THE WORK OF ART IN THE AGE OF MECHANICAL REPRODUCTION

WALTER BENJAMIN

Walter Benjamin  Aura= that which withers in the age of mechanical

reproduction
 Born on 15 July 1892 in Berlin
 Reproduction detaches the object from the domain
 Man of letters and aesthetician
of tradition
 Died on 26 September 1940
 It substitutes the plurality of copies for a unique
“The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical existence
Production”  Historical Film
o Inconceivable without the liquidation of the
 Written in 1935-1939 traditional value of cultural heritage
 3 versions
III.
Historical Background  “...the mode of human sense of perception
 Politically tumultuout situation in France changes with humanity’s entIre mode of existence”
 Art as a political instrument  Decay of the aura
o “the desire of contemporary masses to bring
In relation to Marx things ‘closer’ spatially and humanly”
 Infancy of the implications of capitalism xritiqued  Uniqueness and permanence -> Transitoriness and
by Marx reproducibility
 Changes in the current climate: transformation of o “To pry an object from its shell, to destroy
the superstructure its aura, is the mark of a perception whose
 Fascism as dysfunctional ‘sense of the universal equality of things’
o Brush aside outmoded concepts such as has increased to such a degree that it
creativity, genius, eternal value, mystery extracts it even from a unique object by
means of reproduction.”
I.
 A work of art has always been reproducible IV.
o Founding and stamping, woodcut  “The uniqueness of a work of art is inseperable
 Technical Reproduction of Art from its being embedded in the fabric of tradition.”
o Reproduction affects the authenticity of the  Tradition: use value of art in cults, ritual
original  Socialist: art for art’s sake (pure art)
o Reproduction itself as a work of art  Mechanical Reproduction: art for politics
II.
 “(...) reproduction of a work of art is lacking one
element: its presence in time and space, its unique
existence at the place where it happens to be.”
 “The presence of the original is the prerequisite to
the concept of authenticity.”
 “Process reproduction is more independent of the
original than manual reproduction”
o Photography
 “Technical reproduction can put the copy of the
original inton situations which could be out of
reach for the original itself
o Meet the beholder halfway
 “Tha authenticity of a thing is the essence of all
that is transmissible from its beginning, ranging
from its substantive duration to its testimony to
the history which it has experienced.”
o Authority of the object