The Resonating Interval:
Exploring the Process of the Tetrad
By Anthony Hempell
Tetrads: Present
Automobile

One of the most ubiquitous and influential technologies to shape the Western Hemisphere in the 20th Century is surely the automobile. In a sense, the true "mother" tetrad of the car would be the internal combustion engine, with the car, aeroplane, motorboat, motorcycle and tank all having individual sub-tetrads. McLuhan seems to realize this as he focuses on the effects of the private, enclosed nature of the car rather than the technical "A to B in x minutes" version of this technology.

Table 8: Tetrad of "Automobile" (McLuhan & Powers, p.175)
(A) Enhancement
Enhances privacy
Retrieves a sense of quest
(C) Retrieval
[tetrad diagram]
(D) Reversal
Reverses the city (urb) into the ex-urb (suburb)
Obsolesces the horse-and-buggy, the wagon
(B) Obsolescence

Enhances privacy; people go out in their cars to be alone:
The more "obvious" enhancements of the car (or rather, the internal combustion engine) are the increased speed and distance of individual travel (an extension of the feet). McLuhan challenges us to look at the difference between social mode of transportation (the horse) and a private one (car): the independence, the separation from the environment (ground), and the emphasis on individuality (especially as feedback into American popular culture).
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Obsolesces the horse-and-buggy, the wagon:
Equestrian (horse) culture is destroyed as a public pursuit (recedes back into high society and art/sport). Also erodes urban scale based on walking, the inner city begins to fade as a center of everyday activity.
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Retrieves a sense of quest: knight in shining armour:
An interesting metaphor: the driver as Don Quixote! The quest is retrieved as the road trip: "Thelma and Louise," "Route 66," even "Rebel Without a Cause."
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Pushed to its limit, the car reverses the city (urb) into the ex-urb (suburbs); brings back walking as an art form:
The freeway; the traffic jam (gridlock); suburbia, the shopping mall; air pollution; mass transit. The automobile may have the most interesting and problematic reversals of any modern technology.
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Introduction | The Global Village | Tetrad:Concept | Tetrads:Past | Tetrads:Future | Bibliography
copyright ©1996 by Anthony Hempell.