Marshall McLuhan

Robert Lansdale, a press and commercial photographer who often shot pictures for the University of Toronto, died on July 13 at age 90, the Globe and Mail reports.

Born in Etobicoke, Lansdale began his career at Federal Newsphotos of Canada. He photographed John F. Kennedy and John Diefenbaker, royal visits and Canadian swimmer Marilyn Bell after crossing the English Channel.

Later in his career, he joined a commercial photo studio and took on U of T as a client. He documented decades of university life, from convocations to classes with famed media theorist and U of T professor Marshall McLuhan. Beginning in the early 1960s, Mr. Lansdale was hired so regularly by the University of Toronto that he was unofficially recognized by the university community as the “U of T photographer,” according to the Globe.

At U of T, he also photographed Margaret Atwood, a young Bob Rae as a student activist and interior and exterior views of the changing St. George, Erindale College (now U of T Mississauga) and U of T Scarborough campuses. The Robert Lansdale fonds in the U of T Archives comprise 50,000 photographs from the mid-1960s to mid-1980s. About 25,000 of his scanned negatives are available online through the archives' Campus Photographers collection.

U of T prof hosts ‘McLuhanesque’ marathon talk with Margaret Atwood, Mayor John Tory and others

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 20 Jul 2021 13:53:21 +0000

U of T prof hosts ‘McLuhanesque’ marathon talk with Margaret Atwood, Mayor John Tory and others

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 07/20/2021 - 09:53

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Clockwise from top left; John Tory, Riley Yesno, Margaret Atwood, Paolo Granata, Mark Kingwell, Joe Wong, Derrick de Kerckhove and the late U of T professor, philosopher and renowned media theorist Marshall McLuhan.

Yanan Wang

Topic

Global Lens

French

Toronto Rehabilitation Institute

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Faculty of Arts & Science

Indigenous

Marshall McLuhan

Philosophy

St. Michael's College

University Health Network

Victoria College

In the 1970s, the late University of Toronto professor, philosopher and renowned media theorist Marshall McLuhan regularly hosted gatherings at his home on Monday nights, when an eclectic group of students, fellow faculty and others came together to answer his open-ended question: “What’s on your mind?”

A lengthy discussion would ensue, with no specific agenda or subject. The purpose of the dialogue was not to draw conclusions, but rather to keep the conversation going.

Paolo Granata
(photo by Martyn Jones)

In the same spirit of free-flowing inquiry, Paolo Granata will host the second-annual Global Village Day today – a 12-hour online streaming marathon that runs noon until midnight and features speakers from a range of cultures and disciplines.

“Global Village Day is a way to gather an international community of scholars, thinkers and artists to not only celebrate one of the most iconic Canadian philosophers, but also to conceive of Toronto as a global village,” says Granata, an assistant professor of book and media studies at St. Michael’s College, referencing the term famously coined by McLuhan.

In partnership with the McLuhan Institute and the Marshall McLuhan Estate, the event aims to tackle questions surrounding place, public art and global governance that have arisen from the pandemic. Much like McLuhan’s own gatherings, the discussion aims to be free-flowing and open-ended. The speakers have been placed into groups of three to five, with each group occupying an hour of the marathon. They will address three core questions on lessons from the pandemic and how the global village can be reimagined for a sustainable future.

The event will be highly interactive and participatory, Granata says. The marathon will be streamed live on Facebook and YouTube, and audience members are invited to submit comments and questions, which Granata will in turn pose to the guest speakers.

Hailing from 12 different countries, guests will include: world-renowned author Margaret Atwood, a graduate of U of T’s Victoria College; Joe Wong, U of T’s vice-president, international; Mark Kingwell, a writer and professor of philosophy in the Faculty of Arts & Science, Riley Yesno, an Anishinaabe writer who graduated from Victoria College this year; Derrick de Kerckhove, former director of the McLuhan Program in Culture & Technology and a professor emeritus in the department of French; and Roda Muse, secretary-general of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO.

Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Ontario’s lieutenant governor, and Toronto Mayor John Tory, a graduate of U of T’s Trinity College, will kick off the marathon with remarks. In his greeting, Tory will also introduce ArtworxTO: Toronto’s Year of Public Art 2021-2022, a slate of public artworks and related programming set to officially launch this September.

