09.12.2017
- At the end of the passage Benjamin speaks about Architecture as being the oldest form of artwork, but recognizes Architecture’s intrinsic value as more than just art but as a form of shelter. Now he compares the film to a tourist observing a new building, because he does not understand or have use for the tactile purpose of the architecture, just the visual; just as an audience watching a film – “…the public is an examiner, but an absent-minded one.” But what does he mean when he says “Architecture has always represented the prototype of a work of art the reception of which is consummated by a collectivity in a state of distraction?”
- McLuhan begins the article explaining why “the medium is the message;” he argues that the content of media is not as important or fundamental as the medium itself. He justifies this by comparing brain surgery to a night-time baseball game, both of which are illuminated by the electric light, and says that the importance of either doesn’t compare to the importance of the electric light itself, because it allows for both events to take place. What does McLuhan mean by the medium being the message in this scenario? What is the message?
- How can technological media be compared to natural resources like coal and cotton?
