Gerry & Marshall

On Thursday we had special guest Gerry Fialka visit Oakland. You never really know what you're going to get at these lectures, but we had been warned it was going to be entertaining. Upon entering the room, Gerry approached me and handed me a flyer and asked what I was going to school to become. As I told him I wanted to do graphic design work and editorial things for magazines he said he was impressed and asked me several questions. I've never had such a personal contact with a guest speaker or even a teacher be that interested in such a short amount of time.

Gerry got right into the lecture on Marshall McCluhan, who I knew very little about previously. Gerry had us answer several of his questions such as 'what was the first human invention?' and each person in the room had to answer. Although there was no visual aids to his presentation, that definitely kept me engaged.

Gerry talked about 'media theorist' Marshall McCluhan. Gerry stressed that Marshall was an innovator because he always answered questions with another question and brought out a lot of ideas and theories to the surface. One thing Gerry talked about, which he said to make sure to mention to our professor, was how Marshall believed that we shape the tools, and then the tools shape us. The first thing that came to mind when I heard this was Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg and friends created Facebook which was a tool to connect with friends and see a new side to people and their lives. Since its creation Facebook has shaped society. People are able to connect and communicate in ways never before possible. People lay out their personal lives for their friends to see.

Gerry also talked about seeing both sides to objects and situations. There are advantages and disadvantages to almost everything. He said that he gets distracted when students text in class and most likely the student isn't even paying attention but there is that possibility that they are taking highly detailed and diligent notes by using their phone. It really got me thinking about seeing situations from that kind of perspective which is interesting.