Week 1
Text 1: Understanding media: The Extensions of Man - Marshall McLuhan
Media as an extension of man → They extend the functionality of our organs.
They extend what we can do with our bodies or minds.
Understanding media as the extension of man = central statement
→ media as extension of body and mind
These extensions (media) change humans & society
Media as an extension of body & mind, How the extensions function:
Exploding (Relates to the body) Imploding
Mechanical Electrical
Extended our bodies in space: Cars, roads, Communication technologies: Telephones,
industrialization, colonisation. TV, computer. We live in a Information
Makes the world a bigger place. Smaller world: the world as a global village.
Electric speed in bringing all social and
political functions together in a sudden
implosion has heightened human
awareness of responsibility to an intense
degree.
The aspiration of our time for wholeness, empathy and depth of awareness is a
natural adjunct of electric technology → we want to understand everything
through data. (like platforms gathering all the data to know/understand
everything)
Chapter 4 The Gadget Lover: He wants to explain how the extensions change humans
Why/how do these extensions come into being?
Stimulus (irritant/frustration) → The extensions amplify our organs ( Like with the
phone we can hear further) & They self-amputate. As one thing gets amplified
the other gets amputated to get equilibrium.
Narcissus Myth (p.41)= man become more fascinated with the extensions of
themselves, rather than staying with who they are. He did not recognize his
reflection → he became obsessed with himself.
Media is our extension we can do new things with and become obsessed with.
We become numb by everything else → create a single-minded focus ( do not
experience other things.
Sense ratio (p45) (closely related to numbness) → when you focus on something
the other gets less active. If the one gets extended the other will decrease (like
watching Tv, you only hear and see).
, Sense “closure” (p45) → We change/ exclude things so we can use it. We create
a loop between us and the media because we get fascinated. We close of from
other things.
Servomechanisms (p46) → We start to serve the media.
Man as the sex-organs of technology (p47): we create new technologies.
Week 2: Technology
Key difference between technological determinism and cultural materialism:
- cultural materialism is historically situated; what happened in society, history and
specific situations. McLuhan only looks at the technology.
- essentialist vs. no essence
Humanist Posthumanist
SCOT (humans have agency) - ANT (things also have agency, they
also influence how we experience
the world)
- Mediation theory (builds upon ANT)
Essentialist non-essentialist
Technological determinism (the technology - Cultural materialism
does this one thing) - SCOT
- ANT
- Mediation theory
Critical Normative
Cultural materialism (by placing technology Mediation theory (what technology does to
in history/context, there is a critical aspect) our morality)
Reading 1: Television - Raymond Williams
P.4-8
before there were two things: technological determinism & Symptomatic technology, they
both put technology out of society. But Williams approaches this in another way.
P.8-13
All the elements of Television Technology already appeared in other places →
imagined in other places and came together in this social need that started to
exist.
Text 1: Understanding media: The Extensions of Man - Marshall McLuhan
Media as an extension of man → They extend the functionality of our organs.
They extend what we can do with our bodies or minds.
Understanding media as the extension of man = central statement
→ media as extension of body and mind
These extensions (media) change humans & society
Media as an extension of body & mind, How the extensions function:
Exploding (Relates to the body) Imploding
Mechanical Electrical
Extended our bodies in space: Cars, roads, Communication technologies: Telephones,
industrialization, colonisation. TV, computer. We live in a Information
Makes the world a bigger place. Smaller world: the world as a global village.
Electric speed in bringing all social and
political functions together in a sudden
implosion has heightened human
awareness of responsibility to an intense
degree.
The aspiration of our time for wholeness, empathy and depth of awareness is a
natural adjunct of electric technology → we want to understand everything
through data. (like platforms gathering all the data to know/understand
everything)
Chapter 4 The Gadget Lover: He wants to explain how the extensions change humans
Why/how do these extensions come into being?
Stimulus (irritant/frustration) → The extensions amplify our organs ( Like with the
phone we can hear further) & They self-amputate. As one thing gets amplified
the other gets amputated to get equilibrium.
Narcissus Myth (p.41)= man become more fascinated with the extensions of
themselves, rather than staying with who they are. He did not recognize his
reflection → he became obsessed with himself.
Media is our extension we can do new things with and become obsessed with.
We become numb by everything else → create a single-minded focus ( do not
experience other things.
Sense ratio (p45) (closely related to numbness) → when you focus on something
the other gets less active. If the one gets extended the other will decrease (like
watching Tv, you only hear and see).
, Sense “closure” (p45) → We change/ exclude things so we can use it. We create
a loop between us and the media because we get fascinated. We close of from
other things.
Servomechanisms (p46) → We start to serve the media.
Man as the sex-organs of technology (p47): we create new technologies.
Week 2: Technology
Key difference between technological determinism and cultural materialism:
- cultural materialism is historically situated; what happened in society, history and
specific situations. McLuhan only looks at the technology.
- essentialist vs. no essence
Humanist Posthumanist
SCOT (humans have agency) - ANT (things also have agency, they
also influence how we experience
the world)
- Mediation theory (builds upon ANT)
Essentialist non-essentialist
Technological determinism (the technology - Cultural materialism
does this one thing) - SCOT
- ANT
- Mediation theory
Critical Normative
Cultural materialism (by placing technology Mediation theory (what technology does to
in history/context, there is a critical aspect) our morality)
Reading 1: Television - Raymond Williams
P.4-8
before there were two things: technological determinism & Symptomatic technology, they
both put technology out of society. But Williams approaches this in another way.
P.8-13
All the elements of Television Technology already appeared in other places →
imagined in other places and came together in this social need that started to
exist.
