Seminar om McLuhan - revisiting the message

Alle er velkomne. For yderligere information: Mogens Olesen - Adjunkt, Ph.d., Institut for Nordiske Studier og Sprogvidenskab, Afdeling for Dansk. (olesen@hum.ku.dk )

The Legacy of Marshall McLuhan - Revisiting the Message

Date:  Monday, October 31, 2011

Place : Festsalen, IVA - Det informationsvidenskabelige akademi  

PROGRAMME:   

9:00 -    9:15       Arrival & coffee

9:15 -    9:30       Welcome

9:30 -    10:45    Keynote Speech

McLuhan, Media, Emergence and Complexity Theory by Robert Logan                                                      

10:45 - 11:30    Mogens Olesen: McLuhan & Media didactics

11:30 - 12:20    Lunch                                              

12:20 - 13:05    Thomas Pettitt

Gutenberg Galaxy and Gutenberg Parenthesis: Reformulating the Restoration Topos

13:05 - 13:15    Coffee break    

13:15 - 14:00    Troels Degn Johansson

Media Futures in Marshall McLuhan's Canadian State of Mind

14:00 - 14:45    Hans Jørn Nielsen

Communicating Knowledge in New Media or just Communicating? - Considerations after publication of the Danish Textbook "Nye Vidensmedier" (New   Knowledge Media)

14:45 - 15:15    Coffee break                               

15:15 - 16:00    Erik Steinskog                

The Role of the Forger: Glenn   Gould   and Marshall McLuhan on Music in the Electronic Age

16:00 - 17:15    Keynote Speech                         

McLuhan, the Arab Spring, and the Resurgence of Direct Democracy in the World   by Paul Levinson     

17:15 - 17:20    Goodbye    

INTRODUCTION:

This year, 2011, marks the centenary of the famous Canadian media critic Marshall McLuhan. The Institute of Scandinavian Studies and Linguistics at the University of Copenhagen is proud to present "The Legacy of Marshall McLuhan - Revisiting the Message": a seminar dedicated to this visionary yet controversial, but undeniably deeply influential media theorist.

McLuhan revolutionized media studies in the 1960's by simply pointing to the importance of the media itself as opposed to the content they carry. This is best illustrated by his seminal observation that "The Medium is the Message". To further prove his point, McLuhan followed with thought-provoking claims like "Media are the Extensions of Man", and his observation that we live in a "Global Village" which received much attention within as well as outside academic spheres. He argued that the emergence of electronic technology introduced a need to re-think media and communication. While many were puzzled by McLuhan's extensive visions of electronic media at the time, his ideas have since been revitalised, especially with the rise of digital media from the 1990's onwards.

Today, with our daily lives immersed in all sorts of media - social media, mobile media, converging media etc. - it seems more natural than ever to talk aboutmediabeingthe message. Thus, the centenary of Marshall McLuhan provides a welcome opportunity to consider his legacy, how the work of McLuhan can help bring insights into our current media environment and where it might be heading.