McLuhan in Space: A Cultural Geography

Alex Curran is a former member of both the National Advisory Board on
Science and Technology and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research
Council. He was chair of the Telecommunications Sectoral Advisory
Committee on Free Trade and the first recipien

Richard Cavell is a disciple of Marshall McLuhan. In the preface to this
book he writes, “it was from Marshall McLuhan himself that I first
heard of acoustic space.” This book is a footnote to that
conversation.

Cavell contends that the consistent and dominant theme throughout
McLuhan’s work is space, and points out that McLuhan recognized that
for centuries Western civilization has lived in visual space,
essentially as a byproduct of print technology. McLuhan’s definition
of “visual space” includes such characterizations as step-by-step
logic, Euclidean geography, fixed points of view, separation of time and
space, and perspective viewing. Conversely, he characterizes “acoustic
space,” a byproduct of electronic technology, in such terms as
pervasive, surrounding, nonlinear in reasoning, a melding of space and
time, and the elimination of specific perspectives.

The first half of the book is an exhaustive proof of this thesis
drawing from McLuhan’s work and from the work of colleagues, students,
teachers, and theoreticians. The second half of the book illustrates how
McLuhan’s work has moved from the theory of acoustic space to
influence the work of artists.

This is an exhausting read. Cavell has crafted his proof by weaving
together countless snippets of knowledge as expressed by many authors.
Of course, the “proof” requires acceptance of the interpretation
Cavell has given those snippets. That is not a task to be undertaken
lightly. There is room in his thesis for academic debate. The book’s
thoroughness will appeal to academics in the field of artistic
criticism.