Together Again at Tech-Mex

So, while I was in Mexico City this past March to to give a series of lectures at Universidad Panamericana, as I mentioned in my recent post, My Panamericana Visit, I also had a chance to see my friends and fellow media ecology enthusiasts, Octavio Islas, and Fernando Gutiérrez. 

And I was quite happy to learn that Fernando has moved up in the world, and is now Director (equivalent of Dean) of the División de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades (School of Social Sciences and Humanities) at the Santa Fe Campus (a section of Mexico City that is home to many business headquarters, kind of their high tech center) of Technológico de Monterry (Monterrey Tech). 

Congratulations, Fernando!

 
So, I had a chance to visit his campus, and give a guest lecture to one of his new media classes, an enjoyable experience. The students were all bright and attentive, and there were also several faculty members present. And I suppose that's how my little presentation to the class wound up on Twitter:

RT @AndresRBG7: Today we have @LanceStrate in @Tec_Santa_Fe thanks to @fer_gut He'll be talking about #mediaecology pic.twitter.com/TmggOtSJnd

— Lance Strate (@LanceStrate) March 17, 2015

 
Of course I spoke about media ecology, and the Media Ecology Association:

RT @fer_gut: With @LanceStrate one of the founders of the Media Ecology Association #mediaecology @Tec_Santa_Fe pic.twitter.com/WZpriJ1fcD

— Lance Strate (@LanceStrate) March 17, 2015

But I talked about media ecology especially in regard to the study of new media:

RT @AndresRBG7: "We remade the world" @LanceStrate in @tecdemty @tecsantafe with @fer_gut pic.twitter.com/R37nSqEjvF

— Lance Strate (@LanceStrate) March 17, 2015

And speaking of new media, this also gave me the opportunity to try out embedding tweets in a blog post, something I had not had the opportunity to experiment with before. Funny to see that little 15 second video, which really is mostly medium, very little message:

RT @AndresRBG7: "We remade the world" @LanceStrate in @tecdemty @tecsantafe with @fer_gut pic.twitter.com/R37nSqEjvF

— Lance Strate (@LanceStrate) March 17, 2015

And also more than a little self-reflexive, in that it is a video of me showing the class another video (while I'm talking over and about it). And in case you're curious about the video I was showing, it was one I included in my 2011 post, The Choral Village. The video, by composer Eric Whitacre, wonderfully illustrates the potential of new media for collaborations that would not otherwise be possible, while also exemplifying the dematerialization accomplished by electronic media, the disembodiment that we experience, or what McLuhan referred to as being discarnate and angelic, as well as what Sherry Turkle so aptly summarized as being alone together.

But what was truly marvelous about my Mexico City trip was the opportunity to be together together. Nothing can quite take its place.