Professor Marshall McLuhan with students and other faculty during one of his famous evening seminars (photo by Robert Lansdale Photography via U of T Archives)

“I’m sure McLuhan would be struck by the vibrant media arts landscape that Toronto has created,” Tory says in a pre-recorded greeting. “And, of course, we can continue to thank him for teaching us that in a diverse city like this, a global village in a big city, communication is vital to understanding and to mutual support.”

U of T has worked with the city and other partners on a number of projects for ArtworxTO, including upcoming exhibitions and programming at the U of T Art Museum on the St. George campus and at U of T Scarborough, collaborating with the city on the annual Nuit Blanche event, student-led research through U of T’s School of Cities to evaluate the Year of Public Art and a future mural honouring Terry Fox at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, part of the University Health Network.

The initiatives emphasize how U of T and the city of Toronto are connected, says Barbara Fischer, executive director of the U of T Art Museum.

“The university is at the heart of the city and vice versa,” Fischer says. “The projects will highlight how much art informs our sense of place and how intertwined the city is with the U of T campus.”

Screenshots from last year’s Global Village Day event, which was held online due to the pandemic.

One project is already underway at Hart House Green, where an Indigenous Landscape will ultimately be formed on the site. In the meantime, Assistant Professors Maria Hupfield and Mikinaak Migwans are working with Indigenous artists to develop murals celebrating Indigenous relations to the land that will adorn the hoarding currently used to protect existing trees.

Moreover, U of T Scarborough is working with the city to develop an app that will allow users to take self-guided tours of public art around Toronto. Graduate students are working with the U of T Art Museum to develop the script for the audio tour, which will introduce perspectives and ideas surrounding public art that can be found in various neighbourhoods, parks and streets.

ArtworxTO is part of a years-long effort connected to Toronto’s designation as a UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts, for which Granata was the principal driver in 2017.

“U of T has played an instrumental role in fostering media arts, technology and creativity in the city of Toronto,” Granata says.

While the first Global Village Day took place during the early days of the pandemic last summer, this year’s event will highlight the lessons gleaned from a year and a half of upheaval.

“Now is the time to reflect on a fundamental question: what did we learn during this pandemic?” Granata says. “It is time to take account of all the valuable lessons in terms of cultural participation, higher education and all other fields. What really matters to us in a post-pandemic world? If we don’t address these questions, we may go back to the old normal without really growing as a society.

He added that COVID-19 underscored the need for global governance.

“We need the flexibility of different countries working together and making decisions for the common good.”

While this year’s Global Village Day will once again be entirely virtual, participants will show themselves passing around the marathon’s “torch” on their screens: an object of their choosing that they believe represents the idea of the global village in the 21^st century. At the close of the event at midnight, there will be a toast to McLuhan to mark the 110^th anniversary of his birth on July 21.

“As McLuhan said, ‘I don’t explain, I explore,’” Granata says. “So, we will be explorers celebrating his legacy.”

Mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing with these words from U of T’s Marshall McLuhan

Romi Levine — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 18:27:07 +0000

Mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing with these words from U of T’s Marshall McLuhan

Romi Levine Thu, 07/18/2019 - 14:27

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Visitors admire Neil Armstrong's Apollo 11 spacesuit this week after it was unveiled for the first time in 13 years at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alastair Pike/AFP/Getty Images)

Topic

On July 21, 1969, people around the world crowded around their televisions to witness history in the making: astronaut Neil Armstrong taking his first steps on the moon.

The United States’ Apollo 11 spacecraft landed on the moon the day before – becoming the first crewed vessel to do so.

The momentous occasion sparked a lively conversation on U.S. television network ABC’s As it Happens between U of T Professor and famed media theorist Marshall McLuhan, Scottish landscape architect and writer Ian McHarg, Newsday publisher Bill Moyers and journalist Howard K. Smith.

Watch the full conversation here:

The panel discussed the significance of the moon landing – from debating whether it was a conquest versus an exploratory mission to the space race with Russia.

McLuhan was looking to the future in order to gauge the long-term benefits of the moon landing.

