McLuhan’s Massage Parlour, 2011

Luc Courchesne - Montreal, Canada
SAT - Montreal, Canada

New Media Installation

Marshall McLuhan is considered by many to be the leading prophet of the electronic age.  The subject that occupied him for most of his career was to understand the effects of technology as it related to popular culture and how this affected human beings and their relations with one another in communities. Because he was one of the first to sound the alarm of our current technology-saturated culture, McLuhan has gained the status of a cult hero and "high priest of pop-culture".  In this installation, the famous book by McLuhan The Medium is the Massage is redeployed in a navigable space as if the graphic elements had escaped the printed page. People familiar with the book will recognize the content. Others will discover this masterpiece from the 1960s in the new light of the 21st century. Courchesne attempts to plunge visitors into an interactive, virtual world within which they are exposed to McLuhan’s visionary insights on media and society. The book is thus turned into a real-time virtual media garden, a form that McLuhan would most probably have delighted in.

Created by Luc Courchesne with Mike Wozniewski, Benjamin Bergery, Luc Martinez and David Duguay, in collaboration with the SAT (Society for Arts and Technology) and with support from Université de Montréal.

Luc Courchesne is a pioneer in media art and design. From interactive portraiture to immersive experience systems, he has developed innovative approaches which have earned him prestigious awards and international recognition. In collaboration with SAT, he continues to explore the creative possibilities for socialization and the experience of space that are offered by information technologies. He is professor of design at Université de Montréal, a founding partner of the SAT and member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.

Suitable for all ages