Medium vs. Message

Going back to the phrase "The medium is the message" coined by Marshall McLuhan, I made an experimental video entitled: The Medium vs. The Message. "The medium is the message" represents how a given medium can broadcast a more important message than the content itself. The medium embeds itself within the message, and creates a symbiotic relationship between the two. Therefore, If you don't understand the medium, you can't understand the message.

Example: If you were blind, and watched a television program, you're brain would only process the audio from the television set. Consequently, you would miss out on the visual and not understand the full message.

My video experiment shows how the medium can rebel against the message. The original video I selected shows an angry man smashing his office computer in a cubicle. The original message was comedic. So, I distorted the colours, chopped up the video and added ambient audio. I fucked with the medium to make the video take on a different message.

Original video here

Do the bright colours add happiness to the message? Does the hidden violin add an element of tragedy? Does the firetruck add an element of emergency? Does the repeated smashing make it center violence?

I don't know. That's the beauty of subjective ideas ladies and gentlemen.

Regards,

Jarrett