“Let’s ask ourselves in long-term projects about the meteorological possibilities of the conquest of moon space,” he said. “Can we consider the possibility of space platforms that might serve the control of climatic conditions eventually on Earth?”

He also predicted that transportation – from space travel to cars – will soon become obsolete in their current forms.

“We can tell by saturation and pollution that we’re reaching a terminus in many areas of use of materials,” he said.

And the biggest shift that will take place once man has explored the moon?

“The hidden change created by moonshot is a totally new environment for human knowledge,” he said.

Media ethics in the fake news era: Conference at U of T builds on Marshall McLuhan’s legacy

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 24 Jun 2019 16:23:50 +0000

Media ethics in the fake news era: Conference at U of T builds on Marshall McLuhan’s legacy

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 06/24/2019 - 12:23

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The University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto and U of T are co-hosting the Media Ecology Association's annual convention this week (photo by Makeda Marc-Ali)

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Faculty of Information

University of St. Michael's College

In a world of fake news, hyper-connectivity and rapidly advancing means of communication, the humanistic and critical perspective of famed media theorist – and University of Toronto professor –Marshall McLuhan can feel almost prophetic. So it’s fitting that, this week, hundreds of scholars will converge on U of T’s downtown Toronto campus to address many of the most important and challenging questions about media and society today.

From June 27-30, the University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto and U of T will co-host the Media Ecology Association (MEA) for its 20th annual convention. This year’s theme is “Media Ethics: Human Ecology in a Connected World,” and the itinerary includes 80 sessions and events that feature 300 speakers from 30 countries.

The international conference is timely, with elections on the horizon in both Canada and the United States.

“Given St. Mike’s long tradition of teaching and research infused with a focus on ethics and values, it’s fitting that we, along with U of T’s Faculty of Arts & Science, Faculty of Information, and the Centre for Ethics, have joined together with the MEA to inspire the next generation of media scholars,” said St. Michael’s President David Sylvester.

Paolo Granata, an assistant professor of book and media studies, is the chair of this year’s conference. He organized the event with an eye on a technological society developing so quickly that lawmakers and ethicists are struggling to keep pace. Granata explores these ideas in his research and teaching, including the McLuhan Seminar in Creativity and Technology, an SMC One program that features a learning experience in Silicon Valley for first-year students. A number of Granata’s students will also be on hand to participate in and support the proceedings while making connections with scholars in the field.

The proceedings will kick off on Wednesday with a pre-conference panel discussion on how the internet is affecting civil society featuring Mark Kingwell, a professor in U of T’s department of philosophy. Presented by the Toronto Reference Library and the McLuhan Salon Series, “The Social Cost of the Information Age” networking event is free and open to the public.

The formal opening of the convention is on June 27 and will include remarks from the Honourable Karina Gould, Canada's minister of democratic institutions.

“The Media Ethics conference provides an important space for Canadians to discuss how they use platforms, the information they are seeing on these platforms and the level of trust they have for these platforms,” says Gould.

“Democracy is rooted in the trust of the people in the process and in the legitimacy of the outcome.”

'Earlids' required: U of T explores architectural history of open-concept offices, other spaces

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 12 Apr 2019 19:06:35 +0000

'Earlids' required: U of T explores architectural history of open-concept offices, other spaces

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 04/12/2019 - 15:06

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A recent U of T architectural history workshop focused on spaces that house communication-related work, including TV and radio stations, as well as universities, libraries and offices (photo courtesy of Herman Miller)

Jovana Jankovic

Topic

Our Community

Art History

Faculty of Arts & Science

Humanities

John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture

Marshall McLuhan

If you’ve ever worked or studied in an open-concept space, you probably benefited from the free flow of information – from overhearing useful tidbits of chatter to the ability to ask a neighbour for help with a problem.

But, according to Joseph Clarke, an assistant professor in the University of Toronto’s department of art history, you likely also faced some “acoustic challenges.”

The pros and cons of open-concept designs were among the topics explored by U of T scholars and international visitors at a recent workshop called Building Communication: Architectural History and Media Archaeology. The interdisciplinary workshop was hosted by Clarke, who conceived and organized this event with the support of a Connaught New Researcher Award.

