The Medium is the Message

Time after time, that iconic phrase coined by Canadian Communication theorist Marshall McLuhan, surfaces into my consciousness in an "I told ya so" -esque moment.

Sunrises from a small window by Japanese Graphic Designer Sho Shibuya is one of those creative projects that oozes uncanny McLuhanisms. For those of you who haven't seen these beautiful ethereal paintings before, or those who did and don't know the backstory, here it is.

The series itself was inspired by the Sunrises that Sho would see every morning from the window of his New York Apartment during the lockdown of 2020. But, the canvas was the coup de grâce of the series. Sho opted to paint his sunrises on the New York Times issue of the day. Brilliant. In an interview he did with Vogue two years ago, he describes the inspiration behind the series:

"I was intrigued by the contrast between the chaos in the world with the stunning sunrises I saw everyday ... I started to capture the moments on newspapers, contrasting the anxiety of the news with the serenity of the sky, creating a record of my new normal."

His paintings truly defined a moment in time, using the medium of the newspaper as the message conveyor itself. A moment in time that all of us felt across the world, a moment of solitude, isolation, and nothingness as we were all forced indoors to stare throughout our collective windows to the empty world outside.

The series went viral across social media, and even the New York Times itself picked it up and reported on it. The series itself has evolved since, with renditions of the Ukraine War & Argentina winning the world cup.

What's also fascinating is the the physical ritual that he engages in according to an interview with Russh:

"I love the entire ritual. I wake up at 5am and read the news. I get to go to a deli at dawn to pick up a physical newspaper, which is when I take a photo of the sky. It makes me feel connected to the city, to the community, and I think a sense of community is very important right now. I don’t have to set an alarm; I can just sense when sunrise happens (currently around 5:15) and sunset (around 8:30). I love the air outside at the time, when night turns into day and day back into night."

The images I'm sharing here are really the tip of the iceberg, I highly encourage you to take some time and go browse Sho's Instagram account to get the full inspirational effect.