J.Rice

admin August 28th, 2009

notes
5 body
7 involved/ age of anxiety
11 hot cool
14 men are never aware of the ground rules of their environments (implicit influence as opposed to hands on)
Note intro’s key points: literacy, writing, technology, knowing the effects/, role of art as predictor (16)
19 the content of any medium is another medium
20 message of technology is the pattern it introduces into human affairs
27 note (French) of how technology shapes national identity (homogenizes a people through a printed literature)
30 American stake in literacy threatened by technology
31 conventional stance  – how media is used is what is important / but effect is more important
33 time it takes for effect to be understood/take root
39 hot vs cool
41 specialist technologies detribalize
nonspecialist electronic retribalizes – as opposed to notion that tech makes us more united
42 tech confers myth; we live mythically (entertainment as one area)
43 concern w/effect over meaning
48 high literacy cultures struggle to accept cool media (TV/Web)
role of play as important
55 changes in education – 56 any place can be a center
58 break boundaries – when system suddenly changes
59 caused by combination w/other system
63 fascination with extensions
64 electronic tech takes that extension to the central nervous system (body of meaning/info, etc)
66 changing/affecting one sense/extension affects all the others
68 engaging with the extension (reading a page..) is an internalizing process
69 also leads to a numbing at the same time (response to anxiety – apathy; contradiction of “total involvement” claim)
74 media “put out” before “thought out” – goes against tendency to want to know what something can do before it is used
75 individualism not possible in electronic/tribal is
76 media hybrids 78 affect how media change other media  80 meeting of two media is when new form is born (Web = print + computer + TV)
85 technologies are ways of translating one kind of knowledge into another
we become translated into information
ALL MEDIA ARE METAPHORS
*86 W/Technology, all we do is learn and know
90 the becoming of single consciousness? Posed as question (as editor notes) not as statement of fact – or the re-tribalization as previously noted?
Does the Web create single consciousness? Or re-enforce tribal identities?
95-6 artist understands technology first
96-7 role of art – teaches how to anticipate technology
97 art teaches how to rearrange one’s psyche  in order to anticipate the next blow to our senses
101 two forms existing side by side creates tension
used as means to describe types of global conflict – societies
102 response to more students – decentralize
111 speech
112 literate – detachment through writing/separation of mood/emotion from word  / non- literate involvement mood and emotion easily found in speech
117 tech favors spoken over written word- favors participation over specialization
118 Cadmus myth
120 only phonetic alphabet  frees men from tribal trance of word b/c it creates civilization, creates uniformity (also in identity) and creates the individual (reading and writing alone) – pictographic maintains tribe (image)
121 alphabetic culture mastered lineal sequences
122 industry and military shaped by uniformity and continuity print creates
124 phonetic alphabet– separation of sight sound meaning – separation in general as cultural attribute – separation of individual from clan  – allegiance to nation not clan – by separate roles in nation – separate roles in general
127 roads (communication, metaphoric in terms of information)
all technologies increase power and speed
130 speedup leads to implosion
the global village
131 we cannot think of this in terms of value
132 acceleration and disruption
133 speed accentuates problems for form and structure
134 speedup leads to centralized authority
136 village one example of this centralization (implosion), we can added suburb, gated community
138 satellite effect on teaching
full blown city coincides with development of phonetic writing
140 print brought back the wheel
142 when information becomes the main route, need for advanced knowledge increases
and when knowledge spreads out, it becomes specialized
143 w/increase speed, however, that specialization becomes obsolete – we now have total awareness
147 supposed pleasure of the masses
148 number is an extension of touch –which is also mental
151 computer strong on yes and no weak on numbers (not true anymore since computing today is based on 1 and 0)
156 positional vs additive numbers
157 print created repetition – which allowed for invention of infinity
158 and combined w/print gave rise to concepts like infinity and zero
but tactile (touch) also means the bringing together of senses   Multimedia as tactile
163 allusion to previous chapter: BEING in touch
165 nudity is only a big deal when one is NOT in touch (when the visual mode is emphasized over tactile)
183 money, like writing, specializes and separates
185 money, as medium, motivates spiritual  and social values
186 money separates work from other social functions
187 prices fragmented life
188 w/information = credit card created (today = online commerce drives Web)
188 and thus work is created (separate function from other daily activities)  – imploded electronic world suggests that this separation is vanishing (all our lives our work –  telecommuting, email, cell phones, blackberries etc)
190 in instant information, fragmented specialization yields to information gathering
202 clock, like print, generates social organization
we seek multiplicity rather than repeatability
206 instant speeds abolish time and space and return man to integral and primitive awareness
207 synchronization not sequential – can be simultaneous
with universal literacy, time allows for complete separation and fragmentation
mythic mode of awareness substitutes multi faced point of view
universal literacy allows time to be enclosed or pictorial
209 literacy, reinforced by the clock, created abstract time (create periodization, breaks with movement, now and then, etc)
abstract time led man to EAT
211 the EAR is more embracing than the eye
–
216 basic function of media – to store and expedite information
217 block printing early form of storing information and distributing it
218 print encouraged repeatability
and changed nature of space . homogenous space created by print.. contains an idea. .note the final nod on 221 to non-rational space in modern media (Marx Bros, MAD)
225 mosaic (cool) quality of TV
227 depth involvement encourages everyone to take himself more seriously than before
228 the pictorial consumer age is dead. The iconic age is upon us.
229 more involvement/more work
students become experts in code/not in homework (note kids who become better at computers than their parents and teachers)
233 printing became the archetype of all future mechanization
234 once again the notion of implosion and being tribal – as related to somnambulism – sense of being hypnotized. The magical aspect of oral culture (religion). Being under a spell by the speed of information. Being tribal (as opposed to nation oriented which maintains non-magical sensibilities like democracy or constitutions, written ideas).
Also related to being numb (Outkast – what’s cooler than being cool? Ice cold).
234 extensions are amplifications
the electric causes IMPLOSION – we are tribes again (involved in each other’s lifves)
235 print creates POINT OF VIEW. Visual stress, perspective. Private point of view. Self expression. Separation. MY IDEAS are mine.
236 separation of thought from feeling (be objective!).  legacy of PETER RAMUS
237 and from personal memory (we get the archive)
238 and creates “correctness” – grammar, spelling (ideologically there is the issue of “correct” thinking)
and what is “correct” for study – one text (“academic”) over another (“popular”)
240 w/print tribe is replaced by larger homogenous group (the nation). Creation of “printed” body leads to the nation-state.
241 print creates “boldness of expression.” I.e. – the author. I.e. the celebrity. The “author (or title) page” as invention changes notions of authorship and fame.
245 we tend to study things in isolation (note the many overlaps in this book)
247 thus the overlap of “Wheel” and “film”
248 and pun: move rolls up the world
251 acceleration beyond a point creates decentralization -  at some level, no more explosion, but implosion. The speed of electronic culture is tied to this process by McLuhan.
Many effects of implosion – but how we make meaning is one. (commerce is another – walmart, franchises, amazon)

