RE-TOUCHING McLUHAN – THE MEDIUM IS THE MASSAGE

RE-TOUCHING McLUHAN – THE MEDIUM IS THE MASSAGE
Marshall McLuhan Centennial Weekend, Berlin
Conference | Screening | Exhibition | Performance
Friday May 27 – Sunday May 29, 2011
Embassy of Canada / Marshall McLuhan Salon
http://mcluhan2011.eu/berlin
transmediale, Berlin's festival for art and digital culture in collaboration with the Embassy of Canada and Marshall McLuhan Salon invite you to a key event celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of famed Canadian media philosopher Herbert Marshall McLuhan. Having coined expressions such as the 'global village' and 'the medium is the message' in the early days of TV and electronic culture, the Re-Touching McLuhan events explore the many interpretations of McLuhan's play on language and media that shape today's networked society.
The international conference Re-Touching McLuhan: The Medium is the Massage chaired by Dieter Daniels and moderated by Christopher Salter, sees leading international media and digital culture researchers Richard Cavell, Dieter Daniels, Martina Leeker, Claus Pias, Katja Kwastek, Liz Kotz, Janine Marchessault, Graham Larkin and Lorenz Engell explore McLuhan’s unique take on tactile and multi-sensory media expressed by the media philosopher's unintentionally published blurring of the words 'message' and 'massage'.
Former Director of the University of Toronto's 'McLuhan Programme for Culture and Technology' Derrick de Kerckhove joins Berlin-based McLuhan scholar Steffi Winkler in elaborating on rare broadcast material from the Marshall McLuhan Salon's unique archives in the first session of the McLuminations screening and discussion series, produced by UdK Berlin Institute for Time-Based Media resident Baruch Gottlieb.
With a keynote introduction to McLuhan's 'massaging of the aural senses' by U.B.C. Prof. Richard Cavell the opening of the Centennial Weekend will feature the worldwide (re-)launch of McLuhan's 1968 audio art classic The Medium is the Massage, digitally remastered for the first time, produced and presented by hip-hop musician and conceptual artist Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky.
The Centennial Weekend will also feature the European première of Through the Vanishing Point, a major new multi-media installation by leading Canadian digital artists David Rokeby and Lewis Kaye, as well as Play_McLuhan, an exhibition by media art students from the Hochschule Darmstadt under the direction of Sabine Breitsameter will be presented.
Programme Highlights
Friday May 27, 18.00
Re-Touching McLuhan Centennial Weekend
Opening and Reception featuring Richard Cavell and Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky
Saturday May 28, 10.00 – 18.00
Re-Touching McLuhan: The Medium is the Massage
Conference chaired by Dieter Daniels
Sunday May 29, 14.30
McLuminations #1
Screening & Discussion featuring Derrick de Kerckhove and Steffi Winkler
Sunday May 29, 17.00
Through The Vanishing Point
Installation by David Rokeby and Lewis Kaye - Vernissage
Full event schedule: http://mcluhan2011.eu/schedule
Special Pre-Events
Friday, May 27, 12.00 – 17.00
Global Village: Calamity or Chance?
2nd German-Canadian Professionals Conference
http://www.gcp-conference.de/2011
Friday, May 27th, 17.00
PLAY_McLUHAN
Exhibition presentation by Sabine Breitsameter and students of the Hochschule Darmstadt
Location:
Embassy of Canada / Marshall McLuhan Salon
Leipziger Platz 17
10117 Berlin
U-Bahn and S-Bahn Potsdamer Platz
All events are free and open to the public but spaces are limited so please and arrive early to ensure enough time for embassy security!
If you're not in Berlin May 27 - 29 you can join us online at http://mcluhan2011.eu/berlin. All RE-TOUCHING McLUHAN conference presentations will be streamed and live moderated by Lalitha Rajan on IRC.freenode.net on the #mcluhan2011eu channel (You can use your external client, or use http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=mcluhan2011eu&uio=d4)
**McLUHAN IN EUROPE 2011**
The RE-TOUCHING McLUHAN Berlin Centennial Weekend is a project of the McLuhan in Europe 2011 network, initiated and directed by Stephen Kovats in collaboration with Michelle Kasprzak, celebrating the centenary of visionary Canadian media philosopher Herbert Marshall McLuhan, and his impact on European art and media culture.
http://mcluhan2011.eu
Other McLuhan in Europe 2011 events coming up soon include:
McLuhan’s Global Village Today: Transatlantic Perspectives on Medium and Message
May 12-14, Centre for Canadian Studies, Marburg
http://www.uni-marburg.de/mzks/aktuelles/index_html
Transgressing the Senses. Culture, Technology and TechnoMind
May 20 – 21, Academy of Fine Arts, Katowice, Poland
http://www.cybergarden.eu
McLuhan Galaxy Conference
Universitat Pompeu Fabra and the IN3 – Internet Interdisciplinary Institute, Barcelona, Spain
May 23 – 25
http://mcluhangalaxy.net
See also Darren Wershler's 'McLuhan in Europe 2011' intro:
http://www.vimeo.com/14196118