The medium is the message

“The medium is the message” is a phrase coined by the Canadian communication thinker Marshall McLuhan and introduced in his Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, published in 1964. McLuhan proposes that a communication medium itself, not the messages it carries, should be the primary focus of study. He showed that artifacts as media affect any society by their characteristics, or content. McLuhan frequently punned on the word “message,” changing it to “mass age,” “mess age,” and “massage.” A later book, The Medium Is the Massage was originally to be titled The Medium is the Message, but McLuhan preferred the new title, which is said to have been a printing error.

With ‘The medium is the message’ McLuhan meant that the form of a message (print, visual, musical, etc.) determines the ways in which that message will be perceived. McLuhan argued that modern electronic communications (including radio, television, films, and computers) would have far-reaching sociological, aesthetic, and philosophical consequences, to the point of actually altering the ways in which we experience the world.

Pleads guilty as charged

Taking this medium itself being the message or massage in concern, and the content being secundary more or less, I have to plead guilty of being one of those persons who used/abused someone else’s work in Second Life for framing it with a certain look and feel (dramatic music and texts) into a very personal interpretation, not very accurate to its original. I linked Cherry Manga’s MOLECULE to the present Corona crisis where it never was made with that as motivation by herself. At the moment of launching her installation Corona even was not really a thing here yet. But because I revisited for filming it during the VERY present Corona element all over the world I could not escape to feel the installation in a different way all of a sudden.  Of course our minds always are influenced by adrenaline, cortisol, and all kinds of other complex processes with a molecular component, so that’s not so different, but I focussed on a very specific dramatic situation instead of a more wider perspective. You could say I infected the installation with my own little virus of thoughts and recreated it into another medium, spreading another atmosphere and feeling. McLuhan should be proud at me to be a kind of protagonist of his statement now. Cherry prefers to kill me of course or at least give me some antidote or even ban to not do this again. My defense will be simple: I am only human and was born to perceive the world around me in my own ways, also the world of Second Life :)  As compensation I decided to not torture the picture I took inworld too much. Or maybe I am just lazy and tired after a whole week of editing :P All of this is not very important really. Just visit the installation and have your own impressions, feelings and mind trip. It is a fantastic build and bravo for Cherry Manga back in Second Life to share her mind and skills with us !

Here is my medium . .  err message . . . massage, whatever

DNA molecules determine your existence and identity. A crisis like the one we are in right now (Corona – Covid-19) challenges bodies and minds. There is not much we can do except follow the rules for social distancing. We cannot change the chaos and confinement it generates. We can change how we perceive the situation by mastering our mind. Using the power you have over your mind can change fears into hope and strength. The best tool we have is mind control, even in times like this. Play it LOUD if you can, headphones even better :) But above all, stay safe and do not forget your life still is precious and something to cherish, no matter how much pressure or threats surrounding you. Live it one day at a time, for tomorrow is not present yet and a waste of energy.

Information and credits

Click on the links for more:

Marcus Aurelius

Stoicism

Cherry Manga

TP to Molecule installation in Second Life