[ecrea] McLuhan's Philosophy of Media - Centennial Conference - 26-28 October 2011 - Brussels

Invitation

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McLuhan's Philosophy of Media
Centennial Conference - Contact Forum
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26-28 October 2011 - Brussels
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http://www.mcluhancentennial.eu <http://www.mcluhancentennial.eu/>

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
Robert K. Logan, Derrick de Kerckhove, Paul Levinson, Graham Harman, 
Peter-Paul Verbeek


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.


Registration details: http://www.mcluhancentennial.eu/?page_id=37

--Register by September 15th at the latest to take advantage of the 
Early Bird rate.--


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/>