PLATFORMS OF REFLECTION AND CREATION
#ARTS2090
The ability to communicate has always been an essential building stone of civilization. Concentrated
settlements, the growth of agriculture and social organization are all elements of civilization which
would be impossible to manage without the ability to communicate effectively. One needs only to
look back into some of history’s most famous artefacts to realize how crucial communication is to
mankind. Communication lies at the heart of the Lascaux Cave Paintings, the Standard of Ur, the
Bible, the Quran and the American Declaration of Independence. What becomes immediately clear
is that these items were not only created in different eras but were also published on different
mediums. There is a clear connection through the ages between the messages we have produced,
when they were produced and on what medium they were produced. These factors when combined
not only effect the manner in which the message is received within the current era but also how
these messages resonate through the ages once they have become part of an archive. This crucial
notion of reflection is vital to understanding not only the archive and the time during which it was
produced but also plays a role an examining the effectiveness of different archives and mediums.
This interconnectivity between mediums, time and archives lies at the centre of this essay. During
the course of this essay this relationship will be examined and how they each play their role in the
monopoly of knowledge.
When one examines a medium methodically it becomes obviously that a medium is not only a
platform to broadcast a message. The chosen medium strongly dictates the atmosphere in which a
message is received, the scope of the present audience and the interpretation future audiences will
have of it. Thus the selection of medium will be dramatically influential on both “the scale and form
of human association and action” (McLuhan 1964). This unique phenomenon where the messenger
is more important than the message, as argued by media theorist McLuhan, is a subject which can
only be fully understood once it is comprehended why the particular messenger was sent initially. It
can be argued that the base reason for communication to be in a state of constant development is
due to the human need of having our opinions and ideas heard by our chosen audience.
Communication generally occurs as a result of either of surveillance of the environment, correlation
of the components within society or transmission of social inheritance (Lasswell 1948, p. 228).
These very human instincts are often a driving force behind the development of society. It is thus
then no surprise than that communication and its own constant development has been traveling
parallel to the development of society. Humans living in the Stone Age depended on natural
materials to communicate and archive ideas while now in the digital age there is a heavy reliance on
digital mediums to produce, consume and store media. The dominating medium within every era of
mankind can thus be seen as a direct reflection of society that time. As Lasswell states, “We can gain
perspective on human societies when we note the degree to which communication is a feature of
life at every level” (Lasswell 1948, p. 216). The reason why the dominating medium of an age can be
used as a reflection of society lies in the notion that mediums are in simple definition an extension of
ourselves (McLuhan 1964, p. 23). Although this argument is attempting to reinforce the power of
mediums within society it must be noted that mediums will always remain a subject under the field
of media in general. This however, does not undermine the importance of mediums but in fact
reflects how central mediums are to understanding the role of media within society. It has often
been argued that the main role of the media is to reflect society to itsel. If mediums are a direct
extension of society as argued by McLuhan does this not mean that mediums are indefinitely a
reflection of society also? All mediums have different and unique attributes which allows them to
have different effects upon society. These effects are wide in scope and range from the spreading of
ideas, cultural significance to the assistance or challenging of authority.
Due to its fame, the Lascaux Cave Paintings are a prime example as to demonstrate the effects of
our choice of medium and thus also archive. The Lascaux Cave Painting are a series of cave paintings
dating back 17000 years to the Palaeolithic Age and gives us a rare glimpse into an ancient society.
The caves are full of illustrations of how the Palaeolithic community who once lived there partook in
hunting expeditions and ritual ceremonies. The paintings are very realistic given the tools available
to the artists and provides a rare glimpse into their world. Because of the ability to participate in
hindsight and extract information these cave paintings are by all means classified as an archive, “that
is, bringing data out of their latent presence and into concrete manifestation” (Assman 2011, p.
