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From May 12-14, 2011, the Marburg Centre for Canadian Studies will commemorate the 100th anniversary of Marshall McLuhan’s birth by hosting an interdisciplinary conference on Canada’s – if not the world’s – most famous media theorist. The conference, entitled “McLuhan’s Global Village Today:Transatlantic Perspectives on Medium and Message”, examines McLuhan’s theoretical concepts, such as ‘the global village’, ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ media, notions of the medium and the message as well as their impact on other disciplines and their transatlantic dimensions.

McLuhan’s ideas are not only relevant in the fields of media and communication studies but they have also offered interesting insights in the context of literary and cultural studies, among many others. The Marburg Centre for Canadian Studies is delighted to announce that Professor David Staines (University of Ottawa) and Professor Richard Cavell (University of British Columbia) have confirmed their participation in the conference. The Historic Townhall of Marburg will be the venue of the event.

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The Internet today is no longer the utopia that it was promised to be. There are many positive aspects, but there is also Orwellian surveillance of personal data, excessive commercialization, dead links, and mountains of useless information. How could the Internet be transformed into something better? How could computers and software be redesigned to liberate us from work, rather than leading to more work and bureaucracy? What should the Car of the Future look like? The Library of the Future? What is the future of television, cinema, books, personal digital assistants, medical technologies? What about the introduction of robots into society? And is Artificial Intelligence possible? To consider these and other questions about the present and the future of media and technologies, we will consider ideas from the great media/technology thinkers of the past, and what they would say about contemporary reality if they were alive today.

Our main focus will be on Marshall McLuhan, but we will also look at Harold Innis, Jean Baudrillard, and Martin Heidegger. And also at Paul Virilio and Donna Haraway, who are in fact both alive. The participants will be asked to read two short texts of about 5 pages each before each meeting of the workshop.

This workshop begins with an introduction meeting on Sunday, May 22 at 21:00 Central European Time, and 15:00 EST (New York City Time).  Workshop meetings are 90 min. in length with interaction during the week in Ning.  Information for accessing the workshop will be sent to completed registrations.  For more information on this workshop contact

Instructor: Alan Shapiro, language is English. This workshop meets on five consecutive Sundays: 9:00 PM (21:00) CET (Central europe), 3:00 PM EST (New York), 12:00 AM-noon (Los Angeles). Registration closes:  May 14, 2011.

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RE-TOUCHING McLUHAN – THE MEDIUM IS THE MASSAGE

McLuhan in Europe 2011 // Berlin Centennial Weekend May 27 – 29, 2011
Conference / Performance / Screening / Installation

transmediale, in collaboration with the Embassy of Canada Berlin and Marshall McLuhan Salon present a key weekend event celebrating the legacy of Canadian media philosopher Marshall McLuhan on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth. Part of the McLuhan in Europe 2011 network of events initiated by transmediale, Berlin’s Conference and Gala Weekend will take place May 27 – 29 at the Embassy of Canada and Marshall McLuhan Salon.

The RE-TOUCHING McLUHAN Conference, curated by Dieter Daniels, features lectures by leading international media and digital culture researchers including Richard Cavell, Martina Leeker, Claus Pias, Dieter Daniels, Katja Kwastek, Liz Kotz, Janine Marchessault, Graham Larkin and Lorenz Engell. Click on the names of the speakers for speaker biographies and conference lecture abstracts.

Legendary McLuhanist Derrick de Kerckhove and local McLuhan scholar Steffi Winkler elaborate on rare material from the McLuhan archive in McLuhan vs McLuhan, the first session in the McLuminations Illuminated Screenings series, produced by Baruch Gottlieb.

The 2nd German-Canadian Professionals Conference (GCPC), the European première of Through the Vanishing Point by leading Canadian digital artists David Rokeby and Lewis Kaye, and Play_McLuhan from media students of Hochschule Darmstadt under direction of Sabine Breitsameter will also highlight the Centennial Weekend. There will be a live performance by Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky to celebrate the launch of the re-mastered 1968 McLuhan audio recording The Medium is the Massage.

All events are FREE and open to the public, but spaces at Conference and McLuminations session are limited so please RSVP at

EVENT SCHEDULE

FRIDAY MAY 27, 2011

12:00 // 2ND GERMAN-CANADIAN PROFESSIONALS CONFERENCE The Global Village: Calamity or Chance?
As a prelude to the Centennial Weekend, the 2nd GCPC, hosted by the Deutsch-Kanadische Gesellschaft, will be held. Themes including the media’s role in global economic crisis and degrees of openness in the World Wide Web.

