Talk at U of T
Bonnie MacKinnon (705)748-1495
Exploring the the co-evolutionary interactions of mind, culture, technology
and biology.
McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology, University of Toronto
Invites you To a Lecture and Discussion with:
PAUL LEVINSON PhD
Visiting Professor of Communications at Fordham University, New York City
Author of Mind at Large (1988), The Soft Edge(1997), and NOW Digital McLuhan
(1999)
He Will Present a Lecture and Discussion - Exploring the Evolving
Relationship of Two Fundamental Aspects of Human Existence
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"WALKING, TALKING, AND TELEPORTATION:
The Dance of Information and Materiality in the Evolution of Media"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
WEDNESDAY JULY 14 1999 7-9 PM
McLuhan Video Conference Room, Rm# 307,
140 St. George St. --- in the Bissell Building,
Faculty of Information Studies
(Tower North of Robarts Library)
Paul Levinson, a pioneer in the study of media evolution, will present his
most recent work on the evolving interactions between information and
material media, a relationship which is central to understanding the ongoing
co-evolution of human inventions and the human mind, the central interest of
our research initiative. His presentation will be followed by an in-depth
discussion of his ideas.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ABSTACT of the Upcoming Talk:
In the beginning, communication and transportation
were one and the same: to communicate to someone,
to talk to him or her, you had to walk into that person's
physical presence. The invention of writing changed
all that, and severed the act of communication from
transportation -- as Freud noted, writing is the voice
of an absent person. The telegraph and its electronic
progeny separated the two even more: information,
not material nor flesh-and-blood people, can be sent
at speed-of-light. The photograph did the same,
preserving the image not the material of life and
reality. And today, java script can be sent through
the Web -- but not a cup of java. Will the two --
transport and communication -- ever be reunited?
That would take a teleportation system, which
could transport physical entities as easily as today's
media move information. Drawing on thinking and
research harkening back to his doctoral dissertation
("Human Replay: A Theory of the Evolution of Media,"
1979) and proceeding though his current books
(_The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the
Information Revolution_, Routledge, 1997, and
_Digital McLuhan: A Guide to the Information Millennium_,
Routledge, 1999), Levinson considers these historical,
evolutionary precedents, and their future possibilites.
==============================================
MMRP: The MEDIA AND MIND RESEARCH PROJECT is a new initiative of the McLuhan
Program exploring the important evolving relationships between human
biology, the mind, and techno-cultural media, from a multi-disciplinary
approach. This project encourages the integration of ideas and approaches
from the sciences, humanities, and arts.
--------------------------------------------
WEB SITE: http:/mcluhan.utoronto.ca/~mmri
---------------------------------------------
Please explore our web site, offering a bibliography, online articles, and
discussion themes with multiple contributors. We intend the web site to be a
living laboratory of media and mind interactions, to facilitate discussion,
research and hopefully display some connected intelligence towards
understanding how biology and culture continuously co-evolve. Please report
any problems/design suggestions/requests for assistance to
the webmaster: Paul Kelly, M.A.--- pke...@calumet.yorku.ca
For Information regarding the Project including the web site, contact:
Norman Steinhart B.Sc M.D.
Co-ordinator of Media-Mind Research Project (MMRP)
Research Associate, McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology,
University of Toronto
nsti...@interlog.com
voice:416-481-0540 fax: 481-9275(call first)
Mail: 28 Maxwell Ave. Toronto M5P 2B5
For information on the McLuhan Program please contact:
McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology, University of Toronto
978-7026 www.mcluhan.utoronto.ca