Coach House Institute

FALL 2015

WORKSHOPS

MONDAY NIGHT SEMINARS

SPECIAL EVENTS

McLuhan Programin Culture and Technology

39A Queen’s Park Crescent East, Toronto

Coach House InstituteMcLuhan Program in Culture and Technology

39A Queen’s Park Crescent East, TorontoParking available off 121 St. Joseph st.

(Marshall McLuhan Way)

@McLuhanCHImcluhan.ischool.utoronto

chi@utoronto.ca+1 416 978 7026

www.chi.utoronto.ca

The McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology is an initiative of the Coach HouseInstitute, Faculty of Information (iSchool) at the University of Toronto, in partnershipwith the University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto.

Coach House Institute Acting DirectorSeamus Ross

McLuhan Program DirectorDominique Scheffel-Dunand

McLuhan Centenary Fellows (2015/16)Andrew Chrystall, Paolo Granata, David Nostbakken, John Oswald, Sandy Pearlman

New Explorations GroupSandra Danilovic, Adam Pugen

Communication OfficeKathleen O’Brien

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F

The McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology at the

Coach House Institute, Faculty of Information at the

University of Toronto, is pleased to announce a fall 2015

rollout of seminars, workshops and special events. All are

invited to mix it up over refreshments with some of the

brightest minds and practitioners exploring the quickly

changing and confounding world around us.

First is a Monday Night series called “City as

Classroom” with two related themes. Some of the

seminars focus on the city itself, looking for metaphoric

meanings of our urban homes and communities in a

“classroom without walls” that informs fulfillment and

survival in the larger global village. Others seminars

engage participants in “ideas without walls” in the

context of a “safe house for unsafe ideas”, to explore

“what matters most now” about the human, about our

cultures, our beliefs and our survival in an increasingly

technologized and robotized age. Well known

intellectuals, practitioners and raconteurs as well as city

planners, academics, artists, business people,

scientists, musicians and media figures will be

participants, in the very Coach House where Marshall

McLuhan fired our creative imagination.

Second, a series of workshops will be conducted by

the 2015/2016 crop of McLuhan Centenary Fellows.

These fellows have been chosen for their leadership

in thought and enterprise of significance to the

current and future prospects of the Coach House

Institute, the university, the city, our country and the

larger international network. Each fellow will engage

iSchool students and students of the St Michael’s

College Book and Media Studies in a collaborative

exploration of the research and exciting projects the

fellows bring with them. These workshops will be

open to all interested within and outside the

university.

Third, a series of activities called “The New

Explorations Group” are being staged by graduate

students of the iSchool as an “instajammable”

experiencement in how to be human in the C21st.

And finally a special event series aims to engage a

growing community of intersect in casting a froward

vision from the prescient legacy of Marshall McLuhan.

The future of city may be very much like a world’sfair –a place to show off new technology – not aplace of work or residence whatever.

– MARSHALL McLUHAN

Images property of University of Toronto Archives / Robert Lansdale Photography Ltd. Fonds

CITY AS CLASSROOM: IDEAS WITHOUT WALLS

All events are free and open to the public.You are encouraged to register online:

www.chi.utoronto.ca

OCTOBER

6:00-8:00 pm52th Anniversary of the Opening of the McLuhanCentre for Culture and Technology at theUniversity of TorontoFall Program Launching Kick-off event

6:00-8:00 pmMonday Night Seminar: City as ClassroomInaugural SeminarLauren O'Neil, Tonya Surman, Mark Surman

2:00-6:00 pmWorkshop: Museum Without WallsPaolo Granata, McLuhan Centenary Fellow

6:00-8:00 pmMonday Night Seminar: On Being: Future(s)Mark Kingwell, Mathew Ingram

2:00-6:00 pmWorkshop: Digital Media DistributionSandy Pearlman, McLuhan Centenary Fellowwith Don McLean, University of Toronto

