Cubism and Television

The main idea I take away from McLuhan's essay is what he says in the beginning, that it's what the medium does and is that changes anything, not the content. The content itself is an entirely different thing. In his reference to humanoid machines McLuhan writes that "in terms of the ways in which the machine altered our relations to one another and to ourselves, it mattered not in the least whether it turned out cornflakes or Cadillacs" (1). The message "of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs," (1) the content isn't important anymore - or at all, like we thought it was.

I found McLuhan's reference to cubism as announcing that the "medium is the message" interesting. He says that it seizes "on instant total awareness" by dropping the "illusion of perspective in favor of instant sensory awareness of the whole" (2). When you look at a cubist painting, he seems to be saying, you become much more aware of how you're seeing it as opposed to what you're seeing. For example, this painting by Braque (Violin and Candlestick, 1910) is just a painting of that - a violin and candlestick.



What you're seeing is not important, or interesting. What is interesting and compelling about a cubist work of out is how  you're seeing it - through its medium.

In the discussion of how you watch something/ through what medium you see it being more important than the content, I think first of TV (which I believe Isabel touched on in her post). People watch so much TV (whether they're really trying to or not, I think) that it's gone beyond the influence of content. There's so much content that how can you determine what is the most influential?

On the other hand the fact that people are spending all their time watching TV in some way, or not watching TV (saying "I don't own a television" is never taken as a casual statement, it always provokes some response because TV is such a part of our lives either way) that the action of absorbing TV and having its presence or non-presence a factor in your life effects everything; effects how businesses run (advertising, for ex.) and communication (bonding over what you saw on TV last night, old ex. "watercooler" conversations).

I think it's so interesting that most of the time we attribute the influence of TV and film, and other media images to the content, the stories and the brains and faces behind them, when it's really the TV box sitting in our room that is projecting the most power over us. Content doesn't really matter at all!