Edmund Carpenter – Language as a Medium

Interface individuality tends to emphasize particularly dominant characteristics. For example, linearity, inherent to the written word, stresses formal structure which other languages (or interfaces) may lack. Edmund Carpenter used his background in anthropology to study such phenomena. He was specifically concerned with language as a medium. Carpenter argues new languages (interfaces) are biased to the characteristics which define them. For example, the use of a digital interface neglects the total sensory experience of in person communication. Instead of using language as the primary medium, the interface adds an additional language.

Furthermore, this addition, as a function of bodily extension, influences our “codification of reality” (Carpenter). The total sensory experience of communicating in-person is, therefore, altered. Carpenter concluded: language is the foundation of mass media. Collaborating with Marshall McLuhan, in the anthology, Explorations in Communication, Carpenter noted: through language, words are arranged, employed, and defined—all while commenting on reality. Each new language (or interface), however, comments on reality differently.