The%20Work%20of%20Art%20in%20the%20Age%20of%20Mechanical%20Reproduction%20Walter%20Benjamin%20(1936)

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The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical
ReproductionWalter Benjamin (1936)
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Preface PRODUCTION

• Benjamin was concerned with the impact on art of
  the mass
• technologies of reproduction (photography, film)
• implications on the theory of art
• implications on the existing politics of art
  (Fascist, socialist)
• the revolutionary demands on the politics of art
• Aura of an object, its uniqueness is threatened
• the manipulations of art in the hands of Fascists
  (current tendencies)
• the nature of the art of proletariat and art as
  weapon in class struggle

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I. REPRODUCIBILITY

• Reproducibility varies with different historical
  periods
• Founding and stamping (uniqueness not threatened
  limited uses)
• Engraving, etching (images, maps, music)
• Woodcut graphic art (mechanical reproduction of
  text images)
• Printing as mechanical reproduction of writing
• Lithography
• Photography
• Film
• ever increasing ease of pictorial reproduction
  enacted a qualitative
• shift around 1900 technical reproduction reached
  standard that not
• only permitted reproduction but cause the most
  profound change in
• impact upon the public

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II. AUTHENTICITY

• concern that changes are bringing about the
  disappearance of the authenticity, uniqueness,
  the aura of the object
• aura customary historical role played by
  works of art, their
• ritual function in the legitimation of
  traditional social formations
• (handout)
• with reproduction the historical testimony is
  affected, so is the authority of the object
• with reproduction the authenticity is interfered
  with (natural objects arent vulnerable) (but
  what about frankenfoods?)
• raises questions about the purpose of art

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III. PERCEPTION (MASSIFICATION)

• How human sense perception is organized depends
  on the
• historical circumstances and the decay of the
  aura can be
• explained by social causes
• significance of the masses in contemporary life
  and the desire of the masses to bring things
  closer spatially and humanly and therefore
  overcoming the uniqueness of every reality by
  accepting its reproduction (the railway mania,
  tourist snapshots)
• perception whose sense of the universal equality
  of things increased to such a degree that it
  extracts it even from a unique object by means of
  reproduction is perception
• field of perception mirrors the field of
  organization of social life (cf. the increasing
  importance of statistics)

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IV. TRADITION

• Tradition is an interpretive framework for an
  auratic object but tradition is alive and
• changeable
• Example Aura of an ancient statue of Venus in
  classical Greece and in medieval Europe,
• Renaissance distinct historical interpretations
  of the object ritual vs. art
• History of the Aura
• authentic work of art has its basis in ritual,
  its original use value
• Medieval interpretations also based in
  ritualistic interpretation
• Secular cult of beauty developed during the
  Renaissance and the three following centuries
  (ritualistic basis in its decline but art remains
  auratic)
• 19th century lart pour lart theology of art
  (negative theology in the idea of pure art
  denied social function of art or categorizing it
  by subject matter)
• 19th century reproduced work of art designed for
  reproducibility authenticity ceases to be
  applicable to artistic production and the total
  function of art is reversed (instead of being
  based on ritual it begins to be based on
  practice-politics
• 20th centurymassification

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V. CULT VALUE VS. EXHIBITION VALUE

• Two polar types to value of the works of art and
  the ability to reproduce objects through
• different methods of technical reproduction
• Cult value decreases
• work of art created as an instrument of magic
• artistic production begins with ceremonial
  objects destined to serve in a cult
• their existence mattered, not their being on
  view (Altamira cave paintings)
• with the ability to reproduce objects, they
  would have to be hidden in order to maintain
  their cult value
• absolute emphasis on the cult value with limited
  reproducibility in prehistoric times
• Exhibition value increases
• fitness for exhibition function increases with
  the different methods of technical reproduction
• portraits, frescoes, prints film, photography
  most serviceable exemplifications of
• massification, displacement of cult value, art
  assumes entirely new functions in circulation

