Post on 22-Feb-2016
description
WALTER BENJAMIN
&The Decay of Aura
byDiane Rarick
Walter Benjamin was a Marxist literary critic
whose most popular essay “The Work of
Art in the Age of Mechanical
Reproduction” examined the connection between art and technology.
His theory is that aura is a “strange web of space and time” or “a distance as close as it can be.” Aura is associated with the traditional, nostalgic notions of artwork and is lost with the onset of photography.
A sense of awe is perceived from its unique existence at the place where it happens to be.
The aura of artwork is portrayed through
its presence in time and space
Aura implies authenticity but there is no authenticity without its destruction in mechanical reproducibility. Confronted with its manual reproduction the original preserved all its authority.
The uniqueness of a work of art is inseparable from its being imbedded in the fabric of tradition.
The destruction of aura in mechanical reproduction signals the passage from the artwork as cult to the artwork as exhibit.
Technical reproduction can put the
copy of the original into situations
which would be out of reach for the
original itself.
With the emancipation of the various art practices from ritual go increasingopportunities for the exhibition of their products.
Breaking the distance is widely accepted & favored
The contemporary masses desire to bring things closer spatially and humanly, while uniqueness is rejected
by accepting its reproduction.
Photographs are infinitely reproducible and are detached from the aura of the original.
Early photographs retained some
measure of aura by focusing on the
human countenance – but as
photography took on other subjects,
“the exhibition value for
the first time shows its superiority to
the ritual value.”
The instant the criterion of authenticity ceases to be applicable to artistic production, the total function of art is reversed.
The work of work of art becomes designed for reproducibility.
A film actor’s performance isn't whole,
it is done in several takes and
camera angles. The connection to
the audience is presented by a
camera.
The artistic performance of a stage actor is presented to the public by the actor in person; the actors aura is present.
Film responds to the shriveling of aura with an
artificial build-up of the personality outside
the studio.
The movie star is born to promote the art of film
Mechanically reproduced images, however perfect they are, are missing the point of presence—the presence of the object—that gives it its aura.
The loss of aura is now based in nostalgia.
Mechanical reproduction makes
way for modern experiences to
enhance our future.