258 w/photograph – we make visual reports w/out syntax
259 (based on idea of camera obscura)  – right side up is something we feel but cannot see directly
260 thus, we ignore the distortions technology creates in our lives
“normal visual perception” – is a distortion (hints of cultural studies here…coding and decoding/Barthes’ mythologies) – see note 269
261 the larger implications of “seeing” – technological development with camera all the way through science (but cultural as well)
262 photograph restores gesture
263 photograph collective, written private
264 but education is civil defense against media fallout (i.e. it rejects media)
265 the meaning of icon (as image) has not been grasped by those who stand to lose all
entertainment reveals current attitudes
in age of photograph, language takes on a graphic or iconic character – meaning belongs little to semantic universe and not to letters
268 and photograph makes the world FAMALIAR
269 all media exist to invest our lives with artificial perception and arbitrary values
270 newspaper gave rise to dept store
271 a place for everything/everything in its place – feature of setting type, but also for human organization
275 leaking of info (TWITTER/BLOG today)
276 human interest is the mosaic – the combination of events; news foregrounds that (book is about one point of view).
277 equitone – literary invention (single tone/attitude) which matches slowness of book prose
THE BOOK ARRIVES TOO LATE – today it is the NEWPAPER
279 information is crucial commodity (note how McLuhan ties consumerism to the press here)
newspaper mistakenly ignores mosaic form in order to present a single point of view/perspective
281 content vs form  in the press
282 ads are news/ but they are good news (buy our product)
Newspapers need bad news to counter the good (hot medium needs cool participation)
283 we seek the familiar in media content
284 the press is MADE through its communal involvement (mosaic) and into communal image. It is a fiction.
286 press is the contradiction: individualistic technology dedicated to reshaping communal values

*294 it is the framework itself that changes w/new technology, not just the picture in the frame
296 wheel (car) will move into subsidiary role
TV questioned car’s stress on uniformity and standardization
299 we homogenize all our culture (as TV becomes hot…does it too homogenize?)
305 ads include audience experience
- 306 ads make the news mosaic – corporate image in depth that invites audience participation
307 ads exercise hypnotic spell  (cool culture becomes somnambulistic)
308 literacy creates illusion of individualism / mosaic offers the communal – 309 private ideals to corporate images
we are seduced to the inclusive world of the group icon (BE LIKE MIKE)
310 movie is American life as non stop ad

