week 14 MEDIA AND MCLUHAN'S 'REEL' WORLD

Marshall McLuhan, author of  Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964) asserts that the content, or the products created by a certain medium, blind us from the character of that medium, or the over-arching by-product of the contents which is really the important part.  This is where the now famous phrase "the medium is the message" is derived from. The prime example of his concept involves electricity - electricity produces telephones, telegraphs, televisions, computers, etc - but the novelty of these amazing products blind us from the most important aspect - their ability to communicate. Certain successful companies such as Apple, Inc have fulling grasped McLuhan's concepts and have embarked on wildly successful ad campaigns which sell the message. They are not selling you extremely well-designed computers and entertainment devices, they are selling you a lifestyle and positive experiences. They utilize a "point of view" which encourages involvement with the basic notion of the medium.

McLuhan also talks about how the "paradox of mechanization is that although it is itself the cause of maximal growth and change, the principle of mechanization excludes the very possibility of growth or the understanding of change." Similarly, electricity and instant sequencing in which action and reaction occurs at almost the exact same time has arrived without the preconception of electricity's potential.  What comes next?  What is faster than instant sequencing? The most touted answer would probably have something to do with artificial intelligence and the concept of technological singularity. The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Inc defines singularity as "the technological creation of smarter-than-human intelligence" and is based on the predilection that we are currently at unique point in time in which the human brain has reached its current computing capacity the simultaneous explosion of exponential technological computing capacity. This idea originates from science fiction writer Vernor Vinge and subsequent proponents of the concept are referred to as futurists. A couple of months ago, I was watching Colbert Nation and saw the futurist Ray Kurzweil interviewed on the show. He is the feature of a new documentary about him and the concept of technological singularity called Transcendental Man.

McLuhan's writing focuses specifically on media and film but there is a very palpable connection to architecture and that lies in the idea of architects as master builders - masters of systems, patterns, and over-arching themes.  The 2010 film Inception by Christopher Nolan makes use of this connection by making architects the designers of dream worlds that can be explored lucidly to extract secrets from other dreamers. (Aesthetically, they support the idea that these architects are the master builders of the future by surrounding themselves with everything-Frank Lloyd Wright. Yet interestingly, this exaggerated reference does not extend beyond private spaces - the actual cities of the future in Inception are nothing like Wright's Broadacre City.) A sub plot involving the main character Dom Cobb and his deceased wife Mal highlights the psychic and social consequences that may potentially arise within such complex technological systems, which McLuhan alludes to when he talks about how we live in the "Age of Anxiety" and the "century of the psychiatrist's couch." Singularity tells us that humans have not and possibly will not be able to make the next big jump of comprehension and we will need to rely on machines to continue growing information. Inception posits that architects can be the ones to transcend this barrier...or at least as master builders, they will be the ones to wield the machines.

Christopher Nolan - finally bringing back the long lost art of the dressed-in-white-action-ski-sequence.