Walter Benjamin - The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Summary. Works of art have always been reproducible, through imitation. Mechanical reproduction characterizes a new period in reproduction, with new limits and repercussions/5(4) In his work, “Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Benjamin addresses his perception of the changes in art and the aesthetic experience congruent with societal changes. He writes with concern of how the great artworks are viewed after the introduction of photography and film translated by Harry Zohn, from the essay New York: Schocken Books, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction WALTER BENJAMIN “Our fine arts were developed, their types and uses were established, in times very different from the present, by men whose power of action upon things was insignificant in comparison with blogger.com Size: KB
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction - Wikipedia
By Walter Cummins. Distraction benjamin mechanical reproduction essay concentration form polar opposites which may be stated as follows: A man who concentrates before a work of art is absorbed by it. What would Walter Benjamin say about such phenomena more than eight-five years after he wrote his essay? Benjamin mechanical reproduction essay the every-movie concept sounded like a futuristic fantasy. Today I can access, if not every, millions of songs and pieces of music with a spoken request to a round black disk.
And via Wi-Fi, my iPad or iPhone can bring up, if not every, thousands of movies and TV shows in many languages. Quest, by the way, no longer exists, benjamin mechanical reproduction essay.
After steep financial losses, it merged with a company called Century Link in Quest is gone and forgotten. Meanwhile, more and more reproduced music and video are added to cyberspace every hour, including obsolete TV commercials. His brief historical overview of techniques to reproduce art started with founding and stamping for objects such as bronzes and coins, followed by woodblocks for graphic art, and then print and lithography.
Nothing immediately accessible at the press of a key or a voice command. No instant gratification in Now we live in an age of digital immediacy. One might generalize by saying: the technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition.
By making many reproductions it substitutes a plurality of copies for benjamin mechanical reproduction essay unique existence. And in permitting the reproduction to meet the beholder or listener in his own particular situation, it reactivates the object reproduced. These two processes lead to a tremendous shattering of tradition which is the obverse of the contemporary crisis and renewal of mankind.
A generation of American intellectuals was profoundly influenced by what Benjamin—and John Berger, Susan Sontag, et al. Berger, for example, argued that modern reproduction destroyed the aesthetic, cultural, and political authority of art. At stake for Benjamin, beyond the loss of artistic authority, is the role of reproduced art in the social and political destruction of his time.
While not violent, current political movements in much of the world glorify another form of destructiveness. Eight decades after Benjamin we face mass movements—arising both from the spontaneous anger of the disaffected and from their manipulations by some with authoritarian agendas of power and greed—that threaten the tradition of liberal democracy and the related notions of truth and social justice.
Of course, those in power have always tried to control news and information, and gullibility to propaganda seems a fact of human nature. Thus, for example, the Russian hacking of the U. election and Cambridge Analytica stealing the Facebook data of millions. Never before have people publicly exposed so much of their personal lives in their seduction by the instant gratifications of digital reproduction, and never before have forces that wish to control them been able to undermine their beliefs and choices so easily.
Benjamin claims that there is a fundamental distinction between the times before and after mechanical reproduction. Instead of being based on ritual, it begins to be based on another benjamin mechanical reproduction essay. What lies behind this differentiation of ritual and politics and, by implication, of the authentic and the inauthentic?
One could argue that all artistic messages have socio-political overtones, as a magnificent cathedral goes beyond architectural beauty by supporting a set of religious beliefs. Benjamin, however, would consider the cathedral, as a unique, ritual-based work of art, benjamin mechanical reproduction essay, much more worthy and more authentic than the then-current movies he attacks in his essay.
It seems Benjamin is conflating the political with the commercial; for him the problem is art produced primary to appeal to and be bought by a mass audience though the marketing of its many reproductions. Such art must be easy to grasp. Quantity has been transmuted into quality, benjamin mechanical reproduction essay. The greatly increased mass of participants has produced a change in the mode of participation.
While the Beethoven symphony demands concentration, reproduced art offers distraction. A man who concentrates before a work of art is absorbed by it. In contrast, the distracted mass absorbs the work of art. MacDonald makes distinctions between High Culture, Mass Culture, and Middlebrow Culture.
