Vision + History
How the Centre came to be, and the vision that drives us forward.
Vision
The Centre for Culture and Technology is dedicated to theoretical, aesthetic, and critical inquiry into the ways contemporary media shape contemporary forms of experience and our prospects for living together and relating to one another in an interconnected world. In this project, the Centre draws inspiration from Marshall McLuhan's humanistic intellectual and institutional legacy. In his words, “The object of the Centre is to pursue by a wide variety of approaches an investigation into the psychic and social consequences of technologies.” The Centre's pursuit of this investigation is dedicated not only to contemporary media and its effects, but also to the contemporary critical approaches necessary for understanding our media: feminist, queer, decolonial, and antiracist.
Because humanistic media studies gets on in conversation with artists and their work, the Centre will not only pursue humanistic inquiry into contemporary media, but will also foster aesthetic experimentation as a mode of inquiry. McLuhan taught that "media alter our sense ratios." He also wrote that it is artists who are able to grasp such changes in experience, to bring news of such changes, and to make those changes matters of common concern. Taking this charge seriously, the Centre will support the production of and conversation about contemporary media art. It will also support the study of a wide variety of aesthetic media—fine art, literature, cinema, music, and so on—for their lessons in reckoning with contemporary media. It will, finally, support the study of media aesthetics in an expanded sense, promoting inquiry into the ways technological media shape contemporary experience, by elaborating its histories, its problems, its infrastructures, and its politics.
The Centre offers both a setting and an institutional framework for this inquiry, providing space and programming for scholars working in humanistic media studies across the three campuses of the University of Toronto and in the GTA.
— Director, Professor Scott C. Richmond
Draft constitution
Centre for Culture and Technology Draft Constitution
I. General Purposes
A. The Centre is established to advance the understanding of the origins and effects of technology. The object of the Centre is to pursue by a wide variety of approaches an investigation into the psychic and social consequences of technologies.
B. The Centre will concentrate initially on the discovery of the available means, whether in the sciences or in the humanities, for investigating the studies of culture and technology.
C. The Centre is intended to supplement the present departments or their courses of instruction leading to degrees. It will foster a dialogue between the departments, the faculties, the Library and the Administration, in matters relating to cultural change resulting from technological innovation.
II. Specific Objectives
i. to plan and to direct under the School of Graduate Studies an inter-disciplinary graduate program of studies.
ii. to organize an inter-disciplinary seminar for staff members and graduate students and to devise new experimental procedures for identifying the psychic and social consequences of technological change.
ii. to recommend the award of fellowships for graduate studies relating to culture and technology.
Left margin annotation: "Sent to [not legible] Bissell, [not legible] /65 for approval. See letter to him in [not legible] bio [not legible] /65"
History
The Centre for Culture and Technology was founded by Marshall McLuhan in 1962 with a sign on his office door. St. Michael’s College and the University of Toronto offered him the Coach House as a physical venue in 1968. From that point until his death in 1980, McLuhan’s Centre revolved around McLuhan's own work. It was during this period that the Monday Night Seminars were born, and the coach house itself became a hub for media studies under McLuhan.
Following McLuhan's death in 1980, the Centre was initially overseen by scholars who had worked closely with him, including his son, Eric McLuhan, who continued to advance McLuhan's theories and research. Over time, institutional shifts and changes to the field of media studies led to reduced institutional support from the University. The Centre evntually evolved into a more informal gathering place for scholars interested in McLuhan’s work, rather than a formal research institute.
As the rise of the internet and digital media over the last 20 or so years led to a renewed interest in McLuhan’s work, efforts were made to re-establish and revitalize the Centre as a leading space for contemporary media and technology studies.
Monday Night Seminars were re-introduced along with other events and lectures that aimed to revisit McLuhan’s work, methods, and themes and in a contemporary setting.
Following McLuhan’s footsteps and honouring his spirit, the Centre today is dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of contemporary media. In particular under the current and previous directors, Professor Scott Richmond (2022–present) and Professor Sarah Sharma (2017–2021), the Centre has emphasised feminist, queer, trans, antiracist, and decolonial programming. The goal is to foster conversations across disciplinary boundaries to improve our possibilities for living together with our media.
