"Environments are invisible".
The intro proceeds to say that what determines life in the city is not so much its visble streets and buildings, but that which is harder to perceive: societal relations, rules, opinions, rental prices, taxes, privileges etc. How does this relate to theatre, FFT wonders? The theatre initated a dialogue with people who rarely come to the theatre. The booklet doesn't say what the outcome was, but shows us a series of pictures of the intersection the theatre is located. Since 1927, there was always a theatre at the corner of Jahnstraße and Luisenstrasse, in the former entertainment district.
After, I looked up some other McLuhan quotes, this one below almost a cliché...
“The medium is the message” means that the ostensible content of all electronic media is insignificant; it is the medium itself that has the greater impact on the environment, a fact bolstered by the now medically undeniable fact that the technologies we use every day begin, after a while, to alter the way our brains work, and hence the way we experience our world. Forget the ostensible content, say, of a television program. All that matters is that you’re watching the TV itself.
...but it reminded me of a thought I had this morning, wondering how much film and tv have altered our way of speaking to eachother, the way we converse, have dialogues, and if yes whether that could even be demonstrated. I came to this thought because I have been watching too many episodes of 'Downton Abbey' and kept hearing the characters voices in my head.
MM then discusses the differences between what he calls “hot” and “cool” media. For example, a hot medium is exclusive, while a cool medium is inclusive. Hot media are “highly defined,” leaving little information to be filled in by the user. Radio is a hot medium because it requires minimal participation. Cool media, like TV, are in contrast “low definition” and highly participatory because the user must fill in the blanks. This framework for judging media is complex and often contradictory.
Side note: I am intrigued with using downtown abbey as a kind of template!
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