Defining the medium is the message and its relation to cubism


In 1964, communications theorist, Marshall McLuhan, coined his well-known phrase the medium is the message (Understanding Media: the extensions of man). McLuhan's view on media 
(in particular the television) was a breakthrough for the study of media, being one of the first examining the use and effects on a large scale. Today, his theories are still valid and considered as a forecast for the development of technology, media, and communication. He predicted the growth of media and the accelerating speed of technology and information in society; when looking at the fast development of the use of internet in our society, his prediction seems right. McLuhan's interest in the subject was spurred by the evolution of mass media and the proliferation of new technologies. This affected not only mankind and society on a large scale, but also the visual arts; artists began to use the new technologies in their artworks, resulting in new art types, for example, video art, kinetic (moving) sculptures, and installation art. In the chapter dealing with the medium is the message, McLuhan connects this phrase to the cubism art movement, which was of special interest to him. However, prior to an explanation of this notion, a clear definition of the medium is the message is necessary. 
 McLuhan developed his ideas in the years after the second World War and the early fifties and he refers to his era as 'the electric age', the successor of the mechanical age. He characterizes the latter as an age of slow movement, allowing actions and their reactions to be undertaken with consideration as slow movement "insured that the reactions were delayed for considerable periods of time" (McLuhan 1964:4). Conversely, the electric age enacts speed; action and reaction occur almost simultaneously. Thus it is necessary to identify the consequences of any action, for their reactions are experienced without delay (McLuhan 1967:63). This electric age conceived the mass media, e.g., television, radio and newspapers, that affected not only the use of media, but also the meaning of medium. Therefore, it is necessary to gain a better understanding of the variety and usage of the term 'medium'. The traditional usage of 'medium' in the arts refers to the substance used to create an artwork, such as oil-based paint. This definition became useless with the emerging mass media, since television, radio, and newspapers itself became a 'medium', and it had a similar effect in the arts: photography, video, sculpture, and even a painting were referred to as 'a medium'. For McLuhan, medium is an extension of ourselves, either physical of psychic. For example, a book is an extension of the eye; a hammer the extension of an arm; the electric media extensions of the human central nervous system (McLuhan 2003:xvi). In order to explain this notion, McLuhan goes back to the origin of the phonetic alphabet, which is an intensification and extension of the visual senses, and diminishing the role of the other senses of sound, touch, and taste (McLuhan 1964:91). The new electric media reverses this process, bringing about a new sensory balance, returning to the five senses. "The auditory and tactile senses come back into play, and man begins to use all his senses again in a unified 'seamless web' of experience"(McLuhan 2003:xiv). McLuhan also has a particular understanding of 'message' that differs from the common usage as the content of information. Instead, 'message' refers to "the change of the scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs"(McLuhan 1964:8). In other words, referring the effect of any medium on a person or society. McLuhan was concerned with the tendency that one focuses more on the contents of the new media, rather than on the effects; the latter being of great importance to him, being the character of the medium. He argues that it is the medium with which one could understand and identify "the psychic and social consequences of the designs or patterns as they amplify or accelerate existing processes" (McLuhan 1964:8). All media, regardless of its content or messages communicated, exert an influence on man and society, which inevitably reshapes the society that created the technology (Norden 1969). According to McLuhan, it does not much matter what one says on the telephone, the telephone has a service as an environment and that is the medium. The environment affects everybody, what one says on the telephone (i.e. content) affects very few. Thus one has the medium is the message: "It really means a hidden environment of services created by an innovation, and the environment of services is the thing that changes people. It is the environment that changes people, not technology" (McLuhan 2003:241).
 McLuhan claims that the medium is the message is most apparent in the artworks of the cubist art movement, and in order to clarify this notion he quotes art historian E.H. Gombrich, who describes cubism as "the most radical attempt to stamp out ambiguity and to enforce one reading of the picture - that of a man-made construction, a colored canvas" (McLuhan 1964:13). Cubism focuses on the second dimension in a painting and in doing so, dropping the illusion of perspective in favor of instant sensory awareness of the whole. "Cubism, by seizing on instant total awareness, suddenly announced that the medium is the message" (McLuhan 1964:8). For example, the painting 'Homme ŕ la cheminée' ('Man at a fireplace', 1916, figure 1) by Pablo Picasso. According to McLuhan this painting is designed to convey the effect of a man at a fireplace and not the appearance, as no man or fireplace are clearly depicted. The instant awareness gives immediate effect and the focus is on the effect, rather than on the content.  
 McLuhan's approach to art can be questioned, as he portrays an artwork as a tool for society to become aware of effects. Even though he uses the essential part of a painting, namely the pictorial content, it is solely to stress the importance of effect, and in doing so neglecting the content. In McLuhan's understanding it does not matter what a cubist painting depicted, as long as it brings forth immediate effect given by the instant awareness. 

Figure 1

Reference

McLuhan, Marshall, Understanding Media: the extensions of man, United Kingdom (Routledge) 1964.
Lütticken, Sven, 'Undead Media', Afterimage (2004) January 1st, n.p.
Norden, Eric, 'The Playboy Interview: Marshall McLuhan',  Playboy Magazine (1969) March, n.p.
McLuhan, Marshall, The Medium is the Massage, Corte Madera, CA (Gingko Press) 1967.
McLuhan, Marshall, Stephanie McLuhan, Understanding Me: Lecture and Interviews, Toronto (M&S) 2003.