2011 is the 100th anniversary of the birth of media and communications visionary Marshall McLuhan, who identified the mode and societal contours of the media-oriented life we now experience in the 21st Century with greater accuracy than many of his contemporaries. The cultural network project McLuhan in Europe 2011 will explore, critique and celebrate McLuhan’s impact on European art, media and culture through a series of manifestations to occur in various locations, contexts and timeframes throughout the Centenary year.

Known worldwide as Canada’s communications guru and infamous for coining and popularising terms such as ‘global village‘, and ‘the medium is the message‘, McLuhan’s ideas went further and deeper than his charismatic catchphrases, exploring notions of a complex world contracted in time and space by electronic technologies. These ideas captured imaginations across Europe and the globe, including inspiring the founders of world-leading culture and technologies magazine Wired, who adopted McLuhan as their “patron saint”.

The McLuhan in Europe 2011 project will create a pan-European conversation that spans art, communications, and technology. By developing and sharing original thinking on these perennial questions and McLuhan’s importance and influence across the network, we will forge long-term relationships between individuals, communities, organisations, and countries. Throughout 2011, dozens of events will take place in over ten European nations. We hope to welcome you at one of these events.

McLuhan in Europe 2011 is an initiative of transmediale in collaboration with the Marshall McLuhan Salon / Embassy of Canada Berlin, Gingko Press, and RIM.