Heiner Benking wrote:
>
> Thomas Lunde wrote:
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jay Hanson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: Future Work <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>
> >Only the scientists can save us now. But I believe our
> future is written
> >in our past -- written in our genes. I expect "chaos and
> cannibalism".
> >How could it be otherwise?
>
> Thomas: One of the best minds in my opinion, Marshal
> McLuhan would have
> said the opposite. It is the artists rather than the
> scientists who have
> predicted the future and provided us with the directions
> that have led our
> evolution. It is not the counter of beans or the labelers
> of "facts", but
> the dreamer of dreams that is humans greatest achievement
> and that is not
> necessarily an attribute of intelligence as it is the
> ability to translate
> feelings and intuitions into mediums that move other humans.
>
> >
> >Jay -- www.dieoff.com
> >
>
> Dear JAy and Thomas,ONLY the ONLY !? I think it is dangerous this "in
> the box" thinking of what can safe us. It is neither THE sceintist nor
> the artist. I struggeled with both communities and even see them
> fighting for the truth and the turf (salvation through their dogma).
[snip]
> the final exam might be the thinking beyond the categories, the
> imaginative lateral and diagonal embodied immersive and shared apprach
> to issues and their realtion andf context, not just WORDS...
[snip]
Who knows what McLuhan would have thought of what's
happening today?
"Pomo" artists do not seem to be
antennae of the race in any more honorific or hopeful
sense than gluing a pair of TV "rabbit ears" to your
forehead (a gesture which differs only in its lesser
cost and probable failure to gain publicity, from the
"gold anodized non-functioning TV antenna as a symbol
for the elderly who watch a lot of television", which
Robert Venturi affixed as a sculptural ornament to the
top of his early postmodernist Guild House housing
for the elderly, Philadelphia). Jenny Holzer's
"slogan jennies" (my description, not hers...), which,
even in The Museum of Modern Art, serially display
one cliche after another, tell us, at most, that
she can make money from stating that meaning is
dead (which, of course, is not itself a meaningless
activity in terms of the artist's income, when buyers
like MOMA can be found for it).
There are creative people in the sciences and technology.
Probably not names most people would know.
I'll cite only one example: Charles Goldfarb's
invention of SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language).
Surely email and "The Internet" (HTML) should be included
here too.
In the last year of his life, McLuhan had a stroke
which I understand rendered him incapable of
*communicating*. That hust have been immensely
frustrating for a man who appraently had a low
level of frustration tolerance to begin with.
I have a friend who knew McLuhan well, in a
context where my friend had no "axe to grind"
with Marshall, but only served as a receptive
friend. My friend has repeatedly said to
me that McLuhan was a rather *conservative*
person, who "greeted" many of the new media
and the changes in the pace, pattern and scale of life
which they adumbrated, with skepticism. My
friend also says that much which has been
said and done in McLuhan's name would not
entirely have met with his approbation.
I do think that McLuhan would have said that
we need to understand as much about the present
*and* about the past, as we can, to have our
best chance to influence our situation in
constuctive ways, rather than being
knocked around willy-nilly by "technological
advance" and other mindless forces.
\brad mccormick
--
Mankind is not the master of all the stuff that exists, but
Everyman (woman, child) is a judge of the world.
Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
914.238.0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua, NY 10514-3403 USA
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<![%THINK;[SGML]]> Visit my website: http://www.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