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VI. EXHIBITION VALUE TO CULT OF REMEMBRANCE

• Exhibition value in photography displaces cult
  value
• vestiges of cult value in early photography
  (cult of remembrance of loved ones, absent or
  dead)
• Atget (1900) Parisian cityscapes
• picture magazines (captions are introduced as
  directives to looking at pictures)
• explicit in film where the meaning of each
  single picture appears to be prescribed by the
  sequence of the preceding ones

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VI. EXHIBITION VALUE TO CULT OF REMEMBRANCE
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VI. EXHIBITION VALUE TO CULT OF REMEMBRANCE
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VII. NATURAL / ARTISTIC (CONTRADICTIONS OF FILM
AND ART)

• 19th century disputes about artistic value of
  painting vs. photography Is photography art?
• mechanical reproduction separated art from its
  basis in cult
• invention of photography transformed art forever
• early 20th century disputes on the nature of film
• film a step further in the process of
  representation close to reality
• What art has been granted a dream more poetical
  and more real at the same time! (Séverin-Mars,
  in Benjamin, p.227)
• access to the sacred, supernatural or sterile
  copying of the exterior world obstructed the
  beginnings of film, but it has Ability to
  express by natural means and with persuasiveness
  all that is fairylike, marvelous, supernatural.
  (Werfel in B., p. 228)
• film is auratic, but its exhibition value is
  stronger than art

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VIII. (MEDIATED) PERFORMANCE

• Artistic performance of stage actor
• personal appearance presented to a public
• actor connects with audience, responds and
  adjusts
• audience has direct access to performance
• Artistic performance of screen actor
• actors performance is mediated through
  positional views of a camera, constantly changing
• audience takes position of critic without
  experiencing personal contact with the actor
• identification with actor is identification with
  the camera
• position of camera position of audience gt
  testing (of work) approach not adapted to cult
  values

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IX. THE DECAY OF THE AURA (ART BOUND BY
TECHNOLOGY)

• Artistic performance of screen actor
• actor acts for mechanical contrivance
• actor operates with his whole living person yet
  forgoing its aura (aura is tied to presence -
• there can be no replica of it)
• art is subject to and founded in mechanical
  reproduction (greatest effects in acting obtained
  by as little acting as possible)
• actor as stage prop actors work split in series
  of mountable episodes staged event on the set
  evolves on the screen as a rapid and unified
  scene jumps, montages artificiality)
• art has left the realm of the beautiful
  semblance which had been taken to be the only
  sphere
• where art could thrive

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X. THE AUTHOR, THE PUBLIC, THE MARKETPLACE

• Resulting in loss of aura of the person
• feeling of strangeness before ones own image in
  the mirror
• reflected image becomes separable, transportable
  from a person -- before the public / consumers /
  the market / beyond the reach of individual
• shrivelling of aura with an artificial build-up
  of the personality outside the studio (the cult
  of the movie star fostered by film industry) does
  not preserve the unique aura of the person but
  the spell of personality (the phony spell of a
  commodity)
• But ease of replication has other advantages
• todays films also promote revolutionary
  criticism of social conditions, even of the
  distribution of property
• possibility of participation - to be reproduced
  (example of newsreel that gives everyone
  opportunity to be an extra participation in a
  work of art))
• in literary marketplace, readers gain access to
  authorship distinction bw author and public

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XI. REPRESENTATION OF REALITY (ART / FILM)

• Mechanical equipment and reproducibility have
  changed the nature of reality and has created new
  ways of accessing it (deeper, more analytically)
• Equipment-free aspect of reality becomes
  difficult to reproduce the height of artifice
  (orchid in the land of technology)
• magician vs. surgeon
• magician maintains natural distance bw patient
  and himself vs. surgeon penetrating into the
  patients body
• painter vs. cameraman
• tremendous difference in the pictures they
  obtain representation of reality vs. permeation
  of
• reality with mechanical equipment
• for contemporary man, the representation of
  reality by the film is incomparably more
• significant than that of the painter because it
  offers a new aspect of reality shaped by equipment

