What Haven't You Noticed Lately: Achieving awareness in a complex world
WHAT HAVEN’T you noticed lately? Like a magician’s audience, we are distracted by what we are directed to see, and relatively unaware of much else, including the way we think. In 1964, Marshall McLuhan predicted the world of 1994, including everything from telecommuting to the reshaping of education, politics, and economics. Join Mark Federman as he uses McLuhan’s thinking tools on everything from cartoon characters to online services. Learn to see hidden effects of the world we actively create, gaining new awareness of the everyday things seen, and mostly ignored.
WHAT HAVEN’T you noticed lately? Most of us experience our complex, interconnected world by paying acute attention to what we are presented through the grand entertainment spectacles of news, sports, business and politics. Like a magician’s audience, we are distracted by what we are directed to see, and relatively unaware of the ways in which the things we conceive and create are restructuring everything from the pillars of culture and society, to the way we think. In 1964, media icon and guru Marshall McLuhan predicted the world of 1994, including such things as online shopping, telecommuting, and the reshaping of our fundamental institutions of education, politics, and economics. Join Mark Federman as he uses McLuhan’s awareness-creating thinking tools on everything from Pinky and the Brain to Google and mobile devices, to The Matrix and what he describes as “the most profound cultural contribution of our time.” Learn to see the hidden effects of the world we are actively creating, and gain a new awareness of the things you see – and mostly ignore – everyday.
The session will be comprised of approximately 60 minutes of standup, with an embedded section of approximately 15 minutes demonstrating example playshop using one of the main awareness-creating techniques, namely, McLuhan’s laws of media tetrad. The remaining time will be used to address questions and conversation after the more formal part of the program. The formal part of the presentation uses projected slides; the embedded part typically uses a flipchart and markers.
This presentation will be of interest to anyone who is challenged to make sense out of continual change, and must anticipate the otherwise unpredictable effects of the things we conceive and create.