The Resonating Interval:
Exploring the Process of the Tetrad
By Anthony Hempell
The Global Village:
Figure and Ground: The Resonating Interval

The Western Tradition
According to McLuhan and Powers, Western methods of analysis are biased towards a linear, sequential and logical mode of inquiry, based on a model of thought dating back to the Enlightenment (and having its roots in Plato and Aristotle). In Communication studies, this paradigm is embodied in the "Shannon-Weaver" model: "sender" and "receiver" transmitting messages, mediated and altered by the "noise" of transmission media.

Our means of interpreting the relationship between ourselves and our tools is therefore flawed: by using the ultimate goal of causality, we "abstract the figure from the ground," pulling individual elements together to form a mechanical, law-based regulation of the universe: nature as process; nature as system.

Figure & Ground
McLuhan borrows the concept of figure and ground from gestalt psychology, to illustrate the concept of how perception can alter our consciousness of the world around us. He uses figure and ground to discuss the various effects (the "satisfactions" and "dissatisfactions") of technology, by looking beyond the surface into how technology brings different social elements into focus, and allows others to recede in importance.

Simply speaking, figure is the area of "attention," and ground is the area of "inattention." However, the relationship between these elements is not static; and they are liable to "flip" if pushed too far. For example: the technology of industrialization has human industry and commerce as its "figure," and the natural environment/resources as its "ground." However, when pushed to its limits, the model flips: pollution and ecological disaster is the "figure," while the culture of factory work (consumerism) recedes into the "ground."

Table 1: Attributes of Figure and Ground

Figure Ground
Technology; hardware; quantifiable benefits; physical, financial processes & systems.

Figure, taken to an extreme degree, reverses and becomes ground (Reversal).

Situation that gives rise to technology; the environment of services, disservices and effects; nature, society, culture.

Old ground becomes new figure through nostalgia (Retrieval).

Introduction | Tetrad:Concept | Tetrads:Past | Tetrads:Present | Tetrads:Future | Bibliography
copyright ©1996 by Anthony Hempell.