Blog Post #3: Dylan Gowanlock
As a personal aside, before I apply Innis' concepts of the biases of communication practices and media forms to these two texts I would like to share a personal story of my time spent at the Vimy Ridge memorial monument. In the Summer of 2018 I was lucky enough to visit the monument with my family. This moment turned out to be one of the most emotional in my life as my dad explained the story of two brothers in my family tree that died during the war effort in France. Robert George Gowanlock of the Canadian Infantry 2nd Bn., and James Laidlaw Gowanlock of the Canadian Infantry 116th Bn., aged 28 and 30 respectively. These were my grandfathers uncles and just two of the countless men and women involved in Canada's first World War effort that saw Canada emerge as a force to be reckoned with globally. Robert George is commemorated at the Vimy memorial and after seeing our last name alongside the thousands of other Canadians on a beautiful monument in a tiny piece of Canadian land in the middle of France, all of my family, my Mom, Dad Brother and I were all reduced to tears. It is difficult to imagine the terrors of war on that scale but seeing the craters left in the ground from artillery barrages, the trenches that were battlefield home's to young Canadian men and a breath taking monument towering above it all really put things into perspective. It instilled a sense of pride in "Canadian-ness" unlike anything else I have experienced to date.
According to Innis's definition's, a time-biased media is a long-lasting, durable medium that can be transported, such as clay or stone tablets. Whereas a space-biased media is much more transferrable and ephemeral, such examples include radio or television. To apply these theories to CBC's video titled "Why Vimy Ridge Matters", I would argue that the video itself has the ability to a much wider audience while still presenting the relevance of this moment in the development of the Canadian national identity, I would therefore argue that the video is space-biased. In terms of the monument itself, this architectural wonder is rumoured to be one of the only World War I monuments that Hitler spared during the Second World War. This was done because the monument is a monument to peace, not a celebration of war. There are no guns or weapons on the monument. The ability to withstand time and the elements leads me to believe that the monument is sacred, an everlasting physical embodiment of the Canadian loss that actually resides on the site of the battle itself, for these reasons, I would argue it is time-biased.
Hi Dylan! Thank you so much for sharing your personal experience! That definitely must have been an emotional time; I can't even imagine what you were feeling. It is a critical historical moment, and your personal connection makes it much more special. I have only seen the monument through the virtual tour, but hopefully, one day, I will have the opportunity to see it in person to get the whole experience and appreciation. Regarding your point on time and space bias, I think your post was very well done. I agree with everything you said. I especially find it very interesting how it was one of the only world war I monuments that Hitler spared during the second world war, clearly demonstrating time and space biases. Overall, great post! I really enjoyed reading :)
ReplyDeleteHey Dylan,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your connection and experience of visiting Vimy Ridge; it was exciting and gave you a unique perspective on this assignment. The tremendous difficulty on survivors of the world wars and those who live during wartime is challenging to comprehend. I’d without a doubt grateful that I have not experienced anything close to resembling war in my lifetime; I try not to comment on things that I have no experience with, So it is remarkable just to read about your experiences and the impact of seeing the monument hard on you and your family.
In terms of implying Innis to the video and virtual representations of the monument, we took very different approaches. I focused on the content of the historians in the video, and you focused on the medium of video documentation, which makes please discussion blogs so impactful. The different approaches we took. Our different approaches-biased or time biased. For instance, I argued that the monument itself was space biased, as it depicts sacrifice, grief and peace, all of which would overshadow the victory in less you actually saw the monument. However, our argument that the monument is time biased is equally sound, especially when considering that the names edged on it of fallen soldiers keep getting restored despite the years.
From what I can tell I think your experience witnessing the monument in real life gave you unique insight to it's representation of time-biased into its Thanks for sharing!
Wonderful post Dylan. Thank you for sharing your experience, your deep connection to the Vimy Ridge memorial monument is very special, and I can not imagine the emotions you felt when seeing the Vimy Ridge memorial monument in person.
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job arguing how the video itself is spaced-biased and the monument is time-biased. We do have the same approach for the monument however our view of the video/ information pages is different as I viewed it as a bias of time as they are easily transportable and long-lasting. However, I really liked reading your perspective, and you made a very good point about how the video/ information pages could be a bias of space due to the “ability to reach a much wider audience while still presenting the relevance of this moment in the development of the Canadian national identity.”