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This article is from our Toronto Feature series. Features from past programs are not updated.
This content is from a series created in partnership with Museum Services of the City of Toronto and Heritage Toronto. We gratefully acknowledge funding from the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport, and the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Toronto Feature: The Coach House
"Communications Prophet Both Hot and Cool"
Marshall MCLUHAN famously said "The medium is the message," and with great prescience predicted that ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION would reform SOCIETY. His theory that the perception of reality is dependent upon the way INFORMATION reaches us has become the cornerstone of modern research into the ways media shape our understanding and behaviour (See COMPUTERS AND SOCIETY, COMMUNICATION STUDIES).
The zenith of McLuhan's career came in 1965, which saw the rise of McLuhan-mania. McLuhan was interviewed by the CBC and the BBC, appearing on TELEVISION in a parody of his own theories. He was described as the most important thinker since Newton. Drawing both praise and disdain, he fascinated people in either case (See THE GUTENBERG GALAXY).
McLuhan declared that he was "opposed to all innovation, all change," but was "determined to understand what's happening." By the time of his death in 1980, the fervour over his theories had died down and he was viewed askance by some scholars for his preference to talk rather than write and publish. Today, he has been reclaimed as a prophet of the digital age, and a new generation of scholars, who call themselves McLuhanatics, has embraced his theories (See MARSHALL MCLUHAN'S LEGACY IN CULTURE AND SCHOLARSHIP).
The Coach House was McLuhan's operational home and the site of his legendary Monday night seminars. Formerly the Centre for Culture and Technology, it is now the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology within the Faculty of Information at the UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO. The program has established the Coach House Institute to continue the McLuhan research tradition, including the famous Monday night seminars.
