Mediated Self-Consumption
The overall intention behind my digital art series “Mediated Self-Consumption” is to illustrate a totalitarian view of the consumption of media and the effects it can have on society and culture. The different graphics touch on various areas, and theorists discussed throughout this course, including Horkheimer and Adorno, Müller, Innis, McLuhan, and Kittler. I have chosen these theorists as I believe their ideas contribute to various perspectives of totalitarian media that arise from consumer consumption and engagement. Each graphic emphasizes the relationship between humans and technology (i.e., human subject interacting with a form of media in some way), and the ways in which the consumption of media alters human interaction and experiences with the world. These graphics were designed with Adobe Illustrator.
Typographic Man
The first graphic of the series, “The Typographic Man,” echoes Müller’s reference to McLuhan’s concept of the same name, where the linearity and content within a page are translated into a humanoid figure. As advancements in technologies allow for mass production and linearity, this concept extends to consumers themselves, driving them towards a homogenous point-of-view, and as a consequence, producing similar cultures across various people.
Wired for Immersive Media
The second graphic of the series, “Wired for Immersive Media,” is inspired by McLuhan’s explanation of “media being an extension of man” and Kittler’s notion of techno-determinism. In reference to McLuhan, media has been shaped and developed through human skills and capabilities (i.e., being a literal extension of man). The graphic, in this case, is wired by human arms to represent human skill being input in the shaping of media. McLuhan’s “media being an extension of man” reminded me of Kittler’s techno-determinism, where the human subject becomes a media effect (i.e., man being produced by media). The more technology advances — because of what human subject has shaped it to become — the more likely it surpasses human efficiency, which, consequently, increases our dependence and reliance of media, eventually becoming operators of media.
I am the Medium. I am the Message.
The third graphic of the series, “I am the Medium. I am the Message,” illustrates Innis’ concept of how time and space reflect the ways in which media shapes and construes culture, as well as McLuhan’s notion of “the medium is the message” whereby consumers’ understanding of the message is being altered by the medium that dominates us. Therefore, by having a human subject constrained within the computer screen (i.e., the medium), their views are being altered through the lens of the medium itself.
(Un)Enlightened Media
Finally, to wrap up my series, my final graphic, “(Un)Enlightened Masses,” addresses Horkheimer and Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment, where culture that is created through mass media produces standardized people — in this case, through an assembly line. I chose to make this graphic the last of the series, as it summarizes the concepts from the previous theorists, whereby authoritative media has the power and ability to shape and oppress our people, our culture, and our society. The more we consume, engage, and interact with media, the more our views of the world are shaped into a single and homogenized point-of-view, to the point where we essentially become part of a single culture.