Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Watching the radio
In the same way that Nature provided everything in the original genome, it seems that most successful inventions were present in our imaginations before they were invented. Television was always present in radio, and radio listeners always 'watched' the dial of the radio. Manufacturers soon understood this, and gave 'watchers' lots of entertainment in the dial. Colorful band indications, multiple pointers, Magic Eye tubes. The zenith of dial-entertainment was, of course, Zenith.
This picture, from a 1922 Radio World magazine, may be the first recorded instance of 'watching'. Serious broadcasting was only two years old, but radio was instantly popular everywhere, including a haute couture shop in Paris. Interesting dials hadn't developed yet, so someone built a frame where you could create your own images. (The frame resembles the oval I've always used when Polistra is watching her Philco.)
Wonderfully clever. And sure enough, the clerks and models 'watched' the frame, though their ears undoubtedly knew that the sound was coming from the speaker off to the right!
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Sidenote: The ingenious builder of this frame, and the makers of entertaining dials, understood human perception vastly better than Marshall McLuhan did. I've always been irritated that McLuhan's wildly ignorant reversal has received so much respect and repetition. MM decided, contrary to every scrap of evidence and observation, that books and radio were 'hot', forcing you to accept an externally generated picture, while TV was 'cool', encouraging your mental and physical muscles to create your own image. I have no fucking idea how he reached these bizarre conclusions, and I have even less fucking idea why so many idiots blindly accepted his dogma, ignoring their own experience. 
Wonderfully clever. And sure enough, the clerks and models 'watched' the frame, though their ears undoubtedly knew that the sound was coming from the speaker off to the right!
= = = = =
Sidenote: The ingenious builder of this frame, and the makers of entertaining dials, understood human perception vastly better than Marshall McLuhan did. I've always been irritated that McLuhan's wildly ignorant reversal has received so much respect and repetition. MM decided, contrary to every scrap of evidence and observation, that books and radio were 'hot', forcing you to accept an externally generated picture, while TV was 'cool', encouraging your mental and physical muscles to create your own image. I have no fucking idea how he reached these bizarre conclusions, and I have even less fucking idea why so many idiots blindly accepted his dogma, ignoring their own experience. Labels: Grand Blueprint
¶ 5:54 PM
