Marshall McLuhan Published Book "Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man”

The book that coined the phrase “the medium is the message,” Understand Media is a significant work in media theory and art history. The book expressed McLuhan’s highly influential ideas about media and its effects on human culture and behavior, still relevant today. McLuhan’s ideas would be further explored and greatly inspirational to artists in the second half of the ’60s that would begin experimenting with this new media technology (television, film, computers, audiotape, etc). This would include Robert Rauschenberg, Yvonne Rainer, John Cage, Andy Warhol, and Stan VanDerBeek who would collaborate with engineers from Bell Labs like Billy Klüver, later a founder of EAT. McLuhan argued that the medium through which information is conveyed shapes how people perceive and understand the world around them. It also popularized the idea of the global village. He introduced the concepts of “hot” and “cool” media, and how they influence people’s level of participation and engagement. His ideas also paved the way for later studies on the impact of technology on society, including the internet and of course art.