or downside potential of the new technology? For the car, traffic jams, gridlock and urban sprawl are the ground that now figures prominently in most drivers' lives.   We've used bullets rather than numbers to set off the questions of the tetrad because the McLuhans intended no hierarchy or sequence among them. They see all four issues—and only these four—as inherent in every form of media from inception."   -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Carol Starr Sent: Monday, March 20, 2006 6:03 PM To: FLUXLIST@scribble.com Subject: Re: FLUXLIST: FLUXUS PODCAST UPDATE   hi brad   it is indeed frustrating dealing with the forced changes. another bit of evidence of the rampage of greed in our society. now that macintosh has a new model with the intel chip even my friend's new G5 is becoming obsolete. i have no wish or money to buy a new computer. i have alot of software for this one that i like and know how to use. a new computer would be like stating over again. living outside a small town i feel no need for a cell phone and even an ipod would be an unnecessary toy. i don't want to be a technological luddite as i really love my computer. besides all of the new gadgets could be made so they would be compatable with older models. i'll hang in here with what i have for as long as possible. nice to see you on the list again.   bests, carol xx   { brad brace } wrote: > > Used to be... that a real concerted effort was made to > accommodate older/cheaper technologies - 'universal access,' > etc - but clearly the carts are recklessly getting miles > ahead of the horses. <this used to enable a comfortable > old-tech-as-art strategy> Isn't it exasperating to so often > waste so much time&money making your computer 'compatible' > or just function? > > /:b >