7:00-9:00 pmNew Explorations GroupWednesday Nights at the Coach House

2:00-6:00 pmWorkshop: “What’s on your mind?”John Oswald, McLuhan Centenary Fellow

7:00-9:00 pmNew Explorations GroupWednesday Nights at the Coach House

6:00-8:00 pmMonday Night Seminar: Métis IdeasJohn Ralston Saulinteracting with Dominique Scheffel-Dunand

20TUESDAY

NOVEMBER

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7:00-9:00 pmNew Explorations GroupWednesday Nights at the Coach House

6:00-8:00 pmMonday Night Seminar: The Making of the SmartVillageGrahame Beakhust, Zahra Ebrahim, Abdul W. Khan

2:00-6:00 pmWorkshop: Marshalling MediaDavid Nostbakken, McLuhan Centenary Fellow

6:00-8:00 pmMonday Night Seminar: Culture as Soft PowerNgaire Blankenberg, John CruickshankGail Dexter Lord

6:00-8:00 pmSpecial event: Screening “McLuhan’s Wake”A film by Kevin McMahon and David Sobelman

6:00-8:00 pmMonday Night Seminar: The Mobile CityColin Ellard, Luigi Ferrara, Sean Silcoff

7:00-9:00 pmMcLuhan “Then Now Next” round tableIn collaboration with the McLuhan Legacy Network

6:00-8:00 pmSeasonal ReceptionWinter Program Launching Kick-off event

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7:00-9:00 pmMcLuhan “Then Now Next” round tableIn collaboration with the McLuhan Legacy Network

It is a moment of discussion on opportunities forprojects, initiatives and partnerships for therelaunch of the McLuhan Centre for Culture andTechnology: adapting to the realities of the 21stCentury.

6:00-8:00 pmSeasonal ReceptionWinter Program Launching Kick-off event

Welcoming words form the iSchool, St. Michael’sCollege and the McLuhan Program in Culture andTechnology.Launching of the Winter program.

SPECIAL EVENTS

MONDAY NIGHT SEMINARS

2NOVEMBER

WORKSHOPS

Wednesday 4 November, 2:00-6:00 pmMuseum Without WallsPaolo Granata, McLuhan Centenary Fellow

The workshop aims to probe and develop storytelling for thehistorical, artistic and cultural heritage through mobiletechnologies, and new forms of culture. Participants willbetter understand how naratives inhabits our digital world, aswell as how we can use it to increase our understanding ofdynamic environmental settings.

Wednesday 11 November, 2:00-6:00 pmThe Case of the Surplus MusicSandy Pearlman, McLuhan Centenary FellowDon McLean, University of Toronto

The Fatal Interface Shock Resulting, Some Object Lessons in theTransition From An Analog to a Digital Value System. “On the onehand information wants to be expensive…On the other hand,information wants to be free…,” Brand’s Paradox, originallystated by Stewart Brand to Steve Wozniak (1984).

Wednesday 18 November, 2:00-6:00 pmMarshalling MediaDavid Nostbakken, McLuhan Centenary Fellow

This workshop welcomes participants into a “town hall” onthe twentieth century value and opportunity of MarshallMcLuhan. We will explore the future prospects of theMcLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology, for the iSchool,the University, the city, the country and the global village.Building on a transformative legacy.

Wednesday 2 December, 2:00-6:00 pmWhat’s on your mind? [or, making the most of a situation]John Osweld, McLuhan Centenary Fellow

NEW EXPLORATIONS GROUP

6:00-8:00 pmCity as Classroom | Inaugural SeminarHow do digital technologies support or hinder“community” in the city and the global village?With Lauren O'Neil, Tonya Surman, Mark Surman

