nettime: McLuhan Monday Night Seminars

[jesse@tao.ca (Jesse Hirsh)]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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The McLuhan Program in Culture and Technolgy
at the University of Toronto presents:

McLuhan Monday Night Seminars

The McLuhan Monday Night Seminars will continue in 1997 with a new series.
In the tradition of the open seminars held by Marshall McLuhan, they are a
forum for unrestricted discussion of topics related to media and their
effect within society, culture, politics, economy, and psychology. Everyone
who has an interest in such questions is invited to participate in the
exchange of ideas and the connected development of new insight.

The Seminars are an open and free discussion where the medium is the message
and the audience is the content.  A keynote speaker will deliver a short
introduction to provide the participants with the
basic information related to the topic to kick off the discussion. The
diversity of participants will ensure a lively, spontaneous, and
multi-disciplinary discussion where the ideas flow freely from one field to
another.

Time & Location: 
Every Monday night from 7.30-9.30 p.m. at the Faculty of Information Studies
(FIS) 140 St. George Street (the north east corner on the same block as
robarts library)  in the video conferencing room (rm 305).

The seminars are free and open to the public. Space is determined on a first
come, first serve basis. The seminars are for the open minded, and no
previous knowledge is expected.

Organizations or individuals who are not in Toronto who have access to
video-conferencing facilities are encouraged to participate via Centrex
Video. For further information email jesse@tao.ca or call the McLuhan
Program at 416-978-7026

Jan 6 -  Identity: 
How do new media affect our personal and collective identity?
How does the notion of "self" change in a connective environment?
Will it lead to atomization or are we moving into an era of new individuality?
How can we think of multiple or flexible identities?

Jan 13 - Borders:
Are there borders in Cyberspace? If so, what and where are they?
What are the new roles of trade and international development?
What are the new definitions? What are the new limits?

Jan 20 - Mind and The Global Village:
What is the relation between mind, nature, and new technologies?
What are the relations between mind and economy?
Who are the commodities in the information economy?
What is the role of imagination in the epistemology of hypertextuality?

Jan 27 - The Media Collective
What is actvisim in the media environment? What and who are the culture
jammers, media-ecologists, and ontological semiological geurilla warriors?
What are memes, virii, and logic bombs? How does the Internet manifest in
the material world?

Feb 3 - Information Warfare
What is the redefinition of reality and why does it affect our economy?
What is security in the global media marketplace?
Is this the new 'war to end all wars'? 

Feb 10 - Geography:
Is there a geography in Cyberspace? How do logical and material
space relate to each other? What happens to time as space is redefined?
What is the future of the state, city, and neighbourhood?

Feb 17 - Public Space:
Democracy is directly connected with the concept of the public sphere
which has its archetypal metaphor in the Greek agora, a place where all
the free men of Athens could gather. The concept of publicity is based
on the unity of audience, time, place and subject. How can that be
translated into the electronic world? 

Feb 24 - The Artist as Antenna - The New Renaissance
What is the new culture, and where does it cultivate?
Why are we in a renaissance and how do we know?
What messages can we decipher from our existence, and what can we do?


Further questions and comments including proposals for speakers or
presentations are welcome. Email jesse@tao.ca


http://www.fis.utoronto.ca/mcluhan

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