Group Exhibition Medium_Massage 2.0 :: an infinite inventory

“All media are extensions of some human faculty – psychic or physical”
– The Medium is the Massage, Marshall McLuhan, p 26

Medium_Massage 2.0 :: an infinite inventory is a net-based exhibition inspired by Marshall McLuhan and graphic designer Quentin Fiore’s collaborative book The Medium is the Massage. Published in 1967 in an experimental format that fused Fiore’s engaging graphic style and visual language with McLuhan’s text, The Medium is the Massage introduced McLuhan’s theories of media and communications technology to a mass audience. Within the context of Marshall McLuhan’s centennial and 20 years after the development of the first webpage, the media artists in this exhibition reflect McLuhan’s prophetic theories through their immersion in the networked medium and cultural shift that McLuhan predicted in the 60s.

The exhibition includes a new expanded version of The Medium is the Massage matched with compositionally similar images using google algorithms; a sorrybot that gives a unique apology to every citizen on earth; new web software that re-invents the way artists communicate with the media; an archeological examination of 8 bit-graphic images and obsolescent media through daily floppy disc mining; and more!

Curated by Michael Alstad. Presented by Year Zero One (YZO) in collaboration with the CONTACT Gallery for the McLuhan100 Festival.

YZO gratefully acknowledges the support of the Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council for their generous support of Medium_Massage 2.0.

www.year01.com/mediummassage
www.mcluhan100.ca

Curated by Michael Alstad