Mcluhan’s Wake

Speaker: Director: Kevin McMahon

September 9, 2010 | 6.00 pm
Goethe Hall, Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai

We all live in Marshall McLuhan’s wake. Fascinated by the role technology played in transforming our lives, one of the 20th century’s most famous intellectuals realized, with stunning accuracy, the impact the digital age would have on our social, spiritual, economic and ideological selves. ‘The global village’ and ‘the medium is the message’ are among the most quoted phrases of our time. Now, over twenty years after his death, in the midst of an era of Internet, virtual and wired technologies McLuhan’s Wake explores this enduring truth. McLuhan’s life and career are thoroughly examined, and his 20th-century ideas are tested to see how they hold up in the 21st century.

Grounded in McLuhan’s last scholarly work, ‘The Laws of Media’, this film is a visually dazzling and poetic film, translating these laws into an illuminating and revealing text, haunted by archival footage and the voice of McLuhan himself. It includes commentary by scholars like Eric McLuhan, Neil Postman, Lewis I.apham, and journalist Patrick Watson. The film is narrated by renowned performance artist, Laurie Anderson.