Eric McLuhan visits Second Life

Author, Teacher, and Media Ecologist Eric McLuhan came to Second Life Monday October 22 for a talk at the Media Ecology Pavillion (we the living). Eric, whose avatar was attired like an Egyptian Pharoh, spoke about his new paper "The Dance of the Ages," which examines Egyptian art forms from a new perspective. McLuhan examines how the silouettte forms have a built in "special effect" that, with the proper sensitization to the possibilities of the image, open up into rudimentary animated images. This, McLuhan contends, assured the perpetuation of these forms and why the Egyptians never developed more detailed or complex figures; the figures which we had previously considered primitive, we a delight of movement, explaining their longevity. McLuhan engaged the audience with more general questions about Second Life and virtual worlds, which he called a "fantasy state," a place where instant wishes can be fulfilled. He also marvelled at the wonderous meeting space where people joined together in a global experience - as predicted by his late father Marshall McLuhan some forty years ago with the concepts of the Global Village and the Global Theatre. You can watch the whole talk archived at SLCN.TVand read McLuhan's paper on Egyptian Animations here.