McLuhan's concept — space defined by resonance and simultaneity rather than by the fixed, bounded point-of-view of visual space. McLuhan names its ground inconsistently (sometimes acoustic space, sometimes tactility or the resonant interval), which Cameron reads as a productive signpost. By dialogue 04 it becomes the hinge of the exit from the cul-de-sac: the acoustic world as light through.
Across the dialogues
Named — resonance and the resonant interval, against visual space
McLuhan names the ground inconsistently — sometimes acoustic space, sometimes tactility or the resonant interval; Cameron reads the inconsistency as a productive signpost, not a flaw.
"McLuhan sometimes says that acoustic space is the basic anti-environment of human beings. So he's not consistent."Cameron McEwen, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 1 (20 Oct 2020), 1:18:38
From The Global Village (McLuhan & Powers) — the resonant interval is the invisible borderline between visual and acoustic space.
"The resonant interval may be considered an invisible borderline between visual and acoustic space."Marshall McLuhan, read by Bob Dobbs, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 1 (20 Oct 2020), 1:23:51
McLuhan tied his leaping, associative method to acoustic discontinuity — readers misfire because they try to connect what he says now with what he said before.
"That's because they try to connect what I'm saying now with what I said before."Marshall McLuhan, read by Bob Dobbs, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 1 (20 Oct 2020), 1:20:12
In acoustic / future space the journalistic questions go blank
In acoustic / future space the six journalistic questions — who, what, when, where, why, how — apply as blanks, as gaps, as unknowns.
"But they apply as blanks."Cameron McEwen, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 3 (19 Nov 2020), 1:05:55
Becomes the exit: light through, the acoustic answer to the cul-de-sac
Cameron extends McLuhan's line that Wittgenstein "came to the edge but refused to jump" to Nietzsche — the abyss is the gap of transformation. It is Bob who then names it acoustic space, and Cameron takes it up as something he "learned from you."
"The abyss is the gap of transformation."Cameron McEwen, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 4 (26 Nov 2020), 41:53
Acoustic space is "light through" — perceptions coming to the receptive ear — against visual space as "light on," the producing eye; the acoustic world supplies the answer to the cul-de-sac.
"So you have the ear is the organ of light through and the eye is the organ of light on."Cameron McEwen, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 4 (26 Nov 2020), 42:38
Reassigned a discoverer — Bob puts Kant at the origin of McLuhan's second Copernican revolution, and Cameron accepts the German idealists as theoreticians of that post-Copernican world
The concept is given a philosophical rather than an anthropological origin, which is what lets the session read German idealism as continuous with McLuhan.
"what about Marshall McLuhan second Copernican revolution, which is Kant discovering inner or acoustic space?"Bob Dobbs, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 65 (16 Feb 2023), 1:14:32
The attribution is accepted and widened — not Kant alone but the whole movement working the inside-out turn McLuhan would later call acoustic.
"they would all agree with that. The German idealists are theoreticians of this post-Copernican world."Cameron McEwen, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 65 (16 Feb 2023), 1:14:41
Connections
McLuhan's space of resonance and simultaneity, against the bounded, fixed point-of-view of visual space.
Acoustic space is the realm of light through — the receptive ear against the producing eye.
The bounded, point-of-view space that acoustic space displaces.
Bob attributes the discovery of inner or acoustic space to Kant.
The galaxy the electric environment opens is acoustic, which is why calling it "visual" sends readers into the cul-de-sac.
In acoustic / future space the who, when, and where of what's seen apply “as blanks, as gaps, as unknowns.”