I think that what McLuhan is trying to say by stating that ‘art . . . acts as “an early alarm system”’ is that media is the first thing we turn to, or the first thing we see. If we are walking down the street and see a mural on the wall of a flower, rainbow and the sun with a smiley face in it, we will think that who ever painted that mural was happy, and was trying to tell us that we should be too because times are good. But on the flip side, if the painting were all black and dreary, rain, with thunderous clouds and no color, we would sense that something were wrong, and the artist was trying to tell us that. In saying so, the dreary painting would be a ‘warning sign’ that the artist was trying to tell us that something is going wrong.
forms of art like what i described could be warning us that something is about to happen, or that something ‘bad’ has happened. if the artist is trying to inform us that there is no more food in the world, and all that is left is what is on the grocery store shelves, it could warn us that we need to go buy some of that food. I don’t think there is a specific thing that art being an early warning system could warn us against. I think that is is very specific to what ever piece of art is being talked about and/or looked at.
the role of the artist in the entanglement of systems, culture and the medias that we are a part of today is giving us different depictions of what is going on in the world. each person has their own point of view, like if you ask 10 people to draw a tree, every single picture would be different. but at the same time, if you ask 10 different people to look at the pictures of the trees, every single person would tell you that they see something different then what the author was trying to depict. so artists play the role of the ‘ice breaker’, the bring the topics that are going on in the world into the front line for people to talk about them, and they give everyone a chance to interpret their art for what it is worth.
I agree with your interpretation that a bright, happy mural would denote happy times in society, and gloomy would be denoting unsound times. However, I think many artists today, especially the ones who paint murals tend to not have such a clear cut message. Though many do, and I'm sure there are tons out there, for example murals at preschools or hospitals, many are left up to the viewer for identification. So an artists could draw a mixture of their feelings with images from the current social climate, and depending on what you see, or don't see, the message could be one of elation or of despair. I think it's very interesting.
ReplyDeleteTalking about the trees and how everyone will almost always draw a different representation is a very good point, and lends to what I was talking about above. The act of interpreting is one of the great acts a human can do, I think. I find it funny when people say "That's the wrong interpretation" or "you didn't get the message" when it's extremely difficult, or even impossible for something to have as little as one singular meaning.
Your interpretation was what I had in mind too but I found it hard to write it down or get down to the point. About the happy mural painting, I think that many people will think that the artist who did that must have been happy at that time, but it's really up to how the artist really feel. Overall, I think your interpretation is really good.
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