McLuhan is an ‘ear man’: his cultural analysis is deeply related to an ear-oriented preoccupation. In fact, his analysis of technology in general is richly influenced by his interest in a sensory experience. And while his claims have broader social consequences the effects of technology on the senses and vice versa, the common sensory and artistic thread is certainly evident.
"We are back in an acoustic space. We have begun again to structure the primordial feeling, the tribal emotions from which a few centuries of literacy divorced us." (McLuhan and Fiore 1967, 63)
McLuhan’s interest in acoustic space, tribal community, language, sound and orality have strong ties not only to a personal and cultural recognition of art and technology, but to a specific movement of the arts that focused on the senses: concrete poetry. Sound poetry and visual poetry that reached its peak between the 60’s and 80’s had as its aims some of the very issues with which McLuhan was grappling. I argue that language poetry, sound poetry, visual poetry - what for brevity’s sake I will call concrete poetry - is an artistic manifestation of McLuhan’s expectation and exploration of a re-tribalization or new tribalization based on orality, sound and the visual within the post-print age. The visual and sound poets of the 60's were making and creating work that relates to McLuhan's prediction that in a post-print world we return to a balanced, simultaneous, tribal space.
Concrete poetry is essentially poetry that does not privilege meaning above all, but does privilege sound and the visual, using language not as a conduit but as the content itself: thus the medium is the message, to borrow McLuhan’s phrase. That is not to deny that there is meaning in form, but that meaning is not presented in a linear or narrative fashion typical of structured sound and language. There seems to be some debate as to whether concrete poetry includes sound poetry because some concrete poetry is more effective read aloud (sound poetry) and some less effective read aloud (visual poetry).
"We are back in an acoustic space. We have begun again to structure the primordial feeling, the tribal emotions from which a few centuries of literacy divorced us." (McLuhan and Fiore 1967, 63)
McLuhan’s interest in acoustic space, tribal community, language, sound and orality have strong ties not only to a personal and cultural recognition of art and technology, but to a specific movement of the arts that focused on the senses: concrete poetry. Sound poetry and visual poetry that reached its peak between the 60’s and 80’s had as its aims some of the very issues with which McLuhan was grappling. I argue that language poetry, sound poetry, visual poetry - what for brevity’s sake I will call concrete poetry - is an artistic manifestation of McLuhan’s expectation and exploration of a re-tribalization or new tribalization based on orality, sound and the visual within the post-print age. The visual and sound poets of the 60's were making and creating work that relates to McLuhan's prediction that in a post-print world we return to a balanced, simultaneous, tribal space.
Concrete poetry is essentially poetry that does not privilege meaning above all, but does privilege sound and the visual, using language not as a conduit but as the content itself: thus the medium is the message, to borrow McLuhan’s phrase. That is not to deny that there is meaning in form, but that meaning is not presented in a linear or narrative fashion typical of structured sound and language. There seems to be some debate as to whether concrete poetry includes sound poetry because some concrete poetry is more effective read aloud (sound poetry) and some less effective read aloud (visual poetry).
