Elaine Knight

The Brand Gap makes reference to The Medium is the Massage in the content of the pages and on the back page blurb, where the former is compared to the latter. An enduring classic of design literature this book should be on every design students must read list.

30 years after its publication Marshall McLuhan’s The Medium is the Massage remains his most entertaining, provocative, and piquant book. With every technological and social “advance” McLuhan’s proclamation that “the media work us over completely” becomes more evident and plain. In his words, ‘so pervasive are they in their personal, political, economic, aesthetic, psychological, moral, ethical and social consequences that they leave no part of us untouched, unaffected, or unaltered’.

McLuhan’s remarkable observation that “societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men communicate than by the content of the communication” is undoubtedly more relevant today…

I first joined Contemplative Druidry as a facebook group, but by happy chance I moved to Stroud, which was the location for physical meetings, so about four years ago, I started going to those as well. It brought me into contact with many likeminded people locally. The monthly opportunity to sit in contemplation with others was a tremendously valuable experience. The habit of looking at where I am in my life and being witnessed in a held space has been good for me too.

Yesterday was the final session. It struck me how rare a privilege it is to close something with care and attention. How often the last time we do something, we only know in hindsight. Consciously and deliberately bringing something to an end, honouring its history, and letting it go is a beautiful thing to get to do, and very much in keeping with my experience of…