149). It is clear that these paintings were designed with a purpose, to tell a story of these ancient
people. Although these images do not have a verbal aspect in modern times they definitely tell a
nonverbal message to any audience. By analysing this archive one is able to gather information
about the socio-environment of that time. The audience most noticeably sees the wildlife of the
period and the hunting and spiritual rituals. The paintings despite being so old are still in fine
condition and the images allow us to view them in a near original condition. These attributes are
mostly because of the choice of medium. Had the artists used papyrus or wooden sheets the images
would in all likelihood no longer be available to us. The interaction we have with these images are a
direct result of choosing to use mineral pigments on rock as method of publishing. These images
were mostly likely created as a celebration of hunting expeditions or simply as way of passing stories
and legends down to future generations. This theme of remembrance or sentimentality is one which
is reoccurring in the need for archives. “To bring history back into consciousness, into memory, into
the memories of ordinary people, and so that’s how he began to concentrate on symbols and
monuments, in other words of those forms in which history was actually present in people’s minds
and maybe still is”, states Assman (Assman 2011, p. 134). The ways in which we are capable of
consuming the images has already been discussed, these ways should be seen as attributes of the
chosen medium. However, if a fair and accurate measurement of a medium is to be achieved one
must also consider the weaknesses and limitations of it. Although the images as previously
mentioned are very realistic for 2D images they lack the finer details a 3D would have provided. Over
the last half-century the images have also been subject to various natural disturbances which most
likely resulted from an increase of visitors to the cave. Thus the survivability of the images have been
brought into serious question. The biggest shortcoming of these images is the complete lack of
written language or audio component. As a direct result of the absence of these qualities our
interpretations of these historic images and their true meaning are nothing more than speculations.
Image 1: Lascaux Cave Paintings, sourced from
http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu/images/bigeras/era2/lascaux_cave_painting.jpg
Mediums have always been a crucial part of art in cultural terms, yet over the past 500 years the
global community has witnessed a series of political reformations, revolutions and transformations.
Mediums have often played a crucial role in these political campaigns. One needs only to look at the
political posters stuck to street lights during election season to realize that mediums are now a
crucial role within politics. Mediums not only serve as platform to support a particular political
ideology but can also be used to challenge authority and possibly result in a revolution. The Arab
Spring which occurred between 2011 and 2014 is a prime example of how mediums allowed the
public to challenge authority. The political uprisings in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Syria and Iran expressed
a form of media to the world which was only made possible through particular mediums. The rise of
participative media occurred simultaneously with that of the digital age. The digital age in turn saw
the invention of mediums like mobile phones and laptops which then eventually to the dramatic rise
of social media. Participative and social media are two different kinds of media which yet cannot
survive without the other’s existence as both pave the way for the other’s success. Participative
media can be defined as, media where the audience can play an active role in the process of
collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating content. Through social media platforms citizens
from around the globe were able to play an active role within the production of media and
ultimately the challenging of authority itself. This particular medium allowed users to freely produce
and consume media while bypassing political censorship. Videos and images of government brutality
rapidly made their way through the global community via these electronic networks. These new
mediums suddenly allowed everyone who had access to the internet to become public journalists.
While challenging authority with this new form of media it also allowed active participants to
empower themselves enough to promote democracy. The opportunities provided by participatory
media are truly endless, “all online participatory media platforms – be they private or not-for-profit
– is that pervasive, accessible and instantaneous communication equals better democratic action,
understood here in a broad sense as greater possibilities for anybody to participate in and challenge
the production of a shared social world and cultural horizon” (Langlois 2011, p. 2). There are two
key words in this phrase which demonstrates how these new media mediums further more improve
our range of archives, “accessible” and “shared”. By this we see another great advantage of these
new mediums, archives can be accessed and shared by any citizen who has access to the internet.
Image 2: Man uses social during Arab Spring, sourced from http://images.fastcompany.com/upload/twitterrev.jpg
Mediums have been around since the very beginning of communication and have walked a
developmental path alongside that civilization’s own. As our communication skills continue to grow
so mediums will need to keep up. Not only to serve as platform to produce media with but to act as
an archive so that today’s information may be stored for access in the future. They will continue to
serve as a representative symbol of our civilization, with each coming era producing a more complex
one than previous.
References
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