The New York-based scholarly body founded in 1998, out of the Fordham "Legacy of McLuhan" conference Lance Strate organized — the meeting at which Bob himself spoke. It is the institutional form of media ecology, and the archive's attitude to it is consistently dismissive: Cameron pays it "even less attention" than the Explorations revival, and Bob's own use of the name is proprietary rather than affiliative — he speaks of "my Media Ecology Association" as a name for his own practice. The dismissals rest on a credential, since Bob was present at its founding. Start at dialogue 54.
Across the dialogues
Enters as a target rather than a subject, grouped with the New York School among the institutions the pair agree have inherited McLuhan badly
The association is introduced already inside a verdict, offered to Cameron as one more item on a list of failed inheritances rather than as something to be assessed.
"And you would include the New York School, the Media Ecology Association."Bob Dobbs, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 35 (26 Aug 2021), 1:53:02
Reversed into a personal possession — Bob claims the phrase for his own practice, which converts an organization he dismisses into a name for what he does instead
The possessive is doing the work — by attaching the organization's name to his own coinage, Bob converts a body he stands outside into a description of his own method, which is his standing move with institutions that did not keep him.
"That's where my Media Ecology Association, my para-media-cology got me to Innis situation."Bob Dobbs, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 43 (23 Dec 2021), 1:25:27
Given its founding date and scene at last, and Bob's own presence in the room at its origin becomes the credential the dismissals rest on
The founding is dated by way of Bob's own tape, which is the point — his authority over the association's failure is established by having been in the room and recorded, not by having read what it published since.
"I found my talk at Fordham in 1998 at that Media Ecology Legacy of McLuhan conference that Lance Strate organized. and they began the Media Ecology Association in that year."Bob Dobbs, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 54 (4 Aug 2022), 26:16
Connections
Grew out of the 1998 Fordham "Legacy of McLuhan" conference Strate organized, at which Bob spoke.
The association is the field's organizational body — the school of thought given a letterhead.
The New York inheritance set against the original Toronto one, and found wanting by both speakers.