[ecrea] McLuhan's Philosophy of Media - Centennial Conference

> =========================
> McLuhan's Philosophy of Media - Centennial Conference
> --------------------------------------------
> 26-28 October 2011 - Brussels
> =========================
>
> Keynote Speakers:
> Eric McLuhan, Robert K. Logan, Paul Levinson, 
> Graham Harman, Peter-Paul Verbeek
>
> <http://www.mcluhancentennial.eu/>http://www.mcluhancentennial.eu
>
>
> Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980): media theorist, 
> cultural critic, provoker. Undoubtedly 
> influential. Pitching phrases like 'the medium 
> is the message' and 'the global village,' 
> McLuhan rose to stardom in the 1960s, only to 
> see his fame decay during the last decade of his 
> life. Since the early 1990s however, his ideas 
> have been gradually rediscovered by academics 
> and pop culture alike. The digital revolution 
> made him, retrospectively, a quite accurate 
> analyst of the information era, even a visionary 
> in the eyes of some. Within communication 
> studies, cultural studies, sociology, and 
> philosophy, his insights remain fertile ground 
> for anyone trying to understand the interactions 
> of humans, technologies, and media environments.
>
> In 2011, McLuhan would have celebrated his 100th 
> birthday. A perfect moment to look back as well 
> as ahead. During this interdisciplinary 
> conference, we will discuss McLuhan's ideas from 
> different perspectives and traditions. At the 
> same time we wish to highlight an aspect of 
> McLuhan that until now has been underexposed: 
> his philosophy of media. Inasmuch as he 
> reflected upon the workings and forms of media, 
> McLuhan truly was a philosopher of technology, 
> very much in the style of contemporary 
> Anglo-American philosophers of technology: 
> weaving together ontology, phenomenology, 
> critique, and cultural observations into an 
> eclectic patchwork bent on understanding media 
> dynamics. And ?media,? in McLuhan's sense, could 
> be anything made by humans, ranging from cars 
> over political systems to ideas. Throughout this 
> centennial celebration, we seek to investigate 
> McLuhan's ?media philosophy,? in particular its 
> relation to, relevance for, and place in 
> philosophy and media studies. More specifically, 
> but not exhaustively, the following topics could be discussed:
>
> - McLuhan's media theory and its relevance in 
> the context of today's media research
> - General concepts in McLuhan's theory of media, 
> e.g., causality, rationality, spatiality, temporality, corporeality, extension
> - ?Is the medium still the message in the 21st century??
> - Metaphysics in McLuhan
> - ?Technologies-as-Extension? theories
> - McLuhan's use/critique of logic
> - Parallels and connections between McLuhan's 
> media theory and other philosophical or 
> philosophically inspired schools, e.g., 
> phenomenology, structuralism, Thomism, idealism, linguistics
> - The scope of McLuhan's media analysis
> - McLuhan's interpretation and reading of 
> philosophers and writers, e.g., Francis Bacon, 
> Vico, Aristotle, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Shakespeare, the Bible
> - The relevance and usability of the 'tetrad'
>
> Since we aim at an interdisciplinary conference, 
> we welcome contributions from all academic fields.
>
> A selection of the presented papers will be published afterwards.
>
>
> Individual paper proposals: please send an 
> abstract of no more than 300 words, prepared for 
> blind review, to <mailto:(info /at/ mcluhancentennial.eu)>(info /at/ mcluhancentennial.eu).
>
> Panel proposals should include:
> * an appropriate panel title
> * a general abstract of no more than 300 words, prepared for blind review
> * an abstract from each panelist, of no more 
> than 150 words, prepared for blind review
> * the names and affiliations of the panelists and panel chair
> Please direct proposals to 
> <mailto:(info /at/ mcluhancentennial.eu)>(info /at/ mcluhancentennial.eu).
>
> Submission deadline: April 1st,  2011.
>
>
> More information:
> Yoni Van Den Eede ? Department of Philosophy and 
> Moral Sciences ? Free University of Brussels - 
> <mailto:(info /at/ mcluhancentennial.eu)>(info /at/ mcluhancentennial.eu).
>
> http://www.mcluhancentennial.eu
>
>
> Organized by the Centre for Ethics and the 
> Interdisciplinary Institute for Broadband 
> Technology - Studies on Media, Information and 
> Telecommunication (IBBT-SMIT), Faculty of Arts 
> and Philosophy, Free University of Brussels 
> (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) - <http://www.vub.ac.be/>http://www.vub.ac.be