Scientificizing McLuhan: predicates of man-machine coupling, the triplex isomorphism hypothesis, and its aesthetic consequences

ABSTRACT In Laws of Media, written with his son Eric, Marshall McLuhan aimed to assign scientific status to his ideas, presenting his Tetrad model and offering several examples of its application. Mcluhanism places great emphasis on media ecology specific perceptual bias; authors such as Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Humberto Maturana, Francisco Varela, David Chalmers and Andy Clark allow us to bridge it to the research on consciousness and brain carried through the last decades. If media creates an experience related to its epistemic context, it is possible to approach the forms of human-machine coupling - especially in digital culture -, by examining the hypothesis of a triplex isomorphism between <brain><apparatus><experience> that would turn mcluhanism into hard science. This hypothesis’ aspects are discussed, alongside further problems related to contemporary artwork creation.