"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Monday, October 10, 2011

Levinson re: McLuhan 2011


I've been having a blast bopping around the world and talking on the radio about Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) on the hundredth anniversary of his birth this year.  My talks and interviews mainly have been about McLuhan's relevance to today's world - how his notion of the global village and related ideas explain the impact of social media on the resurgence of direct democracy that we see in the streets all around the world today - sprinkled with reminiscences of the few years I had the pleasure of working with McLuhan at the end of the 1970s.  I've listed the major talks and interviews below, with links to videos and podcasts where available ...

Keynote Addresses, Lectures, and Panels
  • Keynote Address, "McLuhan, North Africa, and Social Media," McLuhan at 100, Saint Francis College, Brooklyn, NY  February 25, 2011 see video
  • Keynote Address, "The Global Village Fulfilled: How McLuhan's Vision of a World Information Environment Has Come True in Facebook, Skype, and Smartphones," Cybergarden, Media Institute of Katowice, Poland, May 21, 2011 (via Skype)
  • Keynote Address, “Understanding Social Media: How McLuhan’s Probes Help Us Make Sense of Today’s Media," Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Spain, May 24, 2011 see video clip; see interview given before Keynote
  • Lecture, "Digital McLuhan," McLuhan at the Center, Fordham University, Lincoln Center, NYC, September 17, 2011
  • Lecture, "The Global Village, Direct Democracy, and Occupy Wall Street," after screening of Connected movie by Tiffany Shlain at The Angelika Theater, NYC, October 19, 2011
  • Keynote Address, "McLuhan's Glosses as Facebook Statuses and Tweets:  How the Sage of Aquarius Continues to be a Guide to our Digital Age," McLuhan's Philosophy of Media – Centennial Conference, Brussels, Belgium, October 27, 2011
  • Keynote Address, "McLuhan, the Arab Spring, and the Resurgence of Direct Democracy in the World," The Legacy of Marshall McLuhan - Revisiting the Message, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, October 31, 2011
  • Panelist, "Media Ecology, Medium Theory, and McLuhan," McLuhan 100 Conference, University of Toronto, November 8, 2011
     
Radio interviews, July 21, 2011
  • on Brian Lehrer's show on WNYC Radio, listen to podcast
  • on Wisconsin Public Radio's To the Best of our Knowledge (re-broadcast on WNYC and nationally), interviewed by Jim Fleming, listen to podcast
  • on eight CBC (Canadian Broadcast Co) broadcasts
  • on two ABC (Australian National Radio) broadcasts
Podcasts
  • "Voice Mail from Marshall McLuhan, 1978"  Light On Light Through podcast, November 7, 2011
  • Conversation with Bob Dobbs, hosted by Andrew Chrystall, McLuhan on Maui 2011 MoMday night Seminar 32 podcast, November 19, 2011

 And here's a link to my 1999 book, Digital McLuhan






See also Alex Kuskis' McLuhan Galaxy and Laureano Ralon's Figure/Ground for comprehensive listings of all scholarly events McLuhan in 2011.

Added in 2017:  McLuhan in an Age of Social Media - in effect a new chapter of Digital McLuhan


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