High Culture would be typified by a Beethoven symphony. It is fabricated by technicians hired by business; its audiences are passive consumers, benjamin mechanical reproduction essay, their participation limited to the choice between buying and not buying. Modern technology also created new media such as the movies and television which are specially well adapted to mass manufacture and distribution.
two circumstances, both of which are related to the increasing significance of the masses in contemporary life. We now, Baudrillard claims, live in the third order of simulacra, where the representation precedes and determines the real; it becomes a substitute rather than a copy. When I was a boy going to Saturday matinee Westerns, my cartoon watching was limited to one a week—Bugs or Porky or Donald.
It was a special treat for my prepubescent self. Alexa brings benjamin mechanical reproduction essay just one performance of many and locks it in an unchanging digital code. Yet, benjamin mechanical reproduction essay, all I have to do is ask, benjamin mechanical reproduction essay time, day or night.
Convenience at the price of aura? Beyond that, does benjamin mechanical reproduction essay relentless availability invite distraction? What I consider more political than artistic is the blurring of entertainment, news, and politics that is exacerbated by the plethora of digital reproduction techniques.
The sad epitome of this trend in may be found in the U. Rather than a unique phenomenon, Trump may be considered the epitome of a society that values celebrity and entertainment, i.
For Benjamin, those representations are apprehended according to current ideology rather than an independent aesthetic or intellectual standard. Writing in benjamin mechanical reproduction essay, Benjamin put his emphasis on movies as the art form that caters to our need for distraction. Today he might accuse the panoply of digital outlets in front of our eyes or plugged into our ears. For those today who have not fallen prey to political propaganda, the ease of indulging in such distractions may make them accomplices in the undermining of liberal democracy, humanism, and evidence-based decision-making.
The ubiquitous replications of video, music, and the visual provide seductive distractions. Some ignore all but the most blatant headlines. Others lose themselves consuming media that parrots what they already believe.
Our mechanical-digital technology makes it easier than ever for wealthy governments, corporations, and individuals to control masses of people.
But are we indeed able to resist the power of methods and forces we may not even know exist and that seek to distract us into obliviousness? Would that a simple request would produce benjamin mechanical reproduction essay ones to save us from the manipulating despots and would-be despots.
The manner in which human sense perception is organized, the medium in which it is accomplished, is determined not only by nature but by historical circumstances as well. Walter Benjamin. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Translated by Harry Zohn. Dino Felluga.
Modules on Baudrillard. Dwight MacDonald. Quest—Every Movie. The photograph above of Benjamin mechanical reproduction essay has appeared in many places, but was found in this case in The New Statesmanwhere it illustrated an article by Ray Monk, Walter Benjamin, the first pop philosopher19 October Walter Cummins teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing and MA in Creative Writing and Literature for Educators programs at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
The most recent of his seven short-story collections is Telling Stories: Old and New. Click for pdf. You are commenting using your WordPress. com account, benjamin mechanical reproduction essay. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email.
Notify me of new posts via email. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. By Walter Cummins Distraction and concentration form polar opposites which may be stated as follows: A man who concentrates before a work of art is absorbed by it. Trump may be considered the epitome of a society that values distraction over substance. At stake for Benjamin is the role of reproduced art in the social and political destruction of his time.
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Walter Benjamin and Aura: \
, time: 22:47Mechanical Reproduction, “Wise One,” Aura, Politics | ZETEO
When briefly taking a look how technology has changed society, many would say that it had made our lives exceptionally easier. This being said, it has also come with a profound cost. Walter Benjamin in his essay “The Work of Art in Mechanical Reproduction” discusses photography’s impact on our cultural perceptions of art. He argues that photography lacks Apr 06, · Although McDonald does not mention the Benjamin essay, he attributes the rise of Mass Culture to the technology behind mechanical reproduction: “Business enterprise found a profitable market in the cultural demands of the newly awakened [since the early s] masses, and the advance of technology made possible the cheap production of books, Estimated Reading Time: 9 mins In his work, “Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Benjamin addresses his perception of the changes in art and the aesthetic experience congruent with societal changes. He writes with concern of how the great artworks are viewed after the introduction of photography and film
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