From the middle of Canada came Marshall McLuhan: a Winnipigeon. So too hails film editor Richard Altman, whose recently released McLuhan Unclaimed series of videos ought to give you something to think about for the next ten years as you think to play it in the background of your down-time. Altman deftly distills hundreds of hours of audio and video footage into a tight, psychedelic montage of meaning which can be jumped into at any point, for any duration, to give your brain something meaty to chew on. If you want to take a deep-plunge into what media ecology is all about, Altman’s McLuhan Unclaimed series is the best crash-course going; think of it as the acoustic, surreal complement to my more linear, visual, prosaic work. It’s nice to have company in the anti-environment, and in this episode we commiserate over what it’s like to look at the 20th century with fresh eyes.
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