LAUREN O'NEIL is one Canada’s mostprominent young internet personalities,best known as the host of CBC News LiveOnline and as a trends blogger for CBCNews. Her innate ability to find, share andproduce interesting stories have earnedLauren a respectable following both onlineand off. Prior to joining CBC News, Laurenhad worked as a writer, TV host andcopywriter for such outlets as the TorontoStar, MTV Canada, MuchMusic, Yahoo!Canada, CosmoTV and Entrinsic. Namedone of Marketing Magazine's Top 30 Under30 "smartest young thinkers", shespeakers regularly at media-centric eventsaround the nation.L@laurenonizzle

TONYA SURMAN Tonya Surman is a socialentrepreneur with a passion for bringing lifeto world-changing projects. Tonya is thefounding Chief Executive Officer of theCentre for Social Innovation (CSI), acoworking space, community and launchpadfor people who are changing the world, withthree locations in Toronto and one location inNew York City. CSI provides its members withthe tools they need to accelerate theirsuccess and amplify their social impact.Tonya has been creating and leading socialventures since 1987.L@tonyasurman

MARK SURMAN. It’s Mark Surman’s job toprotect the open web. He is ExecutiveDirector of Mozilla — the global communitythat keeps the web open and free — and aloud proponent of universal web literacy.Mark launched Maker Party and MozillaLearning Networks — major initiatives thathelp people teach and learn the web. He isalso a prolific blogger, writer and speaker, aswell as an advisor to several nonprofits.Prior to joining Mozilla, Mark was aShuttleworth Foundation fellow, ledtelecentre.org, and co-founded the CommonsGroup. He holds a BA in the History ofCommunity Media from the University ofToronto.L@msurman

Wednesday 28 October, 7:00-9:00 pmKaraoke Hell & Finding a/your Voiceto Yell

This session is only for those terrifiedof speaking, singing or utteringthemselves fully in public. Here weseek to perform and undertake anarchaeology of dread. We will (re-)theorize Karaoke under conditions ofexcruciating friction and possibleembarrassment.

Suggested readings/viewings: “The Greatest Album Ever Made” by Lester Bangs“The View from the Bandstand” by Lou ReedThe Medium is the Massage (Audio) by Marshall McLuhan“Drop the Mic” by Kevin White

Wednesday 11 November, 7:00-9:00 pmModes of Consciousness & Training inSensibility

How can (or should) we abandonconcepts in order to take the Real fullin the face? Can we steal or borrow orput on McLuhan’s Jedi perceptualability?

Suggested readings/viewings: War and Peace in the Global Village (1968) by MarshallMcLuhan“Education as a Training of the Senses: McLuhan'sPedagogical Enterprise” by Norm Friesen

Wednesday 2 December, 7:00-9:00 pmImprov Improv

We seek to step out, stare into the abyssand explore improvisation in and throughtactile & post-verbal dialogue and JohnOswald's art wrestling. We will alsoexplore paths beyond shame and self-consciousness. Macroscopicgesticulation.Pre-requisite: some attention to personal hygiene.

Suggested readings/viewings: “Subject, Object, Improv: John Cage, Pauline Oliveros, andEastern (Western) Philosophy in Music” by Tracy McMullenThe Artist Formerly Known as Captain Beefheart - John Peel(video)From Cliché to Archetype (1970), Chapter “Theatre of theAbsurd”, by Marshall McLuhanUnderstanding Media (1964), Chapters “Media Hot and Cold”and “Clothing: Our Extended Skin” by Marshall McLuhan

An “instajammable” experiencement in how to be human in the C21st. The New Explorations Group seeks to re-animate a primitiveoral tradition where (almost) humans can explore, and talk to each other instead of to the robots/zombie horde, and embrace the new.