“One thing that sets our department apart among North American art history programs is our expertise in the history of architecture,” Clarke says.

“I'm eager to showcase how we are embracing innovative methods in architectural history.”

Talks at the workshop focused on spaces that house communication-related work, including TV and radio stations, as well as universities, libraries and offices.

How do these spaces facilitate or hinder the flow of people, work, sounds, messages and technologies? What effect do their materials, aesthetics and approaches to design have on these flows? And what makes up the larger systems these places are part of — roads, parking lots, empty tracts of land, cities, transit hubs, telecommunications cables?

Clarke presented his current research on the mid-20^th century open office design movement. That included the “Action Office” concept introduced by furniture company Herman Miller in the late 1960s, and the work of Wolfgang and Eberhard Schnelle — two brothers who championed an ostensibly human-centric office design that rejected the conventional arrangement of rigid rows of desks.

It was thought that these office spaces – open and malleable – would facilitate collaboration and the flow of information while also challenging the class and gender hierarchies of the corporate environment. But the space presented acoustic challenges, necessitating the use of carpeting, drop ceilings, drapes, quiet music, white noise generators and fabric-covered partitions to direct and minimize sound.

The “Action Office” was meant to facilitate a free flow of information, but the acoustics required sound-dampening materials like curtains and carpet (photo courtesy of Herman Miller)

The “sonic exchange of information” was especially valued as a design factor when open-plan workspaces were being developed, says Clarke. He highlighted a quirky but topical remark that famed media theorist Marshall McLuhan made in 1967: “We are simply not equipped with earlids!”

While the high modernism of the late 1960s was enthusiastic about revolutionizing office spaces, the development of computers and the increasing scarcity of office space in the 1970s and beyond meant the dream eventually died. The cubicles we are familiar with today bear little resemblance to the dynamic and innovative “Action Office.”

Among other projects presented at the workshop: Architectural historian Mary Louise Lobsinger, an associate professor in the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, who is also cross-appointed to the department of art history, spoke about her research into a curious tale from the 1960s called the Potteries Thinkbelt.

An ambitious and unconventional approach to making education more accessible and inclusive, the Thinkbelt was a large-scale system of infrastructure and communications technology intended to create a kind of distributed, mobile university on an abandoned railway line in Staffordshire, U.K..

Architectural historian Mary Louise Lobsinger spoke about her research into the Potteries Thinkbelt. Workshop organizer Joseph Clarke looks on (photo by Diana Tyszko)

Designer Cedric Price firmly believed in the potential of technology and architecture to open education up to a larger sector of the population, including for unemployed industrial workers in the area.

Price imagined the Thinkbelt would facilitate participatory and self-paced styles of learning – something which we’ve achieved to some extent today with online and distance education.

But the Thinkbelt would never come to be: The 1970s saw the arrival of an era that reduced support for the public sector and dismantled social-democratic principles of education as a public good. The type of “systems thinking” that Price was doing was dismissed as mere “technocratic hubris” – an overconfident dream that technology could lead us to social emancipation.

Despite its ambition, Lobsinger criticizes one particular point about the Thinkbelt: “There are human beings moving through these systems,” she says. “How do people navigate through them and make sense spatially?”

Projects like Price’s, she says, were "really oblivious to bodies."

Famed U of T Professor Marshall McLuhan’s library given United Nations heritage designation

Romi Levine — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 18:52:30 +0000

Famed U of T Professor Marshall McLuhan’s library given United Nations heritage designation

Romi Levine Thu, 11/02/2017 - 14:52

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Marshall McLuhan's library at U of T holds 6,000 publications, mostly books (photo by Romi Levine)

Topic

Subheadline

Second UNESCO Memory of The World designation for U of T, fifth overall for Canada

University of Toronto professor and famed media theorist Marshall McLuhan’s legacy continues to reach far and wide, shaping the way people think about culture and technology.

It’s his scope of influence that has earned McLuhan’s library and archives, housed at U of T and at Library and Archives Canada, a spot on the UNESCO Memory of the World register – a collection of documents and materials from all over the world that seeks to tell and preserve the story of humanity.

UNESCO is a United Nations group that advocates for co-operation between nations around education, science, culture and communications.

