Technological transformation.

8TH ANNUAL MEDIA ECOLOGY ASSOCIATION CONVENTION

TECNOLOGICO DE MONTERREY, ESTADO DE MEXICO

MEXICO CITY

JUNE 6-10, 2007

The theme of the 8th annual convention of the Media Ecology Association (MEA), "Technology and Transformation," was inspired by both Neil Postman's contention that new technologies transform culture and Marshall McLuhan's assertion that technology reshapes and restructures patterns of social interdependence. This year's event was indeed a departure from the previous seven convenings of one hundred to four hundred attendees who gathered each of the past seven years at various academic institutions in the United States including Boston College, Rochester Institute of Technology, and New York University. This year's event, the first outside the United States, brought together more than one hundred Americans and five hundred academics, students, and practitioners from Mexico and nearly thirty other countries in Central and South America, where recognition of media ecology and studies undertaken in the field are growing rapidly. In his opening remarks, MEA President Lance Strate, of Fordham University in New York City, referred to this conference and these international connections as a "great leap forward."

The opening day offered speeches and rounds of congratulations while a myriad of security personnel hovered and camera crews angled for the best vantage point to shoot the illustrious international group of academics and business leaders that crowded the stage to open the convention. Enrique Pena Nieto, the Governor of the State of Mexico, inaugurated the event, noting the importance of ethical communication in the progress of humanity. After the pomp and circumstance of the first day, the television crews cleared out and conference attendees settled down to three days of plenaries and panel sessions.

The program was bilingual, with all plenary sessions translated. Breakout sessions were distinguished by language and not translated (about twice as many were conducted in Spanish as in English), which unfortunately kept the North American and Latin American attendees separated for the majority of each day. The interdisciplinary nature of media ecology as a field was in full evidence with presentations addressing topics in diverse disciplines ranging from religious studies to pop music to film theory to progressive cultural evolution. Panel sessions in English were closely aligned with the convention theme of "Technology and Transformation" with topics that included "Transformations in Journalism"; "Religion, Media and Culture"; "Media Ecological Methodology"; "Media Ecology in Art and Design Education and Research"; "Women in Cultural Transformation"; "A Biological Approach to Media Studies"; "Transformations in Film and Television"; and "The Ecology of Activism." Other presentations focused on the work of seminal and ubiquitous figures such as McLuhan and Jacques Ellul. Plenary sessions, which drew English- and Spanish-speaking alike, addressed such topics as cyber periodicals, the legacy of Neil Postman, and "Marshall McLuhan and the Transformations of Man."

Highlights of the plenaries included presentations by Jay David Bolter, Katherine Hayles, and Eric McLuhan. Bolter examined scopic regimes, noting that transparency and reflexivity are particularly useful strategies through which to look at modern culture as they closely reflect American ideologies. Hayles, in "The Tempestuous Relationship of Narrative and Database," countered Lev Manovich's contention that database and narrative are natural enemies, instead calling them "natural symbiants." She asserted, however, that narrative is crucial to human meaning and the database will not usurp it. In his keynote, "The Ecology of the New Nomadism," McLuhan noted that human nomads now use mouses instead of spears and spoke of the differences we are encountering with a new generation of right-brain thinkers. In "The New Media: What is Transforming Who? How? And With What Effect?," Alejandro Piscitelli of the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina called for a political media ecology, Clifford Christians of the University of Illinois asked, "How do we nurture the remains of the human?," and Hayles called out "anthrocentric assumption" and referenced a "co-evolutionary spiral between technology and humans."

In his President's address, Strate offered buoyant words about the field, saying, "[Media ecologists] are historians and we are futurists," and offering, "Media Ecology is a way to prepare people to pay attention." Indeed, the field of media ecology is growing as this lively, inclusive, and well-attended international convention proves--and corporations are paying attention as well, with the extensive list of event sponsors including American companies such as Adobe, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems as well as Mexico City-based newspaper El Universal, Fundacion Ealy Ortiz, Telcel, and Volaris, among others.

With international partnerships such as that with the Tecnologico de Monterrey and the current popularity of interdisciplinary studies, the future for the MEA looks bright indeed. The ninth MEA annual convention is scheduled for June 2008 in Santa Clara, California. Its theme, "Communication, Technology and the Sacred," follows Walter Ong's suggestion that if communication and information technologies affect noetic economies, and these in turn relate to the meaning of being human, then it is important to consider how mediated language and image affect the human soul. Indeed, if Strate is correct in his contention that media ecologists "are here to make the world a better place," it is perhaps the ideal time in human development to explore these connections in depth.