9NOVEMBER 6:00-8:00 pm

On Being: Future(s)Where is belief and meaning in the rapidly changing digital world?With Mark Kingwell and Mathew Ingram

MARK KINGWELL is a Professor of Philosophyat the University of Toronto and acontributing editor of Harper’s Magazine inNew York. He is the author or co-author ofseventeen books of political, cultural andaesthetic theory, including the nationalbestsellers Better Living (1998), The WorldWe Want (2000), Concrete Reveries (2008),and Glenn Gould (2009). In addition to manyscholarly articles, his writing has appeared inmore than 40 mainstream publications.Professor Kingwell’s last book was acollection of essays on politics, Unruly Voices(2012); a new collection of his essays,Measure Yourself Against the Earth,appeared in October 2015.L@markkingwell

MATHEW INGRAM is a senior writer atFortune magazine, where he writes aboutthe evolution of media and the social Web.Until March of 2015 he was a senior writerat Gigaom.com, one of the leadingtechnology blog networks in the UnitedStates, based in San Francisco andfounded in 2006 by former Forbes andBusiness 2.0 writer Om Malik. He writesabout the evolution of media and contentand all that involves, including socialmedia, Google, and the web in general —plus anything else that comes along. Upuntil January 2010, he worked for TheGlobe and Mail, a daily national newspaperbased in Toronto.L@mathewi

16NOVEMBER 6:00-8:00 pm

The Making of the Smart VillageDo we really know who we are in our city?With Grahame Beakhust, Zahra Ebrahim, Abdul W. Khan

ZAHRA EBRAHIM is a change driven, rule-bending creative, deeply invested in usingdesign and design process to explorecommunity engagement, institutionalinnovation, and participatory citybuilding. Asthe Principal of the design think tank,archiTEXT, she has led innovation projects withsome of Canada’s largest charities andgoverning bodies. She was recently nominatedas one of CBC’s 12 Young Leaders to Watchand included in Toronto Life’s 2014 issue of the“50 Most Influential People in the City”.L@zahraeb

GRAHAME BEAKHUST is a writer, known forSpiritual Gardens (2007) and GuerillaGardener series shows. Educated at Oxfordand McGill in philosophy, politics and law. 3years in the Arctic, taught graduateenvironmental studies at York for 10 yearsand also worked for Tommy Douglas, JackLayton and Frank Stronach. Chief of Staff toSolicitor General. Hosted gardening seriesfor Discovery & Vision. 35 year Islandresident.

ABDUL WAHEED KHAN is an internationallyrecognised leader in the use of informationand communication technology for educationand development. He has worked with severalinternational and national organizationsincluding UNESCO, UNDP, FAO, UNESCAP, ADBand The Commonwealth of Learning. He servedas the Assistant Director-General forCommunication and Information at UNESCO,Paris for nearly a decade.

23NOVEMBER 6:00-8:00 pm

Culture as Soft PowerIs there such a thing as a city culture?With Ngaire Blankenberg, John Cruickshank, Gail Dexter Lord

NGAIRE BLANKENBERG is a PrincipalConsultant at Lord Cultural Resources. Shehas been a youth worker, jazz poet,cartoonist, documentary-maker, andtelevision producer. She directed the award-winning documentary Morris Fynn GoesNative (SABC), was co-director of Nkosi’sMission (SABC/BBC) and is the co-founderof the Museum of AIDS in Africa. She hasadvised museum and cultural clients insuch cities as Washington D.C.; Patna;Dharhan, Dubai, Beijing and Sydney.L@LordCultural

JOHN CRUICKSHANK is the Publisher of theToronto Star and President of Star Media Group.He has enjoyed a distinguished career innewspapers and television in both Canada andthe United States. John’s continent-wideexperience provides him with an in-depthknowledge of both the editorial and businessside of media companies. He previously servedas Publisher of CBC News, Publisher of theChicago Sun-Times, Editor-in-Chief of theVancouver Sun and Managing Editor of TheGlobe and Mail. He also worked for the MontrealGazette and started his journalism career withthe Kingston Whig Standard. L@JohnCruickshan2

GAIL DEXTER LORD is co-founder and co-president of Lord Cultural Resources. WithBarry Lord, she is co-editor of The Manual ofMuseum Planning (1991, 1999, 2012), co-author of The Manual of MuseumManagement (1997 and 2009) and Artists,Patrons and the Public: Why Culture Changes(2010). She is co-author with Kate Markert ofThe Manual of Strategic Planning forMuseums (2007). Gail has led cultural andtourism plans for cities as well as planning,management and exhibition assignments formuseums, galleries and cities. In 2014, Gailwas appointed Officer of the Order of Arts andLetters by the Minister of Culture of France.L@Gail_Lord

