A dictionary of Marshall McLuhan’s quotations

A photograph of "St. Peter's at a Moment of History" was the cover feature of Life magazine for June 14, 1963. It is one of the peculiar characteristics of the photo that it isolates single moments in time. The TV camera does not. The continuous scanning action of the TV camera provides, not the isolated moment or aspect, but the contour, the iconic profile and the transparency. Egyptian art, like primitive sculpture today, provided the significant outline that had nothing to do with a moment in time. Sculpture tends toward the timeless.
Understanding Media, 1964, MIT/Routledge edition, p 188
Year: 1964
↪ Also at #6280
Compiled by William Kuhns
© 2026, The Estate of Marshall McLuhan