“It's a rich addition to our global documentary heritage and we’re delighted to have been chosen as stewards of this unique material,” said Larry Alford, U of T’s chief librarian, at the announcement event, which took place Tuesday at Robarts Library.

Browse the full U of T McLuhan library collection

This is the fifth Canadian entry into the Memory of the World and U of T’s second – the first is original archive materials, including research documents, related to the discovery of insulin at the university, which led to a Nobel Prize for Medicine.

Library and Archives Canada, a federal-run institution, holds the personal archives of McLuhan, including letters and photographs, and U of T Libraries has his massive library – 6,000 published items, which are mainly books, and the notes and newspaper clippings he stuffed between their pages.

“Both UTL and LAC are committed to celebrating the legacy and memory of a great thinker who arguably belonged to the world as much as he did to Canada,” said Guy Berthiaume, the Librarian and Archivist of Canada.

(From left) Wendy Duff, dean of U of T's Faculty of Information, Larry Alford, Guy Berthiaume, Robert Fisher of Library and Archives Canada, and John Shoesmith, U of T librarian, at the UNESCO announcement event (photo by Romi Levine)

McLuhan’s book collection at U of T is as diverse as it is large, with subject matter ranging from media studies to English literature, Catholicism and philosophy.

“You can really see the depth and breadth of his interests,” said John Shoesmith, outreach librarian at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library.

Not only was McLuhan an avid reader, but he was an active reader – always making annotations in the margins of the books, on book jackets and the endpapers, said Shoesmith.

This holds true regarding McLuhan’s obsession with Irish author James Joyce, particularly his notoriously difficult novel Finnegan’s Wake, of which there are five copies in his library, including a first edition.

“One of the reasons for that is that he would heavily annotate one that he would need to get another one to continue his annotations,” Shoesmith said.

One of McLuhan's heavily annotated copies of Finnegan's Wake (photo by Romi Levine)

His collection also includes the work of his colleagues at U of T like Harold Innis, as well as well-known theorists like Walter J. Ong and writer and artist William S. Burroughs.

The UNESCO designation is affirmation that the McLuhan library is an important asset, not just for U of T students and faculty, but researchers all over the world who have been influenced by his writings, said Shoesmith.

“It shows that you can come here and still get a sense of where his ideas came from, how he researched, the books he was reading,” he said. “It's such a rich resource. Having an intact working library of such a major scholar and personality is invaluable.”

U of T's Marshall McLuhan featured in CBC documentary

ullahnor — Thu, 27 Jul 2017 17:18:54 +0000

U of T's Marshall McLuhan featured in CBC documentary

ullahnor Thu, 07/27/2017 - 13:18

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The documentary is an adaptation of writer Douglas Coupland's 2010 biography of media theorist Marshall McLuhan (photo by Barry Philp/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

Topic

City & Culture

Marshall McLuhan

McLuhan Centre for Culture & Technology

Faculty of Information

The Globe and Mail interviews writer Douglas Coupland who wrote a 2010 biography on U of T's Marshall McLuhan.

Coupland’s book on the communications theorist has been adapted into a short documentary, which airs on Friday. Part of CBC’s Extraordinary Canadians series, the documentary will explore the enduring interest in McLuhan, who explored pop culture, mass media and predicted the ways in which technology would affect communication, long before cellphones or the Internet.

Many of McLuhan’s predictions of the way media would evolve have proved accurate, Coupland told the Globe, “I think in the time since I wrote the book – and I started writing the book almost nine years ago – the world has changed in as much as it continues to fulfill a lot of, I wouldn’t say prophecies, but a lot of his thinking on what it was that was going to replace television.”

Read the article

Last week, a Google Doodle celebrated McLuhan's 106th birthday. He was a fixture at U of T's Coach House Institute, which was renamed the McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology in the Faculty of Information.

Read about upcoming programs at the McLuhan Centre

Google Doodle celebrates 106th birthday of U of T’s Marshall McLuhan

Romi Levine — Fri, 21 Jul 2017 13:32:28 +0000

Google Doodle celebrates 106th birthday of U of T’s Marshall McLuhan

Romi Levine Fri, 07/21/2017 - 09:32

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

City & Culture

Cities

Marshall McLuhan

Today’s Google Doodle is celebrating the 106th birthday of famed University of Toronto professor and media theorist Marshall McLuhan.