30NOVEMBER 6:00-8:00 pm

The Mobile CityIn the mobile world, is there a sense of place?With Colin Ellard, Luigi Ferrara, Sean Silcoff

COLIN ELLARD is a cognitive neuroscientistat the University of Waterloo and director ofits Urban Realities Laboratory. He works atthe intersection of psychology andarchitectural and urban design, conductingexperiments that measure how your brainand body respond to different kinds ofsettings. Author of You Are Here (2009) andPlaces of the Heart (2015).L@WhereAmINow

LUIGI FERRARA is an architect, designer,educator and storyteller. He is the Dean of theCentre for Arts, Design & InformationTechnology at George Brown College inToronto, Canada and Director of theinternationally acclaimed Institute withoutBoundaries (IwB). He has served as Presidentand Senator of Icsid and lectures around theworld on topics as diverse as design andsustainability, design management, urbanplanning, information technology, digitalmedia, telecommunications and the networksociety.L@iwbTO

SEAN SILCOFF is a business writer with TheGlobe and Mail, Canada’s nationalnewspaper. He previously worked as acolumnist and Montreal correspondent forthe National Post and as a staff writer atCanadian Business Magazine, where he wasproject co-ordinator of the magazine’sinaugural Rich 100 list. Sean also worked asa communications director with Canada Postfrom 2009 to 2011. He is the winner of twoNational Newspaper Awards and is the co-author of the best-selling Losing the Signal,about the rise and fall of BlackBerry.L@SeanSilcoff

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6:00-8:00 pm52th Anniversary of the Opening of the McLuhanCentre for Culture and Technology at the Universityof Toronto Fall Program Launching Kick-off event

Welcoming words: Seamus Ross, Dean Faculty ofInformation (UofT iSchool) and Acting DirectorCoach House Institute.Greetings: Micheal McLuhan, Eric McLuhan,Andrew McLuhan, Arthur McLuhan, StephanieMcLuhan.Unveiling of a new signage of the McLuhanCentre. Shared narratives on McLuhan.Refreshments.

6:00-8:00 pmScreening “McLuhan’s Wake”(Canada, 2002, 94 min.)A film by Kevin McMahon and David Sobelman

This insightful documentary brings one of themost celebrated and controversial intellectualfigures of the 20th century into the newmillennium, demonstrating the relevance ofMcLuhan’s ideas to our wired, multicultural globalvillage. McLuhan viewed media as environmentsthat shape human life and argued the need for ascience of media ecology to escape their effects.McLuhan’s new science took the form of four lawsof media.

20OCTOBER

7DECEMBER 6:00-8:00 pm

Métis IdeasWhat will matter tomorrow?With John Ralston Saul interacting with Dominique Scheffel-Dunand

25NOVEMBER

9DECEMBER

14DECEMBER

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All events are free and open to the public.You are encouraged to register online:

www.chi.utoronto.ca

FALL 2015McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology39A Queen’s Park Crescent East, Toronto

JOHN RALSTON SAUL, essayist and novelist,is Canada’s leading public intellectual.Declared a “prophet” by Time magazine,Saul has received many awards and prizes,including Chile’s Pablo Neruda Medal, SouthKorea’s Manhae Grand Prize for Literatureand The Gutenberg Galaxy Award forLiterature. He is the former President of PENInternational, the leading globalorganization of writers dedicated to freedomof expression and literature. He haspublished fourteen works, which have beentranslated into twenty-seven languages inthirty-six countries. L@JohnRalstonSaul

Workshops are free and open to all interestedwithin and outside the university.

You are encouraged to register online: www.chi.utoronto.ca