Recording of the week 10 #UMRG meeting

We just had a great discussion about the final two chapters of McLuhan’s Understanding Media. We took two of Lawrence’s questions and asked ourselves if we are now constantly involved in a war of the icons and whether there is an escape from it. We also discussed the (prophetic) role of the artist and debated if and how philosophers are artists too (plus could you make money with a philosophy store nowadays). You find the recording here:

Recording of the final UMRG meeting

As this was the last virtual call, I want to take the opportunity to once more thank Marcel de Leeuwe from Leerbeleving who has kindly allowed us to use his Adobe Connect account for these sessions!

Lawrence O’Connor on Chapters 32 and 33 for #UMRG

Lawrence O’Connor wrote to me: “[My summary] was to have loads of illustration and music, I wanted it to be as poetic as my experience of the text but underestimated the task so it is speech only.”

His wonderful audio summary (using his actor’s voice) is available here:

Lawrence also provided two links as reference: Behind the Banner and Why I Hate School But Love Education.

He would like us to think about the following questions:

• In what ways do you experience being free/not free from ‘fragmentary specialism’ to enjoy being a ‘nomadic gatherer of knowledge’?
• What are your experiences of the ‘literary’ and ‘artist’ roles?
• What are your experiences of engagement in the War of the Icons? Can there be a neutral position?
• What are your experiences of your ‘armour being abandoned’ to create more weapons?

(TV) Coverage has Taken the Place of War Itself

McLuhan saying that the coverage of war is bigger than the war itself:

I wonder what I he would have thought of drones…