[ecrea] McLuhan's Philosophy of Media

Call for Papers / Panels
Submission deadline: April 1st, 2011.
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McLuhan's Philosophy of Media
Centennial Conference
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26-28 October 2011 - Brussels
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Keynote Speakers:
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 submit an abstract of no more than 
300 words, prepared for blind review, to 
https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=mpmcc2011.

Panel proposals should include:
* the names and affiliations of the panelists and panel chair
* 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

Proposals should be submitted at 
https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=mpmcc2011.

Important:  please put the names of all the panelists under 'Authors' -- 
marking the panel chair as 'Corresponding author' -- and the panel title 
and all of the abstracts under 'Title, Abstract and Other Information.'

Submission deadline: April 1st, 2011.


More information:
Yoni Van Den Eede -- Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences -- Free 
University of Brussels - (info /at/ mcluhancentennial.eu) 
<mailto:(info /at/ mcluhancentennial.eu)>.

http://www.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/>
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