RE-TOUCHING McLUHAN – THE MEDIUM IS THE MASSAGE
Marshall McLuhan Centennial Weekend, Berlin

Conference | Screening | Exhibition | Performance

Friday May 27 – Sunday May 29, 2011
Embassy of Canada / Marshall McLuhan Salon

transmediale in collaboration with the Embassy of Canada and Marshall McLuhan Salon invite you to a key event celebrating the 100th anniversary of famed Canadian media philosopher Herbert Marshall McLuhan's birth. Having coined expressions such as the global village and the medium is the message in the early days of TV and electronic culture, the Re-Touching McLuhan events explore the many interpretations of McLuhan's play on language and media that shape today's networked society.

The international conference Re-Touching McLuhan: The Medium is the Massage chaired by Dieter Daniels and moderated by Christopher Salter, sees leading international media and digital culture researchers Richard Cavell, Martina Leeker, Claus Pias, Katja Kwastek, Liz Kotz, Janine Marchessault, Graham Larkin and Lorenz Engell explore McLuhan’s unique take on tactile and multi-sensory media expressed by the media philosopher's unintentionally published blurring of the words message and massage.

The opening of the Centennial Weekend features the worldwide (re-)launch of McLuhan's 1968 audio art classic The Medium is the Massage, digitally remastered for the first time, produced and presented by hip-hop musician and conceptual artist Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky.

Legendary McLuhanist Derrick de Kerckhove and Berlin-based McLuhan scholar Steffi Winkler elaborate on rare material from the McLuhan archives in the first session of the McLuminations screening and discussion series, produced by Baruch Gottlieb.

The Centennial Weekend will feature the European première of Through the Vanishing Point, a major new multi-media installation by leading Canadian digital artists David Rokeby and Lewis Kaye, as well as Play_McLuhan, an exhibition by media art students from the Hochschule Darmstadt under the direction of Sabine Breitsameter will be presented.
These events will be preceded by the 2nd German-Canadian Professionals Conference - The Global Village: Calamity or Chance? featuring keynotes by Brian Lee Crowley, Linus Neumann and Gundolf S. Freyermuth, moderated by Ariane de Hoog.

Programme Highlights
Re-Touching McLuhan Centennial Weekend Opening and Reception featuring Richard Cavell and Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky
Friday May 27, 18.00 – 21.00
Re-Touching McLuhan: The Medium is the Massage Conference
Saturday May 28, 10.00 – 18.00
McLuminations Screening & Discussion Programme
Sunday May 29, 14.30
Through The Vanishing Point by David Rokeby and Lewis Kaye - Vernissage
Sunday May 29, 17.00
Full event schedule: http://mcluhan2011.eu/schedule

Event Details
All events are free and open to the public but spaces are limited so please RSVP at rsvpmcluhan2011.eu.
If you are unable to attend, please join us online at http://mcluhan2011.eu/berlin. All RE-TOUCHING McLUHAN conference presentations will be streamed live and there will be opportunities to participate in a moderated online forum. To register your interest in our streaming programme, please contact Lalitha Rajan on lrmcluhan2011.eu.
For more information visit http://mcluhan2011.eu/berlin or contact Michelle O'Brien on momcluhan2011.eu.

This event is an initiative of transmediale in collaboration with the Embassy of Canada, Marshall McLuhan Salon, Deutsche-Kanadische Gesellschaft, Blackberry, RIM – Research in Motion and Der Freitag.

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Michelle O'Brien
Project Manager
McLuhan in Europe 2011
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Berlin Centennial Weekend | 27 - 29 May 2011
Marshall McLuhan Salon of the Embassy of Canada
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