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Title: From Gutenberg to Batman Location: Annenberg School of Communication Date: 28 April 1966 Description: A lecture given by Marshall McLuhan at Annenberg School of Communications, Philadelphia, in April of 1966. Symbol manipulation, the world of the happening, training of human perception and the potency of pop art. A tape that doesn't seem to have any beginning, middle or remarks by Dr George Gerbner, Dean of the Annenberg School. Then, Professor of Communications Robert Lewis Shayon introduces the other participants: William Jovanovich, president of Harcourt, Brace, and World, Inc; Dr Dell Hymes, anthropologist; William Dozier, creator/producer of the TV series, “Batman“; Professor Marshall McLuhan, Director of the Centre for Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto Starting at just over 13 minutes Marshall McLuhan speaks. At about 46 minutes the other participants comment upon McLuhan's lecture and take questions from the audience. Topics or themes discussed: - the audience is about to become workforce - ads become more important than the products - Truman Capote or the reader was the murderer in “IN COLD BLOOD“ - the computer DID NOT obsolesce the “job“ - TV becomes an art form under satellite conditions - Jacques Ellul's definition of “propaganda“ (“propaganda ends when dialogue begins“) - “Egyptian“ art (totalism) retrieved - Art as “the blood bank of great moments of living in the past“ is obsolete, Art has to be a “probe“ (helps “to SEE“) and a “means of perception and discovery“ now - specialist form of study vs. total-field study - DR. ZHIVAGO, and more on BATMAN's costume as like an iconic cartoon More about Marshall McLuhan: Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) was the first major communications theorist of how the new media have the power to transform human nature. No matter how powerful or persuasive the message, he said, it’s the media that have changed our patterns of thought and behaviour. Now, in a world dominated by the Internet and social media, McLuhan’s revolutionary ideas are as hotly debated as they were in the 1960s, when he became an academic star known worldwide for his catchy slogans “the medium is the message,” “the global village,” and “hot and cool media.” Today, McLuhan is back in the spotlight again, this time as the first seer of decades scholars and students have read Marshall McLuhan’s landmark books Understanding Media and the Gutenberg Galaxy, recognizing him as the foremost theorist of how the new media have affected human behaviour. Important links:
