An Outer Heaven For The Rest Of Us…

The Medium is the Message. That statement has grown detached from the larger framework that spawned it overtime, reduced to the t-shirt slogan-verse that loses the substance somewhere in the cotton blend along with such other pearls as “E=MC2″ and “Shit Happens”. And it doesn’t help that Marshall McLuhan’s work is so dense that it is easier to take the apparent final summation as the stamp of comprehension for the man’s life work.

So what the hell does it mean or matter, Doc? As a stand alone complex it is easy to take the word medium to mean a mode of media; radio, television, the Internet. That the intention then is to state that the means by which something is said determines what is being said. Often this is exactly what is interpreted, pulling the statement into an outdated argument of form vs. content until many declare that the message must be the medium. But that misses the point entirely.

Year Zero and the New Aesthetic

In 1998 the Smithsonian Institution recognized the Virtual Fighter Series by adding it to their Permanent Research Collection on Information Technology Innovation. It remains an astonishing honour to the industry and its creator Yu Suzuki. It would be difficult to consider this achievement anything less, but writing from the fringes grants me the freedom to whack at the pinata. What the Smithsonian chose to recognize was a pioneering title for a genre of gaming, but also a series that is largely renowned for technical precision and meticulous design. However there is no exhibit devoted to Suzuki’s other legacy, the meticulously designed and narrative enriched Shenmue. Not only did Shenmue provide epic storytelling, it created a real-time environment. A living, breathing world expanded around a freed player while additions such as weather systems brought new depth to the notion of virtual cities. Shenmue’s North American release came after the induction of Virtual Fighter into the Smithsonian. So what am I getting at? For those interested I am saying that this was an initial attempt by the academy to determine the way in which this industry and the culture it is rooted within is discussed and understood. For those less interested and about to rock, I salute you.

Did someone say Khrushchev?

During the Xbox 360 launch someone told me that Microsoft had engaged focus groups in Japan wherein they were asked who they thought had designed a logo free 360. When the answer came back predominantly in favour of Apple they grinned with the fresh smile of success that proceeded their natural incompetence. Is that true? Hell I don’t know, but it’s a good story.

Who doesn’t love Apple products enough that they would want to be compared to them after all? Me for one. You can often find me drooling over them and wanting to get my hands on all their shiny creations. But the long standing closed architecture nature of the company has always kept their toys out of my house. I’d own an ipod if I didn’t have to use itunes and could replace the battery myself. But for all the hip ads Apple is another secretive corporation. You have to be if you want to succeed I think. Having people hack and slash your products isn’t very profitable from what I’ve seen of it.