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XII. PROGRESSIVE REACTION (SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE
OF ART)

• Mechanical reproduction of art changes the
  reaction of the masses toward art
• Progressive (positive) reaction toward a
  Chaplin movie (by the masses)
• Reactionary (incomprehension) attitude toward
  a Picasso painting (by the masses)
• Popular culture works with hegemonic forces
  because it is shaped by mass audience response in
  a feedback loop (lack of appreciation of the
  truly innovative and purposeful art)
• Mass audience and collective simultaneous
  experience enabled by film, not possible even in
  publicly displayed paintings in galleries and
  salons
• Masses could not organize themselves and control
  themselves in their reception -- film
• enables that

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XIII. INCREASING OF OPTICAL / ACOUSTICAL
PERCEPTION // DEEPENING OF APPERCEPTION

• Film enriched our field of perception (Freudian
  theory of psychoanalysis)
• through the testing capacity of equipment
  increased involvement
• Analyzable things increased through the spectrum
  of optical and acoustical perception but also
• distancing from reality (abstraction of
  perception)
• Close-ups, hidden details, rapid movement of
  camera extends comprehension, unexpected field
• of action (travelling)
• camera introduces us to unconscious optics as
  does psychoanalysis to unconscious impulses

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XIV. THE SHOCK EFFECT (DADA / FILM)

• Dadaists attempted to emphasize the uselessness
  for contemplative immersion -- destroyed on
  purpose the aura of their creations (moral shock
  effect)
• Film initiates perception that is involuntary
  (physical shock effect)
• Painting vs. moving images (contemplation vs.
  perception which is unconscious, incidental,
  unreflective but also provides insight into
  expanded space with close-ups, extended motion
  with slow motion bursting the prison-world of
  perception and launching us on adventurous
  travelling)
• I can no longer think what I want to think. My
  thoughts have been replaced by moving
• images. (Duhamel 1930 in Benjamin, p. 238)

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XV. RECEPTION IN THE STATE OF DISTRACTION
ARCHITECTURE, THE EPIC

• Distraction of spectacle (consumed by masses in
  a state of unreflection) vs. Concentration of art
  (absorption and identification) but What about
  architecture?
• First manifestations of the new mode of
  perception was spectacle which requires no
  concentration and presupposes no intelligence
  (commonplace explanation the masses seek
  distraction whereas art seeks concentration from
  the spectator moral evaluation of film)
• Architecture as prototypical art has
  traditionally been consumed by a collectivity in
  a state of distraction lasting form (unlike
  historical forms of art such as panel painting)
  reception of architecture involves tactile and
  optical side (by habit and noticing the object in
  incidental fashion)
• Film enables apperception (critical analysis,
  solving of tasks) if individuals choose to see it
  in
• the state of awareness. Art will tackle such
  tasks if it is able to mobilize the masses.
  Today, it
• does so in the film. Film is the true exercise of
  art today (in 1930s).

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Epilogue THE POLITICS AESTHETIC / THE MORALITY
OF ART

• Proletarianization in modernity parallels
  increasing formation of masses (F / C response)
• Fascism (uses to render politics aesthetic )
• organizes the newly created proletarian masses
  without affecting the property structure
• fascism gives the masses not their right but
  chance to express themselves
• increasing introduction of aesthetics into
  political life (the Führer cult, apparatus in the
  service of production of ritual values)
• war engages movement of masses technical
  resources while respecting traditional property
  system
• Fascist apotheosis of war is the ultimate
  rendering of politics aesthetic artistic
  gratification of a sense perception changed by
  technology (Futurists celebrate war see excerpt,
  p. 241) lart pour lart (self-alienation of
  art through which it can elevate its own
  destruction as aesthetic pleasure of the first
  order)
• Communism (politicizes art)
• art has no purpose in totalitarian regimes except
  to organize rituals of public life