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Andrew McLuhan Teaches Understanding Media Intensive: Part Three

Andrew McLuhan Teaches Understanding Media Intensive: Part Three

Understanding Media Intensive: Part Three is a 13-part intensive look at the last third of media theorist Marshall McLuhan‘s major 1964 work Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man taking place online over the course of 13 weeks. Taught by Andrew McLuhan, Director of The McLuhan Institute, UMI III will focus on chapters 21-33 of the book. In an age where our media environment conditions and structures our reality in increasingly potent ways, Understanding Media provides important foundational knowledge on how our cultural traumas and tropes are embodied in technologies. This course will provide lecture and discussion on Part Three of the book, which puts forth a set of tools for exploring human technologies and innovations as a means to regain agency in the midst of our increasingly disorienting online lives. This course follows UMI Part One and Two, which ran in the fall of 2020 and spring of 2021. UMI III picks up at the beginning of Chapter 21, and will conclude at the end of the book, with Chapter 33. Lectures will include explorations and explanations of never-before-seen author annotations, historical documents, and personal accounts. A scrapbook of materials around the publication of the book in 1964 compiled by Marshall’s wife Corinne McLuhan, containing reviews and interviews, will add further context to how the book was received and provide insight into the material under discussion. For those who wish to join this course who haven’t taken UMI Part One and Two, we will be offering an abbreviated complimentary video class for students to get up to speed on the content covered in the previous courses. Classes will happen live on Saturday from 9:00am-12:00pm PT, beginning September 11, and ending December 4, 2021.
“I really wasn’t sure what to expect myself, but as the classes went along I developed a teaching style and ended up leading the class through an exercise not unlike examining a poem to be expanded and explored…Among the unexpected elements was the role that the members of the class played. The thoughtful and creative contributions of class members made for a richer experience for all.” —Andrew McLuhan

Course Logistics

Dates: Saturday, September 11 – Saturday, December 4, 2021 Times: 9:00am-12:00pm PT / 12:00pm-3:00pm ET Cost: $600 for Live Access, $360 for Audit Access. We also offer Diversity Scholarships. Apply here.

Course Goals

The objective of the course is to provide participants with a deeper appreciation and understanding of McLuhan work in general, this material in particular, facilitated by Andrew McLuhan, drawing on his 20+ years of experience with the text and work, and aided by the introduction of artifacts such as Marshall McLuhan’s annotated copies of the book, other books, and materials from Eric McLuhan’s library. It is expected that community engagement in the discussion groups will be of added benefit as like-minded people engage in mutual exploration and respectful dialogue. Participants will be challenged to take their time in reading and reflecting on the material. Part of the reason for the 13-week pacing is to allow time for reflection and absorption of the material – to become comfortable, accustomed to the style and sensibility. It is increasingly difficult for people to experience text in this way, so one aim of this course is to create an environment that will make the fullest appreciation of the material possible.

Course Outline

Week 1 – September 11 • Chapter 21 – The Press: Government by News Leak

Week 2 – September 18 • Chapter 22 – Motorcar: The Mechanical Bride

Week 3 – September 25 • Chapter 23 – Ads: Keeping Upset with the Joneses

Week 4 – October 2 • Chapter 24 – Games: The Extensions of Man

Week 5 – October 9 • Chapter 25 – Telegraph: The Social Hormone

Week 6 – October 16 • Chapter 26 – The Typewriter: Into the Age of the Iron Whim

Week 7 – October 23 • Chapter 27 – The Telephone: Sounding Brass or Tinkling Symbol?

Week 8 – October 30 • Chapter 28 – The Phonograph: The Toy that Shrank the National Chest

Week 9 – November 6 • Chapter 29 – Movies: The Reel World

Week 10 – November 13 • Chapter 30 – Radio: The Tribal Drum

Week 11 – November 20 • Chapter 31 – Television: The Timid Giant

Week 12 – November27 • Chapter 32 – Weapons: War of the Icons

Week 13 – December 4 • Chapter 33 – Automation: Learning a Living

Instructor(s)
Andrew McLuhan

Andrew McLuhan is a grandson of Marshall McLuhan, noted Canadian professor from the University of Toronto who was a pioneer in the field of Media/Communications studies. Andrew's father, Eric McLuhan, was Marshall's eldest son, who worked with Marshall from the mid-1960s until Marshall died in 1980. From 1980 until his death in 2018, Eric McLuhan continued the work he began with his father, completing important works such as Laws of Media: The New Science (1980) Media and Formal Cause (2011) Theories of Communication (2011) among other solo works. In 2009 Andrew began work documenting and inventorying Marshall McLuhan's annotated library (now at the Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto, and named to UNESCO's 'Memory of the World Register' of globally-significant cultural artifacts) which was his first major McLuhan project, and has been the subject of several speeches.

For about a decade, Andrew acted as Eric McLuhan's part-time assistant, student, and travel companion, accompanying him on speaking tours near and far, getting deeper and deeper into the unique McLuhan tradition of exploring culture and technology. Andrew acted as Eric McLuhan's part-time assistant, student, and travel companion, accompanying him on speaking tours near and far, getting deeper into the unique McLuhan, tradition of exploring culture and technology. The more he learned, the more he wanted to share, and he has been writing and speaking and teaching workshops, classes, and courses. Following Eric’s unexpected death in 2018, Andrew has kept going on his own.

Andrew is director of The McLuhan Institute, created in 2017 to continue the work begun by Marshall McLuhan and Eric McLuhan in exploring and understanding culture and technology. He lectures globally at universities, speaks and gives workshops and consults at companies. Understanding Media Intensive is his most in-depth course, leading three full cohorts through Gray Area since 2020.

Raising McLuhan is an exploration of how to preserve, manage, and make accessible McLuhan work and archival materials for personal and public use.