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I think it worth adding this qualifier in order to better grasp what Mr McLuhan was pointing at. He speaks of formal causes and expedient causes. You might consider those as an argument between a couple. What the heated discussion is about - say the toilet seat was left up- is the expedient cause. That the couple is arguing - is the formal cause. Mr McLuhan was pointing out that the more important cause is the arguing, not what the argument is supposedly about- its current topic. The content wasn't key. It is more important to focus on the form of the media. (the anger underlying the argument , rather then the words spewing forth about the topic of concern). The message - what we are changed by, is the medias form, not the content/programs/articles carried by it. Not that those don't exist, but that they really are secondary to the medias form impact on us - how we interact with it and so come to know of the world . The unconscious changes brought on by any medias form are crucial to us. The medias content is really a passing second to the forms changes upon us Some musings from McLuhan's book: The medium and the light
My hunger for “truth” was sensuous in origin. I wanted a material satisfaction for the beauty that the mind can perceive. p16 The more beautiful or wonderful the thing (and things alone, not emotions about things are wonderful) … p23 To return to art and formal causality for the moment: a formal cause exerts its pressure non-verbally and non-conservatively. Any substantial form impresses itself upon you without benefit of awareness or conscious attention on your part. You can be conscious about it if you like, but a tree, grass, stones, the world of forms in which we live impresses us steadily and constantly without intermission without benefit of words it thoughts. They are total in their action upon us. It doesn't matter what theory we may have about them: their effect upon is quite independent of any thought we may have about them. It is the same with a work of art. The meaning of a work or art, as the artists of past centuries can tell us, has nothing to do with what you think about it. It has to do with its actions upon you. It is a form: it acts upon you. It invades your senses. It re-structures your outlook. It completely changes your attitudes, your wave-lengths. So our attitudes, our sensibilities, are completely altered by new forms, regardless of what we may think of them. p38 And their effect upon us is that of forms, not ideas or concepts. ...the so called meaning is a way of lowering your guard so the form can work upon you.  The 2011 Charlatan Ink Prize has accepted into its 2011 juried semi-finalist stage the painting The meaning of life art and most everything. The international competitions theme for 2011 was: 'Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?'  |
Recent oil paintings from off the easel of Gregory McCullough ...
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