316 games are extensions of social man 317 – models of our psychological lives
319 non-specialized participation in larger drama
320 social practices in one generation become a  game in the next
321 Football as a media based game
323 without games, we tend toward automatism
324 pattern of game gives relevance to our lives (see Steven Johnson’s new book)
325 games (art) and business implode (collapse) – [or we can note military use of games, simulations etc)
332 electronic media creates interdependence, communication network
333 cybernation – the problem of information handling
our presence everywhere through interdependence is passive, not active
*total field of interacting events
334 electricity is tactile
337 new ideas come from small, but competing, organizations/ when a new medium or extension occurs, it creates a new myth
340 for many fixed in print culture, electronic feels opaque
342 Telstar (satellite) threatens the wheel (issues of how information is carried – no longer by physical road, now by electronic, the “information superhighway”)
343 telegraph decentralizes – journalism is its outlet (not novel)
347 typewriter finds interest by poets (and art) before the classroom
348 typewriter fuses composition and publication
349 poet at typewriter is like jazz musician
351 typewriter returns oral effects in tradition of reversal effect
typewriter regulated spelling and grammar
354 there is no “ahead” in a world that is an echo chamber of instantaneous celebrity
358 telephone demands complete participation
365 telephone works by authority of knowledge
366 so far, western man has encountered restoration of the role only tentatively  – he still manages to keep individuals in delegated JOBS
373 Edison’s failure to see the phonograph as entertainment is a failure to grasp the meaning of the electronic revolution
entertainment – pushed to the extreme – is the basis of politics and business
378 recordings bring multiple facets and planes in a single experience
379 when medium becomes a depth experience, categories collapse

384 film follows logic of print in dependence on linearity (narrative)
385 film completely involved in book culture
perspective/distance are literate features
387 TV generation creates VISUAL perspective (more so than Renaissance invention of perspective) as mosaic – in depth. Thus puns, word play proliferate (in literary studies – deconstruction) because of the in depth experiences
388 Eisenstein understood that film is about juxtaposition (not literate practice)
similarly – most people have typographically conditioned egos (not juxtapositions) so that inclusive experience of electric age threatens idea of selfhood

390 movie offers dreams (or, as others say, “dreamwork”)
391 dissociation of projector/screen part of overall implosion
394 the movie is a limb of industry
395 film makes motion and change into static shots – but there is something different about uniformity that isn’t monotonous
402 radio is the first experience of electronic implosion
principles of continuity, uniformity and repeatability (print) have long dominated American life
404 radio neutralized nationalism, but evoked tribal ghosts
405 visual literacy evokes tolerance/oral the tribe
406 power of radio to retribalize goes unnoticed – power of cool media making us hypnotized
407 key is understanding the nature of “content” – it is not programming but another medium
408 education will become civil defense against media fallout
Note much of this conversation regarding radio and tribal to iPod (and walkman)
413 print asks kids of isolated visual faculty; tv asks for unified sensorium
415 TV cools down/ radio heats up (are we spurred to action by TV? Sometimes, however)
417 TV creates depth (and maturity) – Note how TV breaks taboos (race, gender, sex) and how a big a deal it is when it happens
418 with TV, the viewer is the screen
419-20 again concerns with “content” and with “content” and who focuses on which
420 TV unifies synaesthetic force
Synaesthesia is unified sense and imaginative life
421 TV brings dream world to life by unifying senses
Literate man dreams of visual solutions (like race equality – we are all one – we are homogenous)
424 TV fans want to see the role; movie fans the actor/ress
427 TV removes the assembly line
in politics, instead of the voting bloc, the icon
instead of a political viewpoint, we have the posture or stance
428 instead of the product, the process
429 TV fosters preferences at variance with literate uniformity and repeatability
435 baseball, an individual sport, does not work with TV
436 understanding TV does not allow one to resist it
438 problem of being “classifiable” on TV (Nixon example)
439 relation of TV to learning? Already occurs in the home. Creates taste for all experiences
441 TV image reserves literate process of analytic fragmentation
442 mosaic is not uniform, continuous, or repetitive  it is discontinuous, skew, and nonlineal
443 pervaded by TV image, the TV child encounters the world in a spirit antithetic to literacy
TV child cannot see ahead b/c he wants involvement / cannot accept fragmentary and merely visualized goal
445 paradox of TV as cool medium – involves us in depth/does not excite us.
449 electronic battle of information goes deeper than hardware
electronic persuasion (by image, TV) dunks entire populations into new imagery
452 rifle extension of eye and teeth
marksmanship (perspective) mark of literacy
453 literacy basis of mechanization – but it LOCKS the mind necessary to maintenance of such a society. Thus – the switch to electronic is traumatic (anxiety)
455 war is achieving of equilibrium among unequal technologies
459 automation ends specialist stress in pedagogy
and end of dichotomies (including separation of work from leisure)
460 conventional division of curriculum unrealistic
electronic age establishes global network like central nervous system
461-2 automation invades mechanical world
462 consumer is the producer (as reader makes own news in mosaic)
463 in mechanical systems – power and work always in direct relations. Not so in cybernation
energy and production fuse w/ information and learning (implosion)
464 right now computers lack interrelation (prior to Web and networking he says this)
465 we now NAME a product or process for it to be accomplished
at no point do people understand the psychic mechanisms involved in invention and technology
today, via implosion, we see connections and patters easier
467 automation (digital) forces industry, but also education to come into some relation to social facts
468 automation brings feedback where before there was a one way system of exchange
feedback ends lineality
electronic speedup requires knowledge of ultimate effects
469 electricity demands deeper knowledge (think of academia and technology)
470 as anything becomes more complex, it becomes less specialized
471 we now start w/ organic unity (as opposed to many parts that create the effect of an organic whole)
at bottom – relationship to educational practice
472 people are suddenly nomadic gatherers of knowledge

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