A dictionary of Marshall McLuhan’s quotations

If we have used the arts at their very best as a means of heightening our awareness of the otherwise unconscious environment, then turning a whole skill to the making of the environment itself into a work of art, namely, of transcendent awareness, would seem to be the logic of this form. … The possibility of using the total environment as a work of art, as an artifact, is a quite startling and perhaps exhilarating image but it seems to be forced upon us. The need to become completely autonomous and aware of all the consequence of everything we’re doing before the consequences occur is where we’re heading.
“The Future of Man in the Electric Age” (1965), in Understanding Me (2003) p 75
Year: 1965
Chapter: Art, Artists
Compiled by William Kuhns
© 2026, The Estate of Marshall McLuhan