17:00 // PLAY_McLUHAN Exhibtion
the exhibition Play_McLuhan will show audiovisual objects and settings by media students from Hochschule Darmstadt under the direction of Sabine Breitsameter. The works reflect students’ individual processes of appropriating McLuhan and ask the question of how those born in the age of digital media, get in touch with McLuhan’s work.

18:00 // RE-TOUCHING McLUHAN Conference with Introductory Keynote by Richard Cavell
McLuhan scholar Prof. Richard Cavell from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver will open the RE-TOUCHING McLUHAN – Medium is the Massage conference and kick-off the Centennial events with a special keynote on the links between Marshall McLuhan’s vision and today’s world of digital media.

19:00 // THE MEDIUM IS THE MASSAGE CD LAUNCH Vernissage & Public Reception
A public reception at the Marshall McLuhan Salon will follow with special events including an album release party featuring Paul Miller, aka DJ Spooky, launching his digital re-mastered release of the rare 1968 audio recording of McLuhan’s seminal work The Medium is the Massage.

The events on Friday May 27 are free but spaces are limited. To RSVP to The Medium is the Massage Keynote followed by the Opening Reception, please email with the subject heading ‘Opening’.

SATURDAY MAY 28, 2011

11:00 – 18:00 // RE-TOUCHING McLUHAN CONFERENCE The Medium is the Massage
This international academic conference curated by Prof. Dr. Dieter Daniels of the Academy of Visual Arts, Leipzig invites leading thinkers to explore and expand Marshall McLuhan’s unique take on the multi-sensory and crossmodal effects of electronic media. Saturday’s sessions focus on McLuhan’s impact on defining the nascent perception of media culture in the 1960′s and how this is formulated within and related to contemporary artistic practice and digital media culture. The conference, convened by transmediale, will also be streamed live and moderated online bringing remote guests and partners from other locations worldwide into the discussions. This conference forms part of a trio of McLuhan in Europe 2011 conference events alongside the McLuhan Galaxy taking place in Barcelona May 23 – 25, and Rome May 30 – June 1, 2011. For more information on the conference, click here.

This event is free but spaces are limited. To reserve a seat at The Medium is the Massage conference on Saturday May 28, please with the subject heading ‘McLuhan Conference’.

SUNDAY MAY 29, 2011

14:30 – 17:00 // McLUMINATIONS #1 : McLuhan vs. McLuhan: The optimist and the monitor, a speculative encounter – Screening / Discussion
In this inaugural session of McLuminations, Derrick de Kerckhove and Steffi Winkler reflect on McLuhan’s inner conflicts with regard to electronic media, though original video material selected from the McLuhan Salon archive. In this speculative encounter between two faces of McLuhan, the two scholars will attempt to extrapolate from the documentary material what McLuhan might have to say about our current media age. For more information on McLuminations, click here.

17:00 – 18:30 // THROUGH THE VANISHING POINT Artist Talk & Vernissage
European premiere of a multi-media view into Couch House, Marshall McLuhan’s legendary academic headquarters, by leading Canadian digital artists David Rokeby and Lewis Kaye.

The events on Sunday May 29 are free but spaces are limited. To reserve a seat at the McLuminations screening and Through the Vanishing Point Vernissage, please with the subject heading ‘McLuminations’.

The events will take place in English / Die Veranstaltungen finden in englischer Sprache statt.

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Play McLuhan – Dialogues / Objects / Environments / Soundscapes: Mediencampus Dieburg of Hochschule Darmstadt, Germany in cooperation with the Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland

Exhibition, under the direction of Prof. Sabine Breitsameter (Sound and Media Culture), reflecting, filtering, testing and playing on central aspects of McLuhan’s theory “embodying” his ideas by relating them to production methods, strategies and topics of the digital age, which McLuhan himself was no more able to experience to its full extent.

McLuhan Opole region in 2011 is a project which is one of the activities associated in McLuhan networks in Europe in 2011. The workshop aim is to create a web platform, that will allow people to create Interactive Map of Culture of selected area by using social media (audio tools, video, text, symbols, etc.). The first place which will be mapped is town Biała in the Opole region. Interactive Maps of Culture will be created both by citizens and by all people who are interested in this project.

Workshops will consists several stages:
• Superposition each digitized maps of Biała city from the XVII century to present. This will allow to observe changes which are taking place in the city.
• On city Biała map will be plotted audio data, video, txt, etc. (depending on workshop participants ideas) – using Social Media such as Google or Wikipedia. The data will be connected by hyperlinked.
• Established Interactive Culture Map will function as a freeware GPS. It would be helpful during creating new projects related to mapped place and remote learning about it. Application for further information and updated maps will be continued even after the workshop.

We invite all representatives of academia, enthusiasts, professionals, NGOs and academic circles interested in the topic. Contact: Weronika Burman,