McLuhan rose to fame in the 1960s when his theories about mass media and technology earned him celebrity fans including John Lennon and Pierre Trudeau.

At U of T, McLuhan was a fixture at the Coach House Institute, now renamed McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology in the Faculty of Information.

U of T McLuhan salons take the classroom to the city

Romi Levine — Tue, 08 Nov 2016 19:35:05 +0000

U of T McLuhan salons take the classroom to the city

Romi Levine Tue, 11/08/2016 - 14:35

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The first McLuhan salon took place in the City Hall council chamber (photo by Romi Levine)

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

Faculty of Information

McLuhan Centre for Culture & Technology

Toronto's place in an increasingly interconnected world was the subject of the inaugural McLuhan Salon, hosted by U of T's McLuhan Centre for Culture & Technology.

The salons are a nod to famed University of Toronto professor Marshall McLuhan, whose ideas about mass media, technology and culture still have a huge impact on today’s thinkers. They kicked off last week with Torontonians packing into the City Hall council chamber for the first event.

“We thought it would be good to get out of the university, get out of the centre, to bring the McLuhan Centre into the city in order to better explore the city under the broad theme of ‘City as Classroom’,” said the McLuhan Centre’s David Nostbakken, who was once McLuhan’s teaching assistant.

Nostbakken moderated the event. Speakers included author Anne Michaels, Toronto’s poet laureate and a U of T alumna; Vickery Bowles, city librarian at Toronto Public Library; and Kevin D’Innocenzo‎, a consultant with Lord Cultural Resources.

Altogether, there will be six events held by the Faculty of Information's McLuhan Centre, each at different cultural institutions monthly. The salons will bring together experts from different academic disciplines and city institutions. Attendees are encouraged to participate in the discussion.

Find out more about the McLuhan salons

Keeping in line with McLuhan's idea of the “global village,” the first salon explored the role Toronto and its cultural institutions play in the world. For example, the Toronto Public Library has found that technology has “transformational power” in public libraries.

“We’ve been able to reach people in ways we never dreamed of before,” said Bowles.

For example, when the library published a blog post welcoming refugees from Syria to Toronto, a refugee living in Beirut sent a message in response: “Thank you for welcoming us to the big Canadian family.”

“It was a real-time connection that social media allowed us to achieve,” Bowles said. “It’s important for us to be able make that kind of connection available to everyone. That’s an important part of what the public library does and what we’re so dedicated to.”

Author Anne Michaels (left) and Lord Cultural Resources consultant Kevin D'Innocenzo (right) spoke at the event (photo by Leona Seely)

Michaels said bringing together different groups of people who speak different languages is the perfect opportunity to showcase the richness of Toronto’s cultural communities.

“In this really extraordinary city, we speak over 140 languages,” she said.

“As we have more and more [newcomers] come to the city – more and more immigration and languages – this kind of history is extremely important. It’s giving this place its own stories.”

The city is starting to share those diverse histories through projects like Myseum, which explores the stories of newcomers to Canada, D'Innocenzo said.

“We are very cognisant and keen on giving people a platform to tell their story, and we’re only getting better at it.”

After all, it’s the core of what the city stands for, Bowles said.

“The city’s motto is ‘Diversity Our Strength’, and I think that’s something that’s so important for everyone to remember all the time because it’s so true about our ability to understand other people and understand their cultures. It builds connections that are so important for us as individuals, as communities, as cities.”

U of T breathes new life into Marshall McLuhan’s Toronto School

Romi Levine — Thu, 13 Oct 2016 13:50:47 +0000

U of T breathes new life into Marshall McLuhan’s Toronto School

Romi Levine Thu, 10/13/2016 - 09:50

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Paolo Granata, McLuhan Centenary Fellow and Toronto School conference chair (photo by Romi Levine)

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

City & Culture

Marshall McLuhan

Faculty of Information

President Meric Gertler

city-building

communications

Digital Media

Subheadline

Conference brings influential media thinkers back into the spotlight

Toronto has its fair share of cultural icons. Today, it’s Drake – our chart-topping, Raptors-loving rap superstar whose nickname for Toronto, “the 6ix,” has become a part of our daily lexicon.

In the 1960s, it was a group of forward-thinking intellectuals led by Marshall McLuhan, one of University of Toronto's most famous professors. He became a celebrity as his ideas on mass media, culture and technology attracted fans like John Lennon, Woody Allen and Pierre Trudeau.

A heritage plaque dedicated to McLuhan was unveiled Wednesday at the coach house where he taught and hosted discussions for much of his career. The building is now called the McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology.

Starting today, the McLuhan Centre, which is part of the Faculty of Information, will be launching a series of events that explore the value and importance of McLuhan and the famed group of intellectuals who were called the Toronto School of Communication. The McLuhan Centre hopes to spark a conversation that will inspire a new generation of thinkers with a three-day conference called Toronto School: Then, Now, Next.

"McLuhan famously broke and transcended boundaries – between disciplines, between academia and popular culture, between the local and the global," said U of T President Meric Gertler at the unveiling event.

"But he was rooted here, among colleagues from a range of disciplines, in what would become known as the Toronto School of Communication – a brilliant talent-cluster that helped accentuate U of T’s position as a world-leading centre for creativity and leadership in the humanities," he said.

Also in attendance was McLuhan’s son, Michael, who said that what keeps his father “relevant and marvellous today” are the people who continue to debate and discuss McLuhan’s ideas.

“[The conference] just speaks to the far reach that he has all over the world, not just here in the city of Toronto,” he said.

McLuhan along with Harold Innis, Eric Havelock, Northrop Frye and musician Glenn Gould formed the Toronto School of Communication, which forever changed how we view our relationship with media and technology.

The three-day conference, which starts today, features guests and speakers from 21 different countries.

"We are really building a community around the label of the Toronto School,” says Paolo Granata, McLuhan Centenary fellow and conference chair.

McLuhan’s insights have never been more relevant than they are today, says U of T alumna and editor of The Toronto School of Communication Theory, Rita Watson.

His ideas eerily foreshadow our Internet-obsessed culture and the rise of social networks.

“He predicted a crisis in the modern era as literate ‘mentalities’ that had evolved in literate cultures tried to integrate the effects of electronic media,” says Watson, who will be speaking at the conference.

McLuhan knew electronic media would change our lives, says Granata.

“This kind of network is where the ideas come from. It’s where innovation comes from,” he says.

(Marshall McLuhan at U of T in 1973, U of T archives)

The Toronto School conference is also an opportunity to give a voice to a more diverse group of media theorists.

“A lot of young women are involved in this conference as student volunteers or as panellists,” says Emma Findlay-White, a fourth-year student at Victoria College in book and media studies and the conference’s volunteer coordinator. “There’s a lot of different ways women are getting their perspective and views out there. It’s important that we’re changing the role women play in media.”

And change is good for the Toronto School.

“We are at the McLuhan Centre not to say what McLuhan said," Granata says. "We are here to do what McLuhan did: foster conversation, participation, foster the awareness about how we can look at the contemporary world.”

Marshall McLuhan

The Globe and Mail remembers Robert Lansdale, known on campus as 'the U of T photographer'

Read more about Robert Lansdale in the Globe and Mail

U of T prof hosts ‘McLuhanesque’ marathon talk with Margaret Atwood, Mayor John Tory and others

Mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing with these words from U of T’s Marshall McLuhan

Watch the full conversation here:

Media ethics in the fake news era: Conference at U of T builds on Marshall McLuhan’s legacy

'Earlids' required: U of T explores architectural history of open-concept offices, other spaces

Famed U of T Professor Marshall McLuhan’s library given United Nations heritage designation

Browse the full U of T McLuhan library collection

U of T's Marshall McLuhan featured in CBC documentary

Read the article

Read about upcoming programs at the McLuhan Centre

Google Doodle celebrates 106th birthday of U of T’s Marshall McLuhan

Read more about the McLuhan Centre

U of T McLuhan salons take the classroom to the city

Find out more about the McLuhan salons

Read more about the McLuhan Centre

U of T breathes new life into Marshall McLuhan’s Toronto School

